Larson spent the night pacing up and down the room and praying. "Fuck fuck fuck! Please, make everything okay!" He even went as far as making himself puke but he knew deep down that was meaningless, the drug was in his bloodstream. With nothing left to do, he laid on his bed and started crying. Thoughts of his parents and friends being disappointed at him plagued him. He knew his hockey career was over, maybe they'd even send him to jail? Then Jake appeared in his mind. Larson became enraged at the thought of his boyfriend. He got up and started throwing his pillows around. Thankfully, Michael, who he shared a room with, was unresponsive to anything that was happening around him.
"Fuck you, Jake, fuck this damn town!" Larson finally tired himself out and sat back down on his bed.
The morning sun had already greeted the city, its rays inflicting pain upon anyone who was hungover. McGill grunted and got out of bed slowly, needing coffee. Soon, Adam and Stickler joined him in the kitchen/living room space.
"I think I need some, too." Nathan rubbed his temples.
"If you're having coffee, it must be bad!" McGill teased him.
Larson heard his friends talking outside and his heart jumped in his throat. "Does he tell them?" He looked over at Michael who was still sleeping in the same position they'd left him. "Brown got drugged, too…" He thought. "Fuck it!" Larson grabbed the paper with the notice and rushed out of his room.
"Hey, dude, how you feeling?" Stickler asked him but Larson ignored him and waved the paper.
"What's that?" Adam asked.
"This is a fucking notice for mandatory drug testing!" He shouted and threw it on the ground in front of Stickler who picked it up.
"Chill, dude, what's the big deal...wait, shit! Brown! You think the roofies will show up in the results?"
"When is this test?" McGill asked.
"Tomorrow apparently." Nathan replied.
"Well, if they're doing blood tests, he might be able to get away with it but they usually test your pee…"
"Fuck!" Stickler buried his face in his hands.
"Wait, what's the matter, Mike didn't take the drugs himself, he was roofied, if anything, we should probably file a police report…" Adam suggested.
"And tell them what? That we drank ourselves blind and that's why we didn't get a sense of what was going on? You think the League is gonna just shrug at that and sweep it under the carpet. This isn't Minnesota, your dad won't save us here!" Stickler exploded.
"SHUT UP!" Larson yelled, drawing weird looks from his friends.
"What's up, man?"
"Brown's not the issue, I am!"
"You? Why?"
"I took a pill with Jake in the bathroom, I don't know what the fuck it was!"
"You what?!" McGill slowly got up and approached him, grabbing him by the collar.
Nathan went to pull them apart. "Bro, calm down, we gotta think."
"What's there to think?!" McGill shouted. "This idiot took drugs, he can get himself kicked off the team!"
Just then, the guys heard groaning from the room. "Brown!" Stickler said and rushed inside, followed by the others. Michael was trying to get up but his head was killing him. "Easy now!" Nathan pushed him back down. "You had a rough night."
"What happened?" The boys exchanged concerned looks, wandering whether to tell him or not.
"Uhm, you were kinda...roofied last night."
"What?!" Michael shouted with fear in his eyes.
"Don't worry, you weren't hurt." Brown hid his face. The rest looked at each other to determine who was going to tell him about the drug testing.
"There's more…" Adam began. "We have to go down to the clinic tomorrow for mandatory drug testing…"
"What? Oh god…" Brown sighed, the realization of that dawning on him.
"You're not even the one to worry about." McGill said sternly, glaring at Larson.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, apparently Larson's boyfriend offered him drugs and he took them!" McGill pointed at his friend.
"Matt, is that true?" Brown looked at him, disappointed.
Larson sighed and sat down on his bed.
"Do you think there's a way we can cheat?" Stickler addressed everyone.
"How?!" McGill asked, annoyed. "These tests are performed under strict circumstances, one by one, they wait for you outside, etc…"
"Right, right."
"Hey, maybe Bombay would know, we should go pay him a visit!" The boys agreed and started getting ready.
At the door, Michael instinctively felt his jeans pockets for his wallet. "What the hell?!"
"What's up?" "My wallet's gone!"
"What do you mean? You think you dropped it at the club?"
"I didn't take it out! It fits tightly into my pocket! I know I had it on me the whole time!"
"Maybe it's here somewhere...let's look around." Adam suggested.
After looking for a while, they didn't find it.
"That bitch must have stolen it!" Michael erupted, taking them all by surprise.
"It's ok, Mike, we'll get that sorted out, chill." Nathan tried to calm him down as the guys headed towards the car.
When they got to Malibu, Stickler stopped to ask an elderly lady who was passing by "Hey, do you know where Gordon Bombay lives?"
"Oh, yes, take a left at the next intersection, you'll see the big grey house at the end of the street, you can't miss it!"
"Thank you."
"Holy fuck, he wasn't kidding about the flamingos!" McGill commented, weirded out.
"Hey, you guys made it!" A voice sounded from above, making them look up. Gordon was having a cocktail on his terrace when he'd spotted the boys approaching his house. "I'm coming right down!"
Moments later, Gordon greeted them inside. "So what brings you guys here today? Shouldn't you be at the drug testing?"
"How do you know about that?"
"Uhm, that's actually what we wanted to talk to you about…" Adam began, hesitantly.
"Uh oh. You boys didn't do anything stupid, did you?" Gordon raised an eyebrow.
"Well…" Larson began. "We won a game yesterday so we decided to go out and celebrate. We knew it was happy hour at this one club…" Gordon knew where this was headed so he sighed. "My boyfriend offered me this...pill, I don't know, said it was to get chill…"
"Probably Xanax." Gordon commented.
"And then we...we found Brown roofied…"
"What? Did you take him to the hospital?"
"No, I feel fine, sir, they only took my wallet."
"God...so you're telling me you have drugs in your system?"
"Yeah! What do we do!"
"There's not much you can do!"
"Didn't you use to be a lawyer?" McGill blurted out, annoyed.
"Yeah, back in Minnesota, I don't have my license anymore and even if I did, it's not like we can sue the League! Man, you boys messed up real good!"
The guys looked disappointed. "Wait, Adam, isn't your father a high ranking government official now?"
"You don't suggest I tell my dad my hockey career is in jeopardy because of a drug scandal?"
"Adam, bro, if you wanna use your dad, go ahead...you didn't take any drugs, you'd be clean. No one wants this more than you." Brown put a hand on his shoulder.
Adam frowned and shook his head. "Thanks, man, but we came out here together so we're seeing this through."
"That's very selfless, Adam. Not sure if smart, but selfless." Gordon commended him.
"Yeah, that's our Banksie, always so nice!" Stickler slapped him on the back.
"Yeah, I remember what you did for your sister at the '92 finals!" Gordon chuckled. "Hey, how's Gina doing, by the way? I always wanted to call her but didn't know if it was my place…"
"She's fine, helping her family out with their new business." McGill explained.
"Does she still play?"
"I think that's behind her now, she says it's because she doesn't have time but I know us leaving had an impact on her."
"That's too bad. If only there was a women's league, I'm sure she would make it…" Gordon said quietly.
"Well...I guess we better get down there, whatever happens, happens."
"Wait." Gordon sighed. "There *might* be something you could try." He went to the kitchen and took out a bottle of pills. "Here." He tossed it at Larson.
"Salt pills? What's this?"
"Drink a detox drink and two gallons of water. After that, take one of those."
"You think that's gonna get the drugs out of our system?"
"One can hope!" Gordon winked. "Make sure you do take this pills, being overly hydrated will make you fail your test, the League's not stupid!"
"Well...okay then. Thanks, Mr. Bombay." Nathan said. "We'd better go."
"Please, call me Gordon. You guys are welcome any time."
"Really? Why? We were dicks to your team back in the day." Larson raised an eyebrow.
Gordon shrugged. "That's in the past now, I also used to be a jerk when I was younger, the important thing is to get better from now on."
The boys exchanged smiles. "Well, thanks Gordon. Wish us luck!"
"Good luck!"
While Adam, Michael and Larson spent the day following Bombay's instructions, McGill was out on the balcony, sunk in thought. Stickler soon joined him, leaning on the railing and admiring the sunset.
"If there's one thing I love about this town, it's the sunset view." He said while taking a deep breath.
When McGill didn't answer, Nathan turned to look at him. "Penny for your thoughts."
"It's my fault. All of this."
"And why would that be?"
"If I hadn't made fun of Banks, or pushed him and Brown...maybe this wouldn't have happened."
"Bro, you have nothing to feel bad about, you were just looking out for your buds. I'm more worried about Larson. Even if he cheats the system, I don't trust that boyfriend of his…"
McGill didn't respond, he simply looked at the view in front of them. "Nate…"
"Yeah?"
"If the guys get found out and kicked out, what will you do?"
Stickler didn't hesitate. "I'm off too, of course. It's either all of us or none of us for me."
"Hm, you're a better guy than me then." McGill scoffed.
Nathan looked at him inquisitively. "How so?"
"I think I'd stay regardless, I think. This is once in a lifetime opportunity and I worked hard for this."
Stickler lowered his head. He knew Patrick was ambitious and nothing could stand in his path to success. Not knowing what else to say, Nathan opened the balcony door to walk back inside. "Dinner's gonna be ready in 10."