Billet

Easton had won the race of calling shotgun and was currently sitting beside me while Levi was in the backseat. The bowling alley wasn’t overly far from the rink, but the three of us decided to have a little fun on our drive over. Easton was playing with the radio until he settled on a pop station. As soon as I heard what song I was playing, I reached for the dial to turn it up. Luckily we weren’t in a residential area, because it was nearing 10pm and the car was vibrating from the sound of the music.

“I go on too many dates, but I can’t make them stay. That’s what people say, mmmmm, that’s what people say” I belted out along with the radio.
“But I keep cruising...can’t stop, won’t stop moving” Easton took over.
And then it was Levi’s turn “It’s like I got this music in my mind saying it’s going to be alright.”

The three of us sang along to the chorus and continued through the rest of the song as I drove through the city. We did the same with Timber, which came on next. We were still singing along when I pulled into the parking lot where members of both teams had gathered. We were one of the last ones to arrive (I may have taken the longer way because we were having so much fun) and only had to wait a couple of minutes until everyone was there.

When we got inside, we all paid our fees for a couple of games, exchanged our shoes for proper footware and split off into teams. Chad and I, as captains, had decided to do a random draw earlier in the week. As we read off the list, people split off walking over to the lanes. I was paired up with one of the Blades foreign players (yes the one had I told my entire team [plus the boys] I find the most attractive), as well as one of their older defensemen and one of my team’s rookies.

We gathered around the computer screen to input all of our names, and introduce ourselves as well. There was Patrik, the Swede, Caleb, the defenseman, and Mallory, the rookie.

I was up first. I stood in the center of the lane and let my ball go. It rolled halfway down the lane before straying for the left and turning straight into the gutter. I heard laughing from a few lanes over. I looked over to see Easton and Levi in fits of stitches. I gave them the finger as I walked back towards the seating area near my lane.

I gave Caleb a high-five as he walked up to the lane. “Hope you have better luck than I did,” I laughed.

Throughout the night, I learned that I wasn’t good at bowling and that a couple of my friends are assholes.

Even though my lane was a few over from Levi and Easton (who somehow had ended up together), they continued to bug me thoughout the night. Whether it was texting me about how bad I was at bowling or the fact that I should start flirting with Patrik (just because I think he’s attractive doesn’t mean I’m looking for something to happen...boys), they had something to say. They would switch between making catcalls and sending me texts.

Once we had finished bowling, we headed to the parking lot to sort out the rest of the night’s plans. Although a few players would be heading home at this point, the rest of us were heading out of my teammate’s place in the country.

Despite my protests, I had gotten stuck driving Easton and Levi again. They two of them were off the wall loud and hyper and they hadn’t even gotten any alcohol into their systems yet. The drive was about 20 minutes straight out of town, but saying as how late it already was, being out in the country was ideal; we could be as loud as we wanted and we would all have a place to crash until the morning.

As soon as we hit the city border, Easton plugged in his phone and searched for a song to play. It was 11:30 and most of the radio stations were filled with mellow music and awkward call-in shows. After a minute, he decided on an old Eminem playlist. The three of us rapped alongside the music as I drove.

The drive seemed to take no time at all, but it had been long enough to get through a few songs. Once we arrived, we got out of the car and I popped the trunk. I had made sure to pack some alcohol into the car earlier in the day, although now I wouldn’t be able to drink due to the pain medications. They seemed to be continuing to hold off the blunt of the pain, but I still found myself in moderate pain. To top it off, it was swelling like crazy. The boys grabbed out their alcohol and tried to sneak away with mine, but I managed to shoe them away.

We saw the lit-up barn and made our way over to it.

About half of the teams were there and had started drinking already. I found Karly, Lucy and Alexa up in the loft area and climbed up the ladder to get to them. Hopefully they’d spend the rest of the night up in that area so we didn’t have to worry about any drunken falls. The last thing we needed was any more injuries this early in the season.

“Hey girls, what’s up?” I smiled walking over to them and taking a seat on a bale of hay. They, too, were sitting down in the corner area of the loft.
“Not much,” Alexa shrugged, “Happy to get some alcohol in me, it’s been a long fucking week.”
The other girls nodded laughing, “Speak for yourselves,” I laughed, “This girl’s going to be the sober friend all night. And I’m not even DD’ing.”
“My heart is breaking for you Tier,” Karly pouted.
I shrugged, “Maybe it’s for the best. We don’t need the rookies to see me too drunk,” I chuckled, “Let’s start off with a good impression first.”
Lucy was the next one to speak up, “I think you already did that with how you played tonight!” She flipped her short blonde hair over her shoulder before taking another sip of her drink, “You fucking killed it girl!”

After chatting for a few more minutes, one of the rookies climbed up to the loft and sat with us. She was already quite drunk.

“Do you know what that guy’s name is?” The girl attempted to whisper to me, but was really speaking at a normal volume. I looked at where she was pointing and saw Chad.
I brought my hand to my head and let out a sigh. “That’s Chad, he’s the captain of the Blades.”
She looked over at me with a huge grin on her face, “He’s cute.”
“But also much too old for you,” Most of the rookies were about 16 while Chad was 20.
An animated pout appeared on her face, “He’s a good captain but he’s also a dick. I’d really advise you stay away.” She waved goodbye to the group of us and started to climb back down the ladder, “Remember, no teamcest!” I shouted, chuckling.

After spending a little more time in the loft area with the girls, I went down into the main area to mingle with both some of the Blades and some of the other girls on my team. Everyone seemed to be getting along well.

An hour or two later, my eyes lit up as I heard the familiar guitar intro. I ran up to Easton and jumped on his back. “Easton!” As a result of both my body weight and his drunken state, we both tumbled to the ground. “It’s Wagon Wheel!” It was a song that both us, and the rest of the human population, surely had an appreciation for.

I stood up and help him up. Then, within seconds we were both belting out the lyrics along with the rest of the teams.

“Rock me mama like wagon wheel. Rock me mama anyway you feel. Heeeey, mama rock me!” I threw my hands up and danced around.

Jeremy found me in the middle of the barn and made his way over. I hadn’t seen him since we were at the bowling alley, but he had managed to get overly drunk as well. All of a sudden he started doing some sort of country line dance and I felt obliged to join in. Within seconds, the majority of the people there had joined in and we all laughed as the song continued.

As the night went on, I found myself feeling significantly worse than I had earlier. My pain medication had seemed to have worn off and my face was throbbing. Since the trainer had given me a couple pills to take during the game, I didn’t have any with me to take either. I decided to take a breather and step outside. I told Easton that I was heading out before stepping out of the barn and into the crisp September evening.

The nice thing about being out in the country was not having to worry about safety. If I was at a house party in town, there was no way I would be walking outside alone. But here I was. I followed the trail alongside the barn which led towards a small pond just outside of my teammate’s property. I leaned up against the fence that was placed infront of the pond and looked out onto the water. It was dark but as my eyes adjusted I could still see the tiny ripples on the water. I stood in silence for a few minutes, taking the cool air and trying to forget about the increasing pain on my face.

“You probably shouldn’t go wandering off on your own.”

I jumped and let out a little yelp as I heard a voice from behind me. Spinning around it took my eyes a minute to adjust before realizing it was Levi.

“You scared the shit out of me, oh my God.” I muttered, hitting him on the arm. He just laughed. “I wasn’t feeling well so thought I should get some fresh air. The pain meds are wearing off and my face is throbbing.”
“Shit, that sucks Tier. I was moping about mine last night but I bet yours is feeling ten times worse.” He seemed much more sober than when I had seen him earlier in the evening.
“But I bet the alcohol is helping you out right?” I laughed.
“Was. But I started sobering up a while ago and felt way too sober to be in there with everyone,” he laughed.
“That’s been me all night,” I laughed as well, nudging him in the side as came up beside me, leaning against the fence as well.

We stood in silence for a few minutes, both of us looking out along the water. The lights from the barn reflected upon the water, casting a glow.

“Can I take a look at your eye?” He asked quietly.
I shrugged, looking over at him. “Go for it, but from what I heard it’s pretty nasty.” I turned so I was facing the barn, allowing the light to illuminate my face.

“Fuck, that looks way worse than earlier,” He muttered and I pouted.

He ran his fingers softly over the area and I cringed slightly. Before I knew what was happening, he pulled him into a tight hug. I was caught off guard but quickly relaxed into his warm embrace. Levi was nearly a foot taller than me, so I was able to lay my head on his chest as we stood in silence for a few moments.

“At least no one will mess with you next game,” He mumbled into my hair. “When do you guys even play next?”
“Tuesday. It’s going to be a tough game too. What about you guys?”
“Wednesday, but then we have a 3-in-3 this weekend...it’s going to be killer.”
I looked up at him, with a tiny grin on my face. “But hopefully people will think you’re a goon and won’t wanna mess with you either,” I spoke of his black eye that matched my own.
A smile spread across his face as well as our eyes met.

“There you are!” We both jumped away from each other as Easton walked up to us. He was staggering a bit, but he too, seemed to have sobered up. I guess it was about time though, as it must have been going on 3am.

A huge grin spread across his face, “And what was going on our here?”
“Mopping about our black eyes. Not like you’d understand, pretty boy,” I stuck out my tongue at Easton. He wasn’t a physical player to say the least.

The three of us chatted for a minute before heading back into the barn. As we approached the big group in the middle, Jeremy popped out, calling my name.

“What’s up?” I asked, walking over to him.
“Cory’s on the phone!” I furrowed my brows and shuffled around before seeing that there was a phone on speaker phone in the middle of the group.
I let out a sigh and walked into the group, “Can I talk to him for a minute?” I asked. I was greeted by a few nods and drunken shrugs as a response.

I took him off of speaker phone and walked back out into the night before talking.

“Cor?”
“Tier?!” I could hear the excitement in his voice.
“Yep it’s me,” I laughed, “Please don’t tell me they drunk called out?”
“That’s exactly what they did,” he chuckled.
“Oh my God, I’ll kill them. You were probably passed out right? Y’all had a home game tonight if I remember correctly.”
“Yeah, we won 2-0.”
I let out a little squeal, “Ah, awesome!”
“And yep I was passed out, but it’s alright, I wanted to talk to you anyways and I’m up now.”
“About what?” I asked, confused.
“First off, how did your game go tonight? And what happened to your face?” I had sent him a snapchat earlier in the night, sporting my new addition.
“It was a solid game and we got the win.” I exclaimed, “And about the face...a girl was a little pissed off that I hipchecked her and she decided that spearing me in the face would be a good way to pay me back.”
“Shit, that’s brutal.”
“Tell me about it,” I laughed.

We chatted for a few minutes about our nights, including me explaining to him why all of us were together tonight. After a bit of my mindless wandering, I had ended up back in my previous spot facing the pond.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked, reminding him.
“Oh yeah!” He exclaimed, “Guess who’s going to be visiting you for the weekend sometime soon...”
“No fucking way!” I beamed, “You convinced your coach to let you stay the rest of the weekend?”
“You know it!”
“Oh. My. God. I’m so excited! I’ve missed you like crazy! How’s this all working out?”

Cory went on to explain the plans for the upcoming weekend. He would come into town on the Friday with his team, but his coach allowed him to stay the rest of the weekend as they didn’t have a game until the middle of the following week.

“Who are you staying with? You know my parents would be cool with you coming over if you don’t have a place.”
“Got it all covered already. My billets aren’t hosting a player this year so they said I can come stay with them.”
“This is so freaking perfect!”
“The only thing is I don’t have a way back, so I was wondering if there’s any possible way you could drive me back?” He sounded nervous asking, “I’ll chip in gas money. Or if you can’t, it’s no big deal.”
“Cory, you’re my best friend. Of course I will! And don’t be silly, you don’t need to worry about gas money or anything like that!”
“Thanks, Tier, you’re the best.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

After a few more minutes of talking, I saw Easton and Levi heading towards me, probably wondering where I had wandered off to. As they were approaching, I decided to hang up and figure out whose phone I has swiped (and prayed that they had free long distance calling).

“Some of my friends are coming to figure out where I’ve been, so I better get going.” I smiled and gave the boys a little wave.
“It was so good to talk Tier, but hopefully next time it won’t be because the guys called me at 3am.” We both laughed.
“Hopefully not. I’ll talk to you later. Love you!”
“Love you too. Have a good rest of the night.”
“Thanks Cor!” And with that I hung up.

The boys’ demeanor had seemed to have changed, likely a result of the drunkenness wearing off, the early hangover kicking in and their tiredness.

The three of us chatted offhandedly as we walked back over to the barn. I had returned the phone to its rightful owner and members of both teams began to pass out around the barn and outside as well. As soon as I laid down, I was quickly pulled into a peaceful sleep.