Thursday night at Savino's, a small pizza place in the Mall of America that the Ducks often frequented. It was the night before a game and Charlie had decided that it might actually be okay if he just took Linda out. His mom was working tonight, there was no way that Jim would try anything in public. So he was taking Linda out. They'd been talking a lot lately and they hadn't officially gone out on a date, yet and Savino's was all he could really afford. Linda wouldn't mind, though. She didn't care about money.
"Listen, so what is this? Between us?" Linda asked as they waited for their food.
Charlie practically coughed into his soda. "What do you mean?"
She gave him a look. "You know, like . . . are we . . . a thing? Or are we just talking? Or -?"
"Well, I mean, I thought we were just talking, but if you want to be a thing, we can talk about it,"
Linda actually smiled at that, which surprised him because he was expecting her to get mad. "No, no, no, that's good. I um, I want to keep it that way, if that's okay,"
Charlie raised his eyebrows. "Uh, yeah, it's okay. But uh, why?"
The waitress came and placed the plate of pizza onto their table. Linda and Charlie thanked her quietly and Linda served herself while she continued talking, "I don't think I want anything serious right now. I'm worrying about college and applications and school and I don't need a boyfriend on top of that. But I like you, Charlie. And I still want to like go on dates with you and hold your hand and kiss and – I don't know, is that okay?"
Charlie let out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding in. It was actually great for him, if he was being honest. He liked Linda a lot, but he couldn't commit to a relationship right now with everything going on at home. "So what are we then, friends with benefits?" He wiggled his eyebrows and she hit him playfully.
"Ew, don't call it that," she giggled.
Charlie leaned across the table and kissed her. "You coming to the game tomorrow?" he asked her.
"Of course," she squeezed his hand. "I wouldn't miss it."
The Ducks were told to gather at the rink early Saturday morning for their game against the Sheldon Sharks at noon. Julie arrived later than usual and she was practically running from the parking lot to the stadium. A car with loud rock music blaring it from it pulled up right in front of her, almost hitting her and she jumped back in surprise. Expecting it to be Portman, she got ready to yell, but was surprised to see that it was Connie. She hopped out of the passenger seat, waved at Julie and then walked over to the driver's side to lean in through the window and kiss the driver. The kiss lasted far longer than Julie was comfortable with. When they finally broke apart after what felt like forever, Connor gave the driver a flirty wave before walking over to Julie so that they could go in together.
"Who was that?" Julie asked when Connie didn't say anything.
"Connor Benson,"
"New boyfriend?" she was a little annoyed, to be honest. Connie had said that she was going to handle this whole Averman-Goldberg situation and she was working on her own personal life. She didn't say that though, she didn't want to start an argument.
Connie shrugged. "I guess. I mean I slept over in his dorm last night,"
She knew that Connie's promise about not sleeping around so much this year was bullshit. Julie tried not to make a face. "Is he coming to the game tonight?"
"Um, no. He uh, he has things to do," she said, sounding a bit disappointed, pushing her hair behind her ear.
Once the two girls had gotten into the locker room and begun changing, Julie decided to bring up her own problems. "So um, what are we doing about Averman and Goldberg?"
Connie looked up through her jersey as she pulled it over her head. "I'm going to talk to Russ and some of the guys to see if they'd be into pulling something off,"
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, they were in on this whole thing,"
"Yeah. They're not gonna tell those two fuckwads anyway. They love a good prank," Connie explained. Julie trusted her, she did. It was just that with everything that had happened the past few weeks she wasn't in a trusting mood and felt more on edge then she ever had been in the past.
She was completely dreading going into the boys' locker room and being forced to see Averman and Goldberg, who she'd been avoiding all week ever since Averman's big reveal to her. Just hearing their stupid jokes and comments to their teammates was going to piss her off and she didn't know if she could stand even hearing them. Thankfully (for her), when she and Connie went into the locker room, Averman and Goldberg were far from the center of attention.
"Yo, what the fuck, Connie?" Portman said aggressively as soon as he saw her. "Thanks a lot for sending fucking James Diaz to my room last night because you and his roommate are fucking too loud!"
Connie's face turned red as the rest of the boys let out whistles. "It's not my fault Diaz is a pussy!"
"No, but it's your fault that you can't stop being a fucking slut and have to just – fucking – fucking – be a slut!" Portman stumbled out, bouncing up and down with energy.
"Hey, fuck you, Portman!" Guy said, standing up and pushing him away from Connie.
Immediately, Dwayne and Russ stood up to stand between the two before Portman knocked Guy on his ass. "Yo! Guys, let's all just chill out, okay?" Russ said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"Don't fucking touch me again, Germaine! You wanna fucking go?!" Everyone was just sort of watching in surprise. Even for Portman, he was acting extremely aggressive, in a way that was much unlike himself. Although Portman always ended a fight, he was rarely one to start one – at least with a teammate.
"No, Portman, I don't! Just stop being an asshole!" Guy said, making Portman throw his fists around until Russ and Dwayne duck and he hits Guy square in the face. Guy goes back at him (without much of an impact) and Portman pushes him so hard he falls into the lockers.
"Portman, chill!" Fulton pushes his friend back and Portman shoves him. Charlie and Guy grab Fulton, Luis and Dwayne grab Portman, separating them from each other before they can do more damage. Just then, Orion runs into the room, screaming.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Calm down! Hey!" Orion steps in the middle of the boys, and all except for Portman, calm down. Portman is still hollering and yelling and bouncing up and down. "Calm down!" Orion commands at him once more.
"Don't tell me to calm down! I am calm! I am fucking calm!" Portman yells out. Orion stands closer to him.
"I told you to calm down, you calm down right now, you hear me?" he shoves his finger in Portman's face and Portman shoves it away. "Hey! Do you want to get kicked out of school for assaulting your coach? Is that what you want?!"
Portman was practically growling, only being held back by his arms, Dwayne and Luis unable to control him. The Ducks all stood back in fear, never seeing anything like Portman's behavior now before. Guy stepped in front of Connie. Even Orion stepped back, afraid.
And then something happened that none of them had expected. Portman fell to the ground and began convulsing, shaking so hard that his head hit the ground over and over. Fulton fell to his knees, putting his head in his lap. "What's happening?!" he yelled out. "Do something! Someone do something!"
Orion, too, got down to his knees. "Someone call 911!" he told the team.
Charlie ran off to go and do as told. The rest of the Ducks just stood there in disbelief, not knowing what to do. Averman was crying softly, but not enough to get called out on it. Orion was whispering soft words to Portman, telling him it would be okay. Charlie ran back in and exclaimed that the ambulance was on the way.
"Julie . . ." Portman managed out. Fulton looked back at her, as did everyone else, in surprise. No one said anything for a moment until he said it again. "Julie . . ."
"Julie, come here!" Orion yelled at her and his loud voice was enough to shake her back into reality. She got down on her knees next to Fulton and took Portman's seizing hand. The seizing continued, until it didn't. Portman lay still, his head in Fulton's lap, his now limp hand in Julie's.
"What's happening?!" she said when Orion and Fulton exchanged looks but said nothing.
The ambulance sirens could be heard then. Adam and Ken ran out to go and lead the EMTs inside. Guy too left the room, but he didn't go with them – he went off somewhere by himself. "Just – just keep him elevated, Fulton," Orion told him and Fulton nodded.
The EMTs came in faster than they'd expected with a stretcher in tow. They screamed at the Ducks to clear the area, and Orion got up to lead them out of the locker room and out onto the ice. All of them just stood around, waiting for the EMTs and Portman to pass through. The anxiety was thick in the air, everyone could feel it, but no one was even acknowledging anyone else's presence, each of them just staring at the floor. The EMTs came out shortly with Portman hooked up to the stretcher. Orion and Fulton followed them out to the ambulance.
"What about the game?!" Dwayne yells after him. Although it's out of ignorance and not heartlessness, the Ducks can't help but groan.
Connie went to look for Guy as soon as Charlie had given the Ducks the okay to go home. She found him in the girl's locker room, sitting all the way in the corner of the back of the room. His knees were to his chest and although he wasn't crying, she could sense that he was on the verge of it. She'd been thankful to him before all of the Portman shit had really started going down – he had protected her. He'd gone up against Portman who was twice his size for calling her a slut and then he'd stepped in front of her when he started getting aggressive.
She knew that her heart shouldn't have soared the way it did because she was 'dating' Connor know. It wasn't like she had anything to be ashamed of – she told Guy how she felt the other day. What she had to be ashamed of was the fact that the very next day she'd called Connor again and he'd come over and shoved his dick in her mouth before she could even finish saying hello. She felt guilty for confessing her love to him when he had a girlfriend and even more guilty for ruining the pureness of it by hooking up with Connor right after. And what made it even worse was two days ago when she was putting her clothes back on and she smiled at Connor and asked him coyly if she was his girlfriend now and he'd said "I didn't know you actually date people."
It was shit and she felt like shit and she felt even shittier when she remembered that Guy would never speak to her that way and that Guy was probably sleeping with Alexa at that moment. (Had they slept together yet? She didn't even want to think about that?) But then the very next day she was climbing back into Connor's bed and spent the entire night fucking him.
In a way, it was easier than being with Guy. Connor didn't talk. He never asked her how she was doing. She overheard him talking in graphic detail about her pussy in the hall yesterday. But that was what she wanted. She was embarrassed about how emotional and open she'd gotten with Guy the other day. She hated being that way in general and being with an asshole who didn't care was far easier than being with someone who did.
"Hey," she said when she entered the room. Her whole promise to herself that she'd made after confessing to Guy that she loved him – the promise that she'd steer clear of getting emotional – was broken. They'd just witness something awful happen to Portman and it was far too serious for stupid promises.
Guy looked up. "Oh . . . hi . . . sorry . . . did you want to change? I'll uh, I'll leave . . ."
"No," she said, walking to him and kneeling once she gets close to him. "I wanted to see if you were okay,"
He shrugged, his voice quiet. "I don't know,"
"That was pretty . . . intense back there. Charlie said we have to forfit the game," she said awkwardly.
"Do you remember my brother?" Guy asks quickly, practically interrupting her. Connie is taken aback – she hadn't heard about Guy's brother in years. When they were twelve, his older brother (who'd been a drug addict for a long while before that) had died.
"Uh – yeah,"
"I walked into the kitchen some Sunday afternoon," he started and Connie's heart ached because she's heard this story once before. "Bombay was in the minors, we didn't have anything to do since we didn't have hockey. I was uh, supposed to meet Jesse at the park for a catch and I wanted to grab some food first. Brian was in there talking to my mom and then he just . . . fell. Started seizing, shaking and my mom was screaming and crying and yelling for me to call 911 . . . and I did, I did, but . . . the EMTs said they lost him in the ambulance. Drug overdose."
Connie moved closer so that she was sitting next to him.
"It was just like what happened with Portman,"
"So, the drugs were his?" Connie says.
Guy shrugged. "I guess, I mean, he was definitely on something . . . I just – I didn't want to see anything bad go down again,"
Connie put her hand on top of his and he intertwined their fingers. "I pussied out. What kind of a man am I to do that?"
"A real one," she answered with sincerity. "You were scared, so you bailed. Anyone else would've done the same thing,"
"But they didn't,"
"Yeah, because they didn't know what was happening. You did and it was something that traumatized you when you were a kid. No one is going to think the worst of you for running because you didn't want to re experience a trauma," Connie explained softly. She put her arm around Guy's shoulder.
Guy was silent for a moment and then nodded, looking up at her for the first time. He stared at her and Connie gulped, because she absolutely did not need him looking at her like that. The look quickly faded and Guy seemed to shake himself out of it. "Are you okay?" he asked her tentatively. She looked away and shrugged. "I don't know. I just . . . I hope he's okay,"
"Even after what he called you?"
"Yeah. He's still my friend,"
"You're a really lovely person, you know that?" Guy asked with a smile.
Connie blushed. "Thanks,"
Notes: So I'm not super proud of this chapter but I owed you guys so I had to get it out! I promise the next one will be better.
