Chapter 14

We had all been fairly evenly divided. I was on team 1, Mattie on team 2 and Marty on team 3. Consti and Carrol ended up together on 4, while Jake was on 5. Team 6 had no one of real notice, other then an insane goalie by the of 'Renny', who was almost impossible to score on... almost.

As our schedules informed us, Sunday and Monday would be spent in exhibition games. We would play anywhere from two to four games, the first two teams to win two games got a pass to the semi-finals. We had tuesdays off to work with our teams, and then Wednesday and Thursday would be the semis. Friday we were off again before the finals, which would take place Saturday night.
I was excited to play again but I was also having a hard time shaking the feeling I got everytime I thought of playing against Mattie. I, of course, had been playing against him lots in the past week, but we were being judged individually then; his team loseing to mine or vise, hadn't had as big of an impact as it would have this week.
Sitting next to him now in the rec room, his arm flung carelessly around my shoulders, most people wouldn't be able to pick up on his edgy-ness. I was not most people. The thought of watching him lose made me upset, but I wasn't a fan of loseing either; nor were Consti, Carrol and Marty who would also be playing each other tomorrow.

"I'm tired. I think I'm gonna head to bed, you staying here?" I said quietly, leaning in to him.

"Yah for another minute maybe, I'll be there soon though alright?" I nodded, kissing him goodbye before I left. I made my way down the hall to our room, it was strange how much less noise there was in the dorms now. There were still way too many teenaged boys for it to be considered quiet, but it was almost errie after the weeks before.

When I got to our room I flopped down on the bed; Consti was already lying on his, flipping through a sports illustrated. "You worried about tomorrow?" I asked, searching for my PJs

"Nope." he answered, never taking his eyes from the pages.

"You're playing Marty tomorrow, aren't worried at all?"

"Nope."

I let out a deep sigh before grabbing my PJs and heading into the bathroom. When I came out Consti was watching me, with a big smile on his face. "What?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips and glaring at him.

"What's got you so wound up tonight?" He asked, tossing his magazine aside while he continued to look at me.

"You're playing your best friend tomorrow, and you're not even worried at all about the outcome?"

"Nope," he laughed, "I know the outcome, I'm gonna beat his team, and try to get him to fight me if I can... if he won't, I'm just gonna put him on his ass a bunch." He replied so matter-of-factly it was hard to tell if he was being serious.

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No, I just think you're being stupid. Mattie's a good player and he's not gonna be pissed if you beat him. It's probably not even gonna make him look bad if you beat him. Mattie's awesome, he'll make Team USA and he'll do it even after he looses to you."

"You don't think he'll hate me, if I win?"

He gave a loud laugh before talking again. "Are you gonna hate him if he wins?" I shook my head, "And, will you break up with him if he scores on you?" I continued to shake my head. "Carlie, if anything, he'll be pissed if you let him score on you... it'd de-man him, and let's face it... Mattie ain't got a whole lotta man as it is." I stared at him incredulity, and he just laughed harder. I began to smile as I watched him tear-up from his own joke. Mattie pushed open to door a second later, stopping short as he looked over at Consti. His sudden appearance had forced Consti into even more histarics and I couldn't help but laugh along; Mattie just shook his head as he went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Consti was snoring before I had even got comfortable. I finally found my nook, nestled in against Mattie, my head on his chest. He was lying on his back with one hand behind his head, the other wrapped around me, coming to rest on the small of my back. "Carlie?" He whispered, his lips brushing the tope of my head.

"Mmmhmmm..." I replied, feeling exhaustion beginning to overwhelm me.

"I'll love you, no matter what happens this week, I just want you to know that. Obviously I'd love to make it onto the team with you, but I'll be proud of you... no matter what. You know that right?"

"I know." I sighed, surpressing the following 'now' that was on my lips. "And the same goes for you... I'm sad I can't play with you now though..."

"We can play together in Russia." He replied in a husky voice, his fingers beginning to run up and down my spine. "We can even do some hockey if you want..." I laughed as I rolled on top of him and brushed my lips across his.

"Who likes hockey anyway?"




There was a few minutes left in the game against Mattie's team, we were up 6-2. The score was surprising to say the least, my team was actually fairly awful. Aaron had two goals and I had four, plus an assist. The rest of the team seemed to be sitting around waiting for me to do something; I thought it was impart to the brand-new 'C' that was now attatched to my jersey. It was beginning to feel more like a curse than anything, just as I'm sure Aaron was no longer thrilled about his 'A' as he had been that morning. It was fun to be winning, but team victories were always much more satisfactory than personal wins... this one was, unfortunitly, a two man effort.
I was happy that Mattie was doing great though. He had one goal and one assist but he was playing very agressive, something he didn't do nearly enough; it was paying off. It was nice to see that he had also been named an alternate captain for his team, he was definetly the best out there.

By the time the final buzzer sounded the score hadn't changed. I made my way to the locker room and showered quickly, changing into some casual clothing before heading out into the main hall. Mattie was waiting for me, all smiles, as I approached. "Good game babe." He said, pulling me into a warm hug and kissing me. I smiled back at him.

"If I knew you took an ass whoppin this good, I'd do it more often!" He laughed and took my hand, leading me out into the cool night air.

"Not so much the loss it's self, but I think I did pretty good tonight... and by the way babe... you're team kind of sucks!"

"Ugh! I know! Why bother telling me again?"

"Just thought you might like to know, I mean, as Captain and everything..." He started to laugh and I playfully punched him in the arm.

"I wonder who we play tomorrow..." I thought out loud as we continued walking towards the dorm.

"Um, don't quote me on this but I think you're gonna be playing Jake... I'm playing Consti and Carrol!! That should be... interesting..."


Once we were inside the dorm Mattie left to find Marty, promising to only be a minute, as I continued to make my way down to our room. I opened the door to a smell that caught me off guard. Not that our room smelled too bad, we left our gear at the rink afterall, but I didn't wear perfume and I was fairly sure that Mattie and Consti weren't into flower scents.
I flicked on the lights and saw a bouquet of flowers on the computer desk with a small note attached. I approached the desk cautiously, the sunflowers and gerber babies looked friendly enough, but their appearance was a little strange. Oh... Mattie! I laughed suddenly wondering why I hadn't thought of it sooner, where did he get time to get me flowers? I pulled the card off the holder and tore open the note.

Carlie, was just thinking about you. Wanted to say good luck and I can't wait to see you in Russia...

The signature on the bottom of the card was not Matties. I hastly shoved the small card into my back pocket and began to freak out. Oh my god... oh my god... oh my god... I had to get rid of them. Why? It's not like I'm hiding anything... Why would he send me flowers... Okay. Calm down. You're over reacting. He was just wishing you good luck is all... Mattie would believe that right... I let out a groan. No guy would be ok with another guy sending his girlfriend flowers and then basically promising to see them somewhere.
I didn't have much time, Mattie could be on his way down. The window was already half open so I pushed it up the rest of the way. The screen came off easily and I hastly set it on the floor. For an unexplainable reason I pushed the flowers up to my face and took a whiff before I tossed them out the window.
I had just put the screen back on when Mattie came in. "It smells weird in here..." He said, looking around the room before shrugging.

"Yah... opening a window now!" I laughed, trying not to sound hysterical. "Ummm... I think I'm going to bed now..." I continued, quickly changing into my PJs while Mattie checked his e-mail on the computer. I hoped into bed and rolled over against the wall, Mattie crawled in a few minutes later and curled up around me.

"Night babe..." he sighed into my ear, his warm breath blowing across my face.

"Night Mattie."

He pulled me against him tight and soon his breathing was steady. I continued to lie awake trying to make sense of the note that was in the pocket of the jeans I had just disgarded on the floor.

It was well after Consti had come in and feel asleep before I finally gave in to... the words 'was just thinking about you' still etched in my mind.