Better Than That

“Four, now I want to stay even more to prove you wrong.” Jayden said angrily at me.

“We’ll see” I said bitterly as I got up to leave. Who did this girl think she was? Why did Troy leave?

“Tazer, dude did you just meet Jayden?” Kane came up to me excitedly.

“Yeah” I mumbled. “She isn’t going to last long, and she is kind of rude.”

“Rude?” Sharpie asked. “Dude Tazer she was so nice to us, funny, and she knows more about hockey than most players do.”

“No, she is arrogant little bitch.” I said getting angry that the team is already.

“Woah man, you don’t even know her.” Seabs said getting defensive.

“And you do?” I shot back.

“From the sounds of it, I know her a lot more than you do.” He stormed out of the room.

“Seriously man what’s your problem?” Sharpie asked me.

“I don’t know man what’s my problem” I said almost yelling. “My problem is that I am pissed off at last season. That everybody here is probably out of shape. That the new equipment manager is going to fuck up all my equipment, and oh yeah Candy spent my money like crazy and then I walked in on her fucking my cousin. All girls are the same, Jayden just wants to fuck and take all our money.” I said storming out and running right into Seabs and the devil herself but I just continued to walk storm away.

~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~

Seabs was bringing me to the locker room for the first stop on my tour when I heard Jon yelling “…and oh yeah Candy spent my money like crazy and then I walked in on her fucking my cousin. All girls are the same, Jayden just wants to fuck and take all our money.” He finished as he walked out of the locker room and right into me.

“Damn, I haven’t seen Jon that pissed before.” Kaner’s voice came from the locker room. Seabs pushed me into the room. “Jayden, did you hear that?” I nod holding back tears, it does no good to cry, my brothers have taught me that.

“Well then, I think it is safe to say that the rest of us don’t believe you are here to take our money.” Duncan Keith said embracing me in a hug.

“Group hug” Kaner yelled which caused everybody to join in.

“Alright guys, I can’t breathe.” I laughed, and they all let go.

“Who wants to take Jayden to lunch?” Seabs asked, everybody said they do.

“Guys I would love to but I have a job to get done you guys do start practicing tomorrow and you can’t do that without equipment.”

“Alright we will go out to dinner tonight at 7?” Seabs asks everyone, who once again agrees. “So where can I pick you up?”

“Why don’t you pick me up from here, I will be working until then.” I smiled at him.

“Sounds good to me.” He said giving me a quick hug before leaving with his teammates to head home as I walked back to my office. When I got there, there was a box on my desk with a note on top of it.

Jayden,
I forgot to give you this earlier, inside is a bunch of Blackhawks shirts, sweat pants, and hoodies that you can where to work. You will be getting more tomorrow with the rest of the team but at least you have some for now (you should probably at least wear a Blackhawks t-shirt for the rest of the day). Hope everything went well with meeting the players today.

Stan

P.S. There are skates, sticks, and equipment in the equipment room for you if you wish to use them.

I put the note down and opened up the box and taking out one of the t-shirts that say strength on the front. I took off the shirt I was wearing and was about to put the Blackhawks shirt on when the door to my office opened.

“Holy shit” The Captain himself said turning around immediately, while I quickly put on the shirt.

“You’re good now” I muttered embarrassed.

“You know you should put a sign on your door saying that your changing.” He said angrily like it was my fault that he walked into my office when I was changing.

“Well if you knocked then we wouldn’t have that problem.” I shot back. “What are you doing here?”

“I brought by a list of the stuff that I need and where I like my equipment so you wont fuck anything up.”

“Oh how thoughtful of you” I said bitterly as I took the note, and he just stood there and stared at me. “Do you want something else?” I asked confused of what he was still doing here.

“No” he said shortly before walking out. Well that was awkward I said sitting down in my chair waiting for Clinton Reif the assistant equipment manager to show up so we can get started, when my phone went off.

“Hello Brayden” I answered

“Hello, long lost sisbro of mine.” I laughed at the name sisbro, Brayden, Keegan, Zander, Logan, and Grayson came up with because I am more like another brother to them then a sister. “How is thee?”

“Thee is good.” I answered.

“I still can’t believe you are living in Chicago.” He said before adding “And working for the enemy.”

“Bray, at least I am working for a team in a different conference.”

“But it still isn’t our team.”

“True but at least it’s not the Penguins or the Flyers.” I said.

“That is true, Jay. So do I need to come down there and kill any of the players?”

“No Bray, nothing is going to happen with them, I promise it is against the rules.”

“Still don’t trust men Jay, trust me.”

“You’re a man” I teased.

“Yeah but I am your brother it is different.”

“Sure it is.” I smiled.

“It is” he defended himself as someone knocked on my door.

“Come in” I said to whoever was knocking, “Bray I got to go, I will call you later.”

“Alright, but remember what I said Jay.” He said before hanging up as a guy came into my office.

“Jayden, I presume” he said sticking out his hand.

“That’s right you must be Clinton.” I said shaking his hand.

“The one and only” he replied as I laughed.

“You ready to get down to business?” I asked grabbing the keys that were left on my desk.

“Hell yeah” he said opening the door for me as we went to work. It was nice to be able to do what I love and get paid for doing it. I know it may sound weird but I love the smell of hockey equipment it brings back so many good memories.

As Clinton and I worked we joked around but by the time I got to Jon’s locker I pulled out the list he gave me and then instantly put it away. He liked his equipment the same way I liked my equipment down to the T.

“Wow, how did you get Tazer’s locker perfect on the first try?” Clinton asked me after we finished.

“It’s how my locker used to be when I played.”

“You played?”

“Yeah, I played through college. I live, breathe, and sleep hockey.” I smiled as we walked back to my office.

“Obviously” he smiled. “Do you need a ride back to your place?” he asked politely.

“That’s ok, I am just going to stay here for a little while.” I said looking at my phone seeing that I had two hours to be on the ice before Seabs would pick me up for dinner.

“Suit yourself” he smiled before he left, while I headed down to the equipment room and picked out the stuff that would fit me and tapped my stick before I headed down to the ice.

Once I stepped foot on the ice I felt at home. I slowly started laps around to get my legs used to being on ice again. As I got comfortable I started doing sprints, and then I just started to shoot and play with the puck for a while before I realized it was getting late and I probably needed to get ready to go to dinner. As I was leaving the ice, I had a feeling someone was watching me and when I looked up I saw a figure at the very top of the arena, well that is creepy.

~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~

“How was work, Jay?” Seabs said entering my office.

“It was good, fun”

“Working with our smelly hockey equipment is fun?” He laughed walking me out to his car.

“Yeah, at least it isn’t that strong right now.”

“Just wait till tomorrow” he smiled

“Oh I can’t” I smiled as we walked into the restaurant, where the whole team was there including Jon. I internally groaned as Seabs sat next to Keith leaving the only empty seat next to Jonathan. As I sat down Jonathan tensed up, boy was this going to be a long night.

Luckily I was wrong it wasn’t that bad with Jon there since we didn’t talk at all. He didn’t even look at me he sat there talking to Kaner while I talked to Seabs across the way and the rest of the players.

“So where do you live, Jayden?” Kane asked.

“Um, right now in a hotel.” I replied.

“Well then we have to change that.” He said. “I would offer my place but I already have to deal with him over there” he said pointing to Kruger.

“I have an extra room.” Seabs spoke up, “But Duncan is always there.”

This went on until Jon was left. “It’s ok guys, I’ll stay in the hotel until I can find a place of my own.”

“Nonsense, you can stay with Tazer” Crawford said. “Since you are new to the team it’s part of the team bonding. Every newbie stays with another player for the first year.” Everyone agreed.

I glanced over at Jon who looked constipated but answered “yeah I have a couple of rooms available.”

“Great” Seabs said getting up “We will go get your stuff from the hotel and bring it to Tazers”

“Awesome” I mumbled as we all walked out of the restaurant. This should be interesting.