Charlie's mind drew a blank as Adam looked at him expectantly. Adam broke the silence. "How long have you been waiting there?"
Charlie had a serious look on his face. He knew that this was going to be hard for him. "Long enough. I saw you talk to Connie and Guy."
Adam's face turned red as if he were embarrassed. "Oh, yeah... Well I was just...erm...We were talking about...umm...I totally screwed that up, didn't I?" Any confidence that Adam may have had lingering from the game had worn off quickly.
Charlie interrupted Adam's nervous stammering. "You don't have to be embarrassed. And if you're going to continue being captain, you have to learn how to have confidence in your decisions. I just wanted to tell you that I thought that you did a good thing. You handled the situation as well as I could have."
Adam was not quite following what Charlie was implying. "Wait, are you saying that you're okay with me being captain?"
Adam and Charlie were both sitting with their backs against the wall. For a moment the only sound that could be heard was the distant chirping of the crickets in the night. Charlie turned his head sideways to look at Adam. "Do you really want it?" The expression on his face was searching and infinitely serious.
Adam stared straight ahead. "At first, I didn't think that I wanted it—I didn't think I was capable of being captain of this team. After today, I want it more than anything. The feeling is addictive—but I guess you know that, right?"
Charlie absentmindedly rubbed a streak of dirt off from his sneaker and spoke shortly. "Yeah."
"What made you change your mind?" It was a simple question that would yield no simple answer, but Charlie tried.
"I don't know... I looked around the locker room today and there were people I didn't recognize—I know their names are Preston Marshall, Ryan Hudson, Nick Harden, Derek Martin, Jason Hughes, David Engell and Barry Jensen and they're my teammates...but I don't KNOW them. And when those guys see me, all they see is some upstart second-line center who doesn't know anything about Varsity hockey. When they see you, they see one of the best high school hockey players in Minnesota—and they respect that. And me? Even I can see that this isn't my team anymore."
The two sat in silence, with a nervous tension in the air. Adam drummed his fingers on the concrete and he knew that Charlie had not yet said everything there was to be said. So he waited, and let Charlie speak up on his own terms.
Charlie ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Damn it, Banks!"
The anger in his voice startled Adam. "Your rich parents give you everything you've ever wanted—a Porsche 911, a DVD collection from here to Timbuktu, a $500 black Seiko sports watch...Hell, the deluxe leather passport cover for your trip to London cost fifty-freakin'-dollars! Every university with a decent hockey team is going to throw a full athletic scholarship and playing time at you, while I'll be lucky to make a team as a walk-on. Hell, you've got brains to boot and a girlfriend who adores you. I'm just an average guy with average hockey abilities, average brains, average everything, but at least I knew that I had my own identity—I was Charlie Conway, Captain of the Ducks. Now, I don't even have that anymore. Banks, can't you see? You have everything, I have nothing, and I can't do anything about it!"
Adam was startled by Charlie's display of such raw emotion. However, Adam also had feelings that he kept carefully hidden all this time—and now just seemed like the right time to unleash those feelings. "Do you think that I asked for all this? I didn't ask to be the son of Philip Banks—just like I didn't ask to feel like I was never good enough for my dad's expectations. I never wanted to be good at hockey—just like I never wanted to be hounded almost every day by college coaches who don't know what privacy is. And I didn't ask to be captain of this team—like I never asked to be at odds with my best friend." Adam stared up into the sky. "I just take everything that comes at me and try to do the best I can. Can you blame me for that, Charlie?"
Charlie sighed with resignation. "As much as I'd like to, I can't. Right now, all I really want is to have my best friend back. Can we be cool again, Banks?"
There were so many unsettled issues between the two boys, but life could not be made tidy in a span of a day. Charlie and Adam's problems would take time to work out—but at least they understood each other, and maybe that's all they needed.
They started for the cafeteria together, walking side by side.
"Well, at least I've always been the good-looking one," Charlie quipped.
"Oh, no doubt," Adam deadpanned.
It was at that moment that they knew that they'd always be there for each other.