Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
* * *
We stop in front of the dressing room. “Win or lose,” she starts saying, and Matthew groans.
“Fuck, Zoe, can we not say lose?” I shake my head and kiss her lips just to irritate him more.
“Can you guys stop dry humping each other? It’s not the time.”
Zoe shakes her head. “Good luck and break a leg.”
Matthew groans again. “Just leave.” Then he turns to me. “Don’t break shit.”
“You need to calm down. You are going to give yourself a heart attack,” Zoe says and then walks closer to him. “Then Karrie is going to have to start dating again.”
“Why do you hate me?” he asks her, and she smiles and kisses his cheek.
“I’m just here to keep it real,” she says and walks away from him.
“I love her,” I tell him, and he just shakes his head. “But she’s right, you need to relax.”
“Do me a favor and go out there and win me a fucking Stanley Cup, and then I’ll relax,” he says, slapping my arm and walking away. I get into the room and get into the zone. I block it all out.
I have one thing in mind, and that is to hold that cup in my hands. It isn’t an easy battle. The first two periods, we race and win some battles and then lose others. When we line up for the third period, I look over at Mark, who hasn’t said a word the whole game. I mean, he barely speaks more than five words in a week. His eyes are on the prize. “I am going to need you fuckers to put some goals in the other net, so I can look like a big deal,” he says to us, and we all look over at him in shock that he spoke and that he also made a joke.
He is the first one on the ice, and he makes his way over. I get on the ice and clip my helmet on, looking up at the jumbotron. Twenty minutes and we are up by one. I skate to the center ice next to Evan. “I’d really love to win tonight,” I tell him, and he laughs.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he says and then gets into position. The puck drops, and he wins the face-off, sending it to the defense. They bring the puck up and enter the zone with us on his tail. He shoots the puck, and it rebounds to the right corner, sending everyone rushing for it and getting there at the same time as the defenseman. We crash into each other and try to win the battle of the puck. Evan comes over and takes the puck from between us, sending it back to the defense at the blue line. Making us separate and get into position. The five players from the other team all in the middle of the box we have created, all ready to block the shots to the net.
Jones, our defenseman, looks it over and skates to the middle of the zone, making the other defenseman skate in a bit. I skate ahead toward him, and he moves the puck across to me. I turn with the puck on my stick, and shoot it straight at the goalie, aiming for the top corner and see it hit right over his shoulder. The fans jump to their feet, and Jones skates to me and jumps on me. “Good fucking play,” I tell him and then skate to the bench, celebrating with everyone.
We do a shift change, and once we get on the bench, Coach paces behind us. “Still eighteen minutes to play, guys.”
We watch the chances go more for us than for them with Mark shutting it down each time. I jump over the bench when it’s my turn with Evan beside me. We rush into the zone; Evan with the puck on his stick going to the net and shooting wide. I’m behind the net, getting the puck and shooting it on the board toward Jones, who passes it right to Jamie, the other defenseman, who takes the puck and sees that Evan is all alone in the circle. He passes it straight down the middle, and Evan gets down on his knee and shoots at the goalie just wide, and the puck bounces off the back board and comes straight at me on the side of the net, the puck hitting the middle of my stick in the back and bouncing across the goal line off the goalie’s leg.
Evan jumps on me before I even have time to celebrate, and the building is just going nuts. We are up two goals, but it doesn’t last long when they score a goal ten seconds after I do. “Fuck,” we say and then get ready for us to take the ice. The second- and third-line fight, and we spend more time in their zone than we do in ours.