Soda
I wait a few minutes after Liz and Payton come out, before I take the empty seat next to Payton, she's scanning something on her phone, so I gently clear my throat, she turns her head and looks at me. "I wanted to talk to you." I tell her, she puts her phone down and turns giving me her full attention,
"Sure, what's up?" She asks,
"I owe you an apology." I say, Payton shakes her head, pieces of her dark blonde hair spilling out of the ponytail she has it in, "No I do." I insist, "I don't know why I let Kate get into my head like that. Payton gives me a smile,
"Kate has a way of doing that to people." She replies,
"Still, it's not an excuse for what I did, and I'm sorry." I tell her, "And I want to thank you, I know you're the reason why Pony is even talking to me at this point, and I appreciate that more than you'll ever know." I hesitate, "I wish I could give you a reason for what I did, but I can't." Payton puts a hand on my arm gently,
"It's ok, you don't have to try and explain anything to me." She tells me, I look at her,
"Being with Kate was like having some weird out of body experience." Two-Bit who is sitting behind us puts his head between us,
"Was she an alien?" He asks, then he smacks my shoulder, "Did she probe you?" He pauses and looks at Payton, "You don't have to answer that now since there are ladies here, tell me after." He adds with a wink. Payton chuckles,
"I've known Kate since we were four, and she's always been a manipulative," She pauses like she's searching for the right word,
"Bitch?" I supply she nods,
"Yeah, pretty much, Nothing she does surprises me, and I don't blame you for anything she said or did, you have nothing to apologize for, you made a mistake, we all do." I stare at her for a second, I had been sort of bracing myself for her to tell me to go screw myself or something.
"I shouldn't have believed anything she said, I should have realized how happy you make Pony and that should have been the end of it." I look out at the ice where Scott is having them run drills, "It's been a long time since he's been himself, and that's all you." I tell her, and it's the truth. The Pony now is the Pony that was there before mom and dad, before Johnny, before everything else that happened in Tulsa. All that anger that had built up towards everyone and everything is gone, it's like having our Pony back, and I still can't believe that I let some stupid high school girl almost ruin things between us.
"I appreciate that, but I think you're giving me way too much credit." Payton replies, Liz turns around putting a hand on her knee,
"It's the truth Payton." She tells her before turning back around. Two-Bit leans down,
"When y'all get married can I be in the wedding, I look damn good in a tux." He says, Steve looks at him,
"When the hell have you ever worn a tux, if I recall you wore jeans to the prom." Two-Bit shrugs him off,
"You went to the prom in jeans?" Liz questions,
"No, I went to the afterparty in jeans, I didn't go to some stupid prom." He declares, "That's a yes for the wedding right Pay?"
"If we get married, then yeah absolutely." She tells him a big smile on her face, once the lesson is over Payton's parents insist that we all stay for dinner, I don't know what I expected with knowing what I do about her family, I guess a house full of stuck-up assholes, but man is it the opposite. Everyone is really low-key and down to earth,
"Pony was telling me you like the Red Sox?" Greg says to me, I nod,
"Dad was a big fan, for some reason back home those games were always on TV and if he wasn't working and it was on, he was in the recliner watching it." I smile at the memory, Greg nods,
"Tell you what once the season starts how about you come to some games with us." I look at him, and nod slowly,
"That would be awesome. Thank you." He pats my back,
"Absolutely." He says, once everyone is stuffed full of food we all head out back to home.
Pony
Saturday Night
As soon as I step on the ice Robbie grabs my arm, he leans in almost shouting so I can hear him over the roar of the crowd. They had drilled it into our head all week how these two games against Stanton are our do are or die games, Coach literally said he would rather beat them, than win the championship. I heard all about how the arena would be insane and we'd have to tune out the noise, at the time I thought it was bullshit but standing here I can barely hear myself think. "Heads up Carter is playing for Stanton." Robbie practically screams in my ear; he nudges me towards their team that is warming up on the other side of the rink. I turned my head and looked, word had gotten around that his appeal had been denied and then someone heard he had transferred somewhere else to play.
"You better be ready to come out of that goal if shit goes down between him and Sawyer." I tell Robbie who grins at me pulling his mask down, I've learned that while Robbie is not going to go out of his way to start a fight, he has no problem jumping in. He is the only reason I didn't knock Carter out, at that party when he was running his mouth about Payton. I smirk to myself, knowing that I now have the perfect excuse to hit him. I scan the crowd really quickly, spotting Payton sitting between her mom and Ali. I toss my helmet and gloves on the bench and skate over stopping at the wall, Payton looks up,
"Shouldn't you be warming up?" She asks a smile on her face; I have to grin when I realize she's wearing my jersey and good God does she look amazing in it. I motion with my finger for her to come closer,
"I wanted to see you before the game." I tell her, I reach out tucking a piece of hair behind her ear,
"Are you ok?" She asks, I nod,
"I just wanted to tell you I love you." I reply, she leans forward until her lips are on mine, "I'll see you after the game baby." I murmur my lips barely leaving hers, she nods,
"I love you too." She replies, I wink at her, Liz who is sitting next to Liv leans over messing up my hair, and all the guys stick their fists out for a bump. I stop for a second, going back to Payton, I can see Carter staring from a few feet away and I can't help myself, I want to make sure he knows she's mine. I'm usually pretty good at keeping my ego in check, but at times I have no problem being the cocky arrogant hockey player everyone expects me to be, especially because before he transferred out, he had been spreading all kinds of rumors about how Payton was throwing herself at him and begging for her to take him back. I had laughed it off trusting her completely, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't piss me off.
"One more kiss." I say, pulling myself up on the wall, Payton leans over and presses her lips against mine, I smirk skating back over to the bench putting my helmet and gloves back on. It takes until about midway through the first period for things to start getting heated between Carter and Sawyer, I think we all knew it was coming Coach had tried to keep Sawyer on a different line then him so they wouldn't be on the ice together, but their paths crossed anyways. At first it was mostly pushing and shoving, the refs threw out warnings to both sides, by the third period we were dead locked at one, and the tensions were rising, and when Sawyer scored a goal to put us up by one it exploded. Carter hit him with a cheap shot and then started running his mouth I only half caught what Carter said to Sawyer, but he stopped on the ice, and shoved Carter at full force into the wall, and then he threw his gloves and helmet on the ice, the refs try to get between them but it's no use, somehow Carter manages to land the first punch, I grab the back of Sawyer's jersey in a half hearted attempt to break them up, honestly I could care less if Sawyer beats the hell out of him.
"Hope you don't mind I screwed your girlfriend last night." Carter says smirking at me, I let go of Sawyer's jersey who immediately goes after Carter, I guess I'm not paying attention as Carter punches me in the mouth, I almost immediately taste blood. I promised Darry I wouldn't start fights but if you hit me first, I'm going to end it, I throw my own gloves off, and haul off and punch Carter as hard as I can in the face, he drops immediately blood pouring out of his nose.
"Let me hear you talk about my girlfriend again." I say in a low voice, someone crashes into me, and I realize the benches have cleared and it's now freaking free for all. It takes the refs and coaches a good ten minutes to get everyone apart, Carter gets kicked out of the game, and Sawyer and I both get stuck in the penalty box for five minutes, for the first three I have to sit and let the EMT who monitors our games check out my mouth, once he is satisfied that I don't need stitches and I haven't lost any teeth, I take my seat next to Sawyer. I wipe my lip on my hand, then onto my uniform pants,
"You alright?" Sawyer asks, pulling down the ice pack he's holding onto his eye.
"I've been worse." I reply, with a grin. The two of us finish out our penalties and get back onto the ice, we end up winning 3 to 1, and I think we're all expecting a lecture when we get back into the locker room, but it never comes. We get a cool down speech and hit the showers.
"I'm not going to be able to see tomorrow." Robbie says squinting at his face in the mirror, his right eye is already purple and swelling closed. I pat him on the back, "Are you going to over to Tommy's house?" He asks as I sit on the bench to put my shoes back on,
"I'll talk to Pay." I tell him, he nods heading out of the locker room. I finish tying my shoes and grab my bag heading out. I head over towards where Liz and the guys are standing, Steve smacks me on the back,
"Nice hit kid." He greets,
"You still got a little Tulsa in you, huh?" Two-Bit asks, Liz pulls my chin towards her examining me,
"I'm fine Liz." I tell her, she gives me a look, "I promise." I know there is no use in telling her not to worry because she's going to worry regardless. Darry throws an arm around me,
"Come on let's go get dinner," He pauses, "Do you need to drink yours through a straw?" I roll my eyes following them out of the arena.
I keep Payton's hand in mine as we make our way towards the back deck of Tommy's house, the inside of the house is wall to wall people, I push open the door and inhale the freezing cold February air, which feels amazing after being in the house. I put my beer bottle down on the railing of the deck, before leaning down picking Payton up and putting her on the rail so we are relatively the same height. "Are you sure, you're, ok?" She asks as she slowly runs her fingers through my hair, even though there are a million different things I'd rather be doing alone with her, I had let the guys talk me into going to the afterparty at Tommy's house. I lean in letting my lips brush hers,
"I'm good." I tell her,
"That was so freaking hot." She murmurs against my lips, I pull away looking at her,
"Yeah?" I ask,
"Uh huh." She says she moves one hand out of my hair to my sweatshirt pulling me even closer to her, until she's completely pressed against me, "You're so hot." Soda had joked over dinner how girls love a busted-up face, never thought Payton would be the type, but hey I'll take it. She moves her hand on my sweatshirt till it's on my belt, "Can we go home yet?" I nodded, chugging the rest of my beer, digging her car keys out of my pocket, handing them to her.
"Let's go." I tell her, she leans in for another kiss before I help her off the railing we don't bother saying goodbye to anyone, just head for her car and back to the apartment because it's closer than her house and neither of us are in the mood to wait.