“What do you want?” I snarled, still refusing to make eye contact with him.
“Jensen? Is that Kacie’s last name?”
My skin tingled with adrenaline as my head snapped toward him. I clenched my jaw and lifted my helmet up so I could look him straight in the eyes.
“I don’t know what the fuck this game of yours is, Shepard, but you just took it to a whole other level. Back the fuck off.”
His eyes widened while he continued grinning at me, enjoying my anger. “Whoa! Did I hit a nerve? Relax, Murph. I was just asking a simple question in case I wanted to look her up. Ya know, since you two are done and all…”
Breathe. He’s just trying to get under your skin.
I laughed, trying my hardest to look amused by his threat. “Regardless of whether we’re done or not, she’s way too classy to give your dumb ass the time of day. I would say good luck, but it wouldn’t help anyway.”
“That’s too bad.” He skated closer, leaning in. “I heard that hot little cunt of hers is worth all sorts of trouble.”
I. Lost. My. Fucking. Mind.
I dropped my gloves on the ice and lunged at him, grabbing the collar of his jersey and pushing him backward. He fell back hard, his helmet slamming against the ice. I climbed on top of him and started punching as hard as my restrictive pads would let me.
Left. Right. Left. Right.
I lost track of how many times I hit him.
Blood splattered the ice next to his face as he wrapped his hands around my throat and tried to push me off.
“That’s enough, you two!” It felt like a dozen arms wrapped around me, pulling me off of him. Two refs and most of my teammates were standing around as I stood up, my chest heaving. Fans were banging on the glass as his team skated up behind him screaming at me, but I was so zoned in on getting my hands on him again that I didn’t even hear what they were saying. He got up off the ice with help from Pekarske, their center, and wiped his mouth, smearing blood across his cheek. He looked up at me and grinned again, now missing a front tooth.
“Both of you, off the ice!” the ref shouted.
Viper skated up next to me, “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Back off,” I roared, staring straight ahead.
“Dude, you just got a game misconduct penalty. Now you’re out the rest of this game and maybe the next. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Get away from me!” I pushed his chest back, sick of him yelling in my ear.
I skated over to my bench and past Collins, whose red face stared out at the ice as he gritted his teeth. “Louie, get in there,” he yelled as I made my way to the locker room where I watched the rest of the game by myself.
My team lost 4-2, but I lost a hell of a lot more.
“What is he doing?” I yelled into the stillness of the living room. I watched in horror as Brody climbed on top of a guy from the opposing team and started punching him. There wasn’t even a play near them at the time.
“Oh my God, this isn’t good.” My mom pulled her hands up over her mouth.
“Wait.” I squeaked, slightly panicked, “It’s normal, right? There are always fights in hockey.”
“Not like this.” Fred shook his head. “Goalies very rarely fight. They are off-limits. And the game wasn’t even going on. Something else happened here.”
Brody was relentless, hitting the guy over and over. Viper and a couple other guys I didn’t recognize rushed over with the refs and pulled Brody off of him. The other guy stood up and had blood all over his face.
“Did he just smile at Brody?” I asked incredulously.
“I think so.” Fred scratched his head, frowning at the TV.
“What is going on down there?” one of the TV announcers asked.
“I’m not sure, but we were still in intermission. Something must have set Murphy off,” responded the other man.
“You know, Bill, that’s par for the course with Brody Murphy lately. He’s been a little off the whole season, but particularly this last week. That stunt he just pulled will most likely get him suspended for at least one game, maybe more.”
Suspended?
The ref said something to both men and pointed off the ice. Brody turned and started skating away with Viper following right behind him.
“Wait. Did he just push Viper?” My eyes widened.
“He did.” My mom still stood with her hands cupped against her cheeks. “What is going on with him?”
Once he was off the ice and out of sight, I sat on the couch and dropped my head into my hands. “What should I do?”
She sat down and put her arm around me. “What can you do, honey? Unfortunately, nothing.”