Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

Jordan's P.O.V

"Are you sure you're okay Jordy? I mean, you seemed tense all night," Torrie asked, hanging off of my arm again as I sat at my desk trying to get some shit organized on my computer. I needed to email Marc, reply to Eric's message and see how Jay was doing at try-outs; he'd made it past the last few rounds of cuts for the Hurricanes, and we were all hoping this year would be the year he cracked the NHL for at least a few games. But instead Torrie was pulling at my arm and leaning over my shoulder and nattering away at me. She couldn't seem to leave me alone for two minutes anymore; it was almost like I was suffocating.

"Look, Torrie, I'm fine, okay? Relax,"

"Jordan just tell me what's wrong,"

"Look, nothing is wrong! I was just a little mad at Max for how he was treating Cam tonight, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less, and when we were heading to the vehicle Cam said he thought Max didn't like him, so we talked for a minute. End of story. Can I go to sleep now?" I asked, standing up abruptly and heading towards our bedroom, considering sleeping on the couch.

"Well obviously it's not nothing because you're acting like this!" she followed me, obviously determined to 'get to the bottom' of my problem.

"I'm acting like this because I'm tired, I've been in a bad mood and you won't leave it alone Torrie. Can I please just go to sleep? We can talk in the morning if you're that concerned," I sighed, pulling my shirt over my head and stepping out of my jeans before sliding under the covers on my side of the bed.

"Fine. We'll talk in the morning then," she huffed, and I sighed as I realized that now I'd pissed her off by not wanting to spill my guts to her about this. It wasn't a big deal, and that was that.

"Torrie don't be mad, I just don't wanna talk about it right now," I started, but when she rolled onto her side to stare at the wall I gave up, not wanting to get into another argument right now. Mom had warned me that asking her to move out to Pittsburgh wasn't going to work, but I'd ignored her. Now I wished I'd listened to my mom, and my dad, and my brothers who had all agreed with her. Eric said Tanya couldn't stand her, which was saying a lot as Tanya can get along with basically anyone; and Marc said that she'd been downright awful to Lindsay, which had shocked me. Lindsay was one of the sweetest people I knew, and she'd never do anything to hurt anyone unless she was defending her family or her friends. But I'd been stupid and ignored all of them; I had been sure that Torrie was the one for me. And now look at the mess I'm in.

"Good night," I said, speaking to the room and hoping for a reply from her.

"Night," was her blunt answer, and while it wasn't much, it was better than silence, so I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep.

At about one o'clock we headed out to go to the rink, stopping to pick up Cam and Becka.

"Hey, how's it going?" Cam asked as he got into the front seat; having shoved his skates and some equipment into the back along with mine.

"Pretty good; you?" he shrugged, before yawning.

"I've only been up for a couple of hours; I'll have to get back to you on that one," he answered with a lopsided grin. It had been a long, awkward and silent morning at our house; Torrie was upset with me now for 'shutting her out' and therefore didn't want to talk to me. I had no doubts that as soon as they were heading to Marc and Amy's Becka would get the full earful about how much of an asshole I am.

"Sounds like a good morning," I smiled, and only a few minutes later pulled up at the outside rink we'd decided to meet and play at. Sid and Tanger were already there and skating around, and Max was just walking towards the ice, I assume having just put skates on.

"I'll wait with you until Amy and Marc get here," Cam told his girlfriend, who shook her head.

"That's okay Cam; Torrie and I can sit together, you don't have to do that,"

"Well it's not like it's a problem," he argued, and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. They were quite the odd match; but Cam seemed like the kind of guy that only existed in movies and on TV shows; he was so polite and almost old-fashioned, nothing like any guy I'd ever met, but Eric was pretty close. They'd get along great.

"No; go skate and have fun; we'll be fine! Besides, we have lots to talk about," she insisted, and after a moment he gave in. As we got up to go onto the ice they hugged for a second, and she whispered something in his ear. He nodded, and pressed his cheek to hers for a moment before walking over to me, grabbing his hockey stick and walking with me to the ice.

"You and Torrie ok?" he asked, and I shrugged.

"She's just upset with me this morning; we'll fix it," I answered, not wanting to get into it. Torrie was so concerned with making sure the entire world knew she was my girlfriend we couldn't go anywhere without her announcing it or trying to make out with me in public. When we'd first started dating I'd been flattered; I mean, what kind of kid doesn't want his girlfriend to be all over him and flaunting him and talking him up? But two and a half years later I realize it's partially because she wants everybody to notice her and be jealous, and partly because she's insecure about it; she knows as damn well as I do that things aren't really working.

"Okay. Becka was just wondering because she thought Torrie seemed off this morning," he explained his question, and I found it strange that his girlfriend could have Torrie figured out so quickly. Then again they had talked a lot yesterday and Torrie wasn't the kind to keep a whole lot to herself.

"Yeah, she's a little upset with me," I finally admitted.

"Girls are complicated sometimes," he said, and I nodded.

"I hear you,"

"Well, I don't know about you, but skating like a mad-man and working up a sweat always helps me clear my head," Cam suggested, and I nodded. It was like we were the same person split into two; while our tastes were different we seemed to just click; it was as if he was one of my brothers. Granted, a much shorter and darker version of us, but I felt like we'd known each other forever.

"Yeah, same here," I nodded, and we went into a lap of the rink, before Cam sped up to do a lap at full speed; it was his thing to do in warm up. At first some of the guys thought he was just trying to show off, but he just purely loves to skate, and to skate fast. He's also positive it warms up his muscles faster than just lolling around and then getting a cramp when he goes to do a drill.

"Hey, ready to go there Speed?" Sidney asked, laughing at our teammate.

"Speed… nah, doesn't fit him Sid," I disagreed, shaking my head. We weren't as good as Army was at finding guys' nicknames, but we tried.

"Well, we'll keep working on it," he promised, and Cam just shrugged.

"Take your time; I'm in no rush," he said, before promptly stealing the puck from Sid and firing a nice shot into the top right corner of the net. That was something we didn't see everyday; Sid has amazing puck-handling, and usually nobody else can manage to get the puck away, but Cam did like it was no problem.

"Whoa, you wanna try that again?" Tanger asked, and Cam looked at him quizzically.

"Do what? I just took a shot and it went in. Did I really miss that many in practice?" he asked, making a joke out of it.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone pick the puck from Sid," Tanger told him, and Cam just raised an eyebrow.

"Well then Sid you must not have been paying enough attention," That was another thing I couldn't figure out about Cam; he never talked himself up, he always shrugged off his accomplishments like it had happened thanks to luck or coincidence or it was always the teammate who'd set him up that deserved the praise.

"Dude, I was looking right at you,"

"Oh, well then I must've got pretty lucky," there the easy grin and off-hand comment was, and the next thing we knew he was skating to retrieve the puck.

"Wow, that kid's good," Sid said, almost under his breath.

"Yeah, and shit am I ever glad he's playing on my line," I chuckled, watching him do some fancy dekes before slipping a backhander into the net.

"All right show off; I'm here, we ready to play?" Marc asked as he walked over to the bench to put on some goalie equipment. Cam saw him and grinned, shrugging.

"I don't know, you think you can handle that shot?" this was the closest to cocky we'd ever seen him, and knew it was fake a moment later when he started to bust a gut laughing at the look on Marc's face.

"I was starting to wonder if Max hadn't taken over your brain! I have never heard you talk like that," Marc said, and Cam just shrugged, while Max looked less than pleased.

"All right, all right, how are we picking teams?" Brooks asked, and I shrugged.

"Doesn't matter to me," seemed to be the general consensus, so we decided to vote on captains and then flip a coin to see who got to pick first. After the voting was said and done, and after we talked Cam into being a captain, it was Cam and Sidney picking teams.

"Max," we all knew he'd be Sid's first pick, for old times' sake.

"Staalsy," Cam grinned, and I tapped his shin with my stick, glad to have my winger on my team.

"Neal," Now Sidney was picking for strategy too.

"Uh… Tanger," Cam decided, and I nodded my head.

"Brooks,"

"Marc," damn this kid was smart too.

"Brent," Sidney said, and Matt shrugged, skating over to us.

"Ouch, thanks for picking me last," he teased, and Cam shrugged.

"Sorry Matt, next time I'll pick you first," he promised, making the tall defense man laugh.

"That's after he picks me, you know; we're like a package deal now," I smirked, and Marc started to laugh.

"Aww aren't they cute?" I swung at him playfully, and we wrestled for a moment while everyone laughed.

"Okay, ready to start?" Sid asked, and we lined up; me taking the face off.