Our Overtime: Ice League Book 1 (The Ice League Series)

I sped toward the corner, racing the defenseman. The puck was mine.

It was one of my last games with the Griffins and I needed to make it count.

I got there first, but was then slammed into the boards, his elbow against my head. He’d been doing that all game. I felt anger and adrenaline raging inside of me. He held me against the boards then, not letting up. Where was the whistle?

Next thing I knew, I wound up and slammed my glove against his helmet.

It moved fast then.

Our fist slamming into each other.

At some point my helmet fell off and I took one squarely to the face and felt the blood gush.

It just gave me more ammunition.

I usually wasn’t a fighter. But this guy pushed me to it.

I felt one ref jerking me back by my jersey and another stood between us.

He got one good punch in, but looking at him, I knew I won the fight.

I smiled at him, which caused him to start chirping. I just blew him off and laughed, pussy.

I thought it was funny… until the ref was ushering me toward the door and not my team bench.

“What the fuck, he started it!” I protested, trying to yank my jersey from his grasp.

The ref just shook his head at me, “Keep it up and I’ll give you a game suspension as well.”

I shook my head at the injustice. If he would’ve done his job I wouldn’t have had to take matters into my own hands in the first place.

I looked back at the bench. I could hear Max’s dad, our head coach, arguing on my behalf from all the way across the ice.

Walking down the hallway to our locked room, I took stalk of myself.

The front of my jersey was covered in blood. I wasn’t in any pain yet because I was so pissed that I couldn’t finish the last ten minutes of the game. I only felt a throbbing beginning from my nose as I opened the locker room door.

There were only two games left and everyone was fighting for some kind of commitment for next year. And here I was, sitting one of them out and losing opportunity. I shouldn’t have let him get to me.

I kept the locker room light off. I wanted darkness; I was starting to feel a headache coming on.

Another concussion was not what I needed.

I threw my helmet at the wall and sat my ass down.

I tried some breathing exercises Jules had taught me but it really wasn’t working. I was letting my temper get the best of me lately. I needed to check myself before it got worse. I couldn’t afford many more head injuries. I had one bad concussion this season and I wanted to stay clear of anymore for the rest of my career.

I muttered a curse and started ripping my skate laces undone.

I heard a little knock on the locker room door then. Who would knock?

“Uh… yeah?” I called.

The door peeped open and I saw a fluttering of long light brown hair.

“Jules?” I asked incredulously. She wasn’t supposed to be back here… but I guess the rest of the team was kind of busy at the moment.

She pulled the door all the way open then, and was immediately taken aback… it must’ve been the blood.

She flipped the lights on and took a couple strides toward me then and plopped herself next to me.

She touched my cheek and gave a sheepish grin. Her hand on my face made me feel better. She had a way of easing the trouble and anger stirring inside of me.

“Well, at least you won the fight?” She asked quietly.

I smirked at her and faltered. My nose started bleeding again.

She quickly got up and moved toward the tiny, partitioned bathroom and grabbed a wad of toilet paper.

“I can drive you to urgent care when you get all undressed?” She offered lightly as she tipped my head back slightly and kept a squeeze on the bridge of my nose.

“Fuck yeah, you can drive,” I winked at her. I taught her this past year. We forged her grandparents’ signatures on all her drivers ed stuff. If it were up to them, she’d never drive. For practice she had driven me to all the outdoor rinks in our vicinity. We had a good time.

She huffed, but the corner of her mouth twitched up like she was fighting a smile, “Focus, Grey. You might’ve broken it.”

“No.” My voice was muffled by the toilet paper now, but she heard me clearly.

She sighed.

“I’m just a bleeder. It looks worse than it is,” I urged.

She gave me her signature “mom,” look. Max called her Little Mama when she gave it to any of us.

“How am I supposed to let you go off and play wherever the hell you end up fully knowing you’ll never go in if you’re hurt?” She asked with a concerned look on her face. I could tell this really did bug her. “I’ll be worried about you the whole time.”

“Come with me,” I grumbled. I was pissed off about the whole college thing. Her grandparents were making her go to their alma mater- probably the only college without a hockey team to their satisfaction. If they had one, I’d do anything to play there and be with her.

I reached up and touched the ends of her long hair. Even with her standing and me sitting I didn’t have to reach too far up. I’d shot up past six foot this last year. She was destined to remain tiny forever. I liked the new height difference. It made me feel like I was her protector.

“Unless I’m ugly now and you won’t have me anymore.”

Her eyes danced as she laughed. “Stop talking babe, you’re making it worse… and a broken nose might help you round out the tough guy look that I find so sexy.”

My girl. She always said the right thing and I loved her for it.

I couldn’t help but think, as I grew rougher looking, she was growing more beautiful. This spring was her last season skating competitively and I was kind of relieved for her. She was still skating, but more so just for fun. She planned on skating up at college, but she already told the coach she wouldn’t be competing. I’d never ever tell her what to do, but I fully backed her in that decision. Competing had become unhealthy for her, and without it she seemed to be growing healthier and more relaxed. You could clearly see that on her too. It seemed that as she backed off skating, she got boobs as a consolation. I was always very attracted to her but trading in her A-bra for a C one definitely was not a problem with me. She was pretty self-conscious about the change though. I had to make sure to let her know just how beautifully perfect she was… I was just giving them extra attention. I thanked God that I got her before the rest of the world got to see her.

“Love you,” I said this in place of thank you all the time, and she knew it. A simple thank you wasn’t enough for her.

She leaned down to kiss my forehead, “You’re welcome and I love you very much, you bonehead, even though you smell very bad.” I felt the corners of my lips curve up. “No laughing, it’ll bleed!” She urged, which just made me want to more.

She grabbed a new wad of toilet paper and we sat there in silence for a couple moments. It felt like the bleeding had stopped. I closed my eyes hard against my headache.

Ever observant, Jules knew what to look for. She grabbed my chin and looked into my eyes with concern.

“Your head alright?” She knew me too well.

I nodded slowly and gave her wrist a tug to pull her into my lap. We sat there cuddled in comfort, my chin resting on her head.

“You still gonna love me if I lose all my teeth?” I mumbled.

Her tiny body shook with laughter.

“You didn’t answer,” I prodded, even though I was confident in her answer.

“You know I would, Greyson. I think I’m stuck with ya.”

“Yupp.”

The next few years would be tough, but we’d make it. She was the only girl for me in this world. She was my center, my home.