Sequel: Young Lovers' Rage
Status: still sobbing what else is new

Drop the Hammer

It's Time

"Ugh." James said to himself. He was scrolling through Ben's twitter feed. It was something he did periodically, usually to see what the fans were saying about him, Ben, or Screims. Today he went on just to see what was going on, when he saw a tweet from TSN's Bob McKenzie.

It read: "@TSNBobMckenzie: Hearing reports of a possible trade which would send Roberto Luongo to the Leafs. No real details yet."

James took a deep breath in and continued to scroll. He tried not to let it get to his head, but then he saw another. This time from TSN's James Duthie.

"@tsnjamesduthie: It's rumoured that the Kings are wanting to trade goaltender Jonathan Bernier to the Maple Leafs. No word yet from Leafs management."

James shook his head, "What is with TSN? Why report something if it isn't for sure and how come they can't seem to report the same thing? Unreal." He knew he couldn't let the words affect him, especially since they weren't true as far as he knew.

So James decided to search up his favourite thing to look up: Screims. The tweets that mentioned Screims were some of his favourites, and always put a smile on his face. One of his favourite accounts was @ScreimsProbs; it always made him laugh. He loved seeing what the cult-like followers were saying about him and Ben. He scrolled through the various tweets that were mainly from a group of three girls, - his favourite screimers - cheering himself up and forgetting about the stupid trade rumours.

But James didn't get too far into his journey when he heard Ben unlocking the door to their apartment. James quickly closed off the browser and closed Ben's laptop. Ben usually doesn't allow James to use the computer so that the things people say don't get to him, but James likes to sneak on when Ben's out.

"Hey, James." Ben said when he walked into the apartment, carrying two suits in dry clean bags over his shoulder.

"Hey." James replied. He got up and grabbed the suits from Ben. Ben had dropped James off at the apartment after practice and put their suits in for dry cleaning. He went down to their room and hung them up before returning back to the living room and Ben.

"What did you do while I was gone?" Ben asked, sitting down on the couch.

James hesitated a bit. He knew he couldn't tell Ben about his internet usage so he made up a quick lie. "I watched tv."

Ben gave James a strange look. "But the tv is off."

James looked at the tv and indeed it was off. "I just turned it off when I heard you unlocking the door."

"Ah." Ben replied, not fully believing James but letting it go. "So what do you want to do tonight?"

"I don't know." James answered. He checked his phone for messages, maybe one of the guys had something going on that they could go to. Of course, there was one in the team's group message from Tyler Bozak: COD/NHL, pizza, booze. Mine and Phil's at 7:30

"Phil and Boz are having a team party I guess, wanna go to that?" James suggested.

"What time?" Ben asked.

"7:30." James said.

"Ok." Ben replied. " But we'll have to go at 8. The Bachelor starts at 7 and I don't wanna miss it."

James sighed a sigh of disappointment. Ben liked a lot of weird or strange things, but The Bachelor was the worst. "Alright, I'll tell Tyler we'll be there at 8."

"Sounds good." Ben said. "Do you think Matt and Jake will be there?"

"I hope not. I might give them an earful if they are." James said

"No James, you can't. I don't want this to be a huge deal, and I don't want the rest of the players to find out. Alright?" Ben told James.

"Alright." James replied. "But they're definitely gonna get their butts kicked in NHL."

~~~~

"Screims!" Tyler greeted Ben and James as they walked into the apartment that he and Phil shared.

"Hey Ty." Ben said in return.

"You guys ready to get your asses kicked?" Tyler asked the pair.

"More like are you ready to get yours kicked?" James replied, causing Tyler to laugh.

"Alright c'mon." Tyler said. He walked into his living room with Ben and James following behind.

The boys had the day off tomorrow, so they could stay up a bit later than normal, which naturally called for a party at Tyler and Phil's. Basically whenever they had an off day the next day, various teammates would gather at their place for a night of Xbox, while others preferred to stay home with their better half.

In the living room sat Phil, Naz, Dion, and JvR, the four of them each holding a controller as they played the latest Call of Duty game. On the coffee table was four boxes of pizza and five half-empty bottles of beer. James and Ben joined Nazem on the couch, with Dion and JvR on a love seat, and Phil and Tyler on the other one. It's what "game night" as JvR liked to call it, consisted of. The same guys, with the added addition of Jake, Matt, and Cody Franson on some nights, beer, pizza, and a 5 hour marathon of COD and NHL13.

Ben and James had a lot of fun on these nights. They were able to relax and hang with the guys and just have fun. But tonight they were a little on edge. The possibility of Jatt showing up frightened them a bit. Although the party had started, they just didn't know if they were going to show up, since in the past they had a tendency to show up and hour or so late.

"Now the party can get started." Tyler said as he passed James and Ben a beer each.

"Are Jake, Matt and Cody coming tonight?" Ben asked, getting the topic out of the way.

Tyler looked at his phone. "Uh, Codes says he'll be here in about 15, and no word back from Matt and Jake."

"Ah." Ben replied. He focused his attention on the overly large television that they had in the living room. He, James, and Tyler watched as the other four finished their game of COD, with Naz the reining champ.

"Man I totally smoked you guys!" Nazem beamed.

"Yea cus youre a fucking camper!" JvR exclaimed.

"Nuh uh! You just suck!" Naz retorted.

"Alright boys, enough. We all know that Naz won that because he was camping and JV is naturally awful at this game." Dion budded in, which made everyone but JvR and Naz laugh.

"Okay, okay," Tyler said once he was finished laughing. "How about we start up some NHL?"

"Good idea." Phil said. He stood up and changed the games.

As the game loaded up, there was a knock at the door. Tyler stood up and went to the door to answer it. "Look who finally showed up!" He said, and came back to the living room with Cody trailing behind him.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. Traffic was a bitch." Cody said, taking a seat beside James on the couch, which was now packed.

"S'ok, you're just in time to get your ass kicked in NHL." Dion said.

"Yea, but not by you." Tyler said, grabbing the controller out of his captain's hand. "It's my turn now, you guys give your controllers to Ben, James, and Cody. It's our turn to play." The guys did as they were told and handed over the controllers.

"Okay, me and Boz, against Ben and James." Cody said as Tyler started up a game.

"Sounds good. Remember, three randoms and you play that team." James told them.

"Yea yea." Tyler said, rolling his eyes.

~~~~

It was nearing 10:30pm by the time they had had enough of video games. Cody and Dion had left half an hour ago, leaving Ben, James, Naz, Tyler, Phil, and JvR to have an endless shootout battle. They were having a blast, too, until Naz ruined the moment.

"Hey uh, Ben, James?" Naz asked. Ben and James both looked at Nazem. "What happened with you guys and Jake and Matt? Reemer said you guys seemed to have been in an argument with them. Then they had that freakout and yea last night was a mess."

James and Ben both looked over at JvR accusingly and JvR looked at his lap, shameful.

"Yea um, we did get in a little argument." James stated. Nazem looked at James, willing him to continue. James looked at Ben, not sure if he should.

Ben sighed. "James, I don't think we have a choice anymore."

James pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "Alright. Tell them."

The guys all had their attention focused on Ben and James. Ben took a deep breath before he began. "The argument we had, well it was because... because we're gay."

Everyone's jaws dropped and Tyler choked on his beer. They all looked at Ben and James with wide eyes while Phil patted Tyler's back.

"Yea, we're gay." Ben said. "Together."

"What?" Nazem responded. "That was not the answer I was expecting."

"Oh my god?" JvR added.

"Legit?" Tyler asked once he had finally stopped choking.

"Yep." James confirmed, reaching over to grab Ben's hand in his to solidify the fact.

"For how long?" Phil asked.

"Over a year now." Ben answered.

"You guys are the only ones to know, well, besides Matt and Jake." James added.

"Jake was actually the first one to find out. At first he said he was supportive, but then he began to turn and started blackmailing me, as with Matt. Which ultimately leaded to the bathroom. They were trying to get me to tell the whole team at dinner, and if I didn't I would've had to give them $200." Ben said. He decided to leave out most of the details, including the beatings.

"Wow." Naz said. "Well just so you know, you've got our support." JvR, Phil, and Tyler nodded in agreement.

"Thanks guys." James said gratefully. "It means a lot to us."

"No problem. We're proud of you guys, really are." Phil said.

"Are you gonna tell the rest of the team now?" Tyler asked.

"Not quite yet," Ben replied. "We've got two other things to deal with first. One being Jake and the other being Matt."

"Alright, well until you do, your secret is safe with us." JvR told the pair.

"And when you do, we'll be behind you guys 100%." Naz added.

"Thanks you guys. You're true teammates." Ben said. He stood up, as did James. "We better get going, though. It's getting late and we need to get to sleep." They walked to the door before saying their goodbyes.

"Okay, see you guys later!" Tyler said.

With that, James and Ben let themselves out.

"Well, that was not what I expected to happen." James said.

"Definitely not. Now let's get home." Ben said, linking his hand in James'.

"Agreed." James said and they headed down the hall on their way home.
♠ ♠ ♠
this chapter makes no sense there is no plot or point i just felt like finally updating it