Changing Positions (Brooks Haven Bears 3)

Chapter 2 - Center Ice

Hans

I’m always on the ice, but there’s nothing colder than Emily Park. She has always been like that, but there’s also that easy camaraderie between us if you can call her not killing me that. She doesn’t acknowledge it, but we have been around each other all our lives that it’s become normal for me to be near her. There’s no pull from her, but at least there’s no push, either.

Or not.

I’ve been trying to tell her for the last five minutes that Lance is coming home early this December and will be having a party at his house. Maybe Jason already told her about it, but I doubt it. The older members of our gang, a.k.a extended family, have always tried to “protect” her from the party scene while trying to push me toward it. Double standards. When I see Lance again, I’ll ask him to protect my virtue at the party. I can’t help but chuckle at the thought. I don’t really give a f**k about what other people say, and nobody even believes that I haven’t had s*x. Well, I’ve made out with plenty of women, but I always find a reason to leave.

“Seriously, Hans. How old are you? And you have not been with a woman yet? Don’t you dare tell anyone we’re cousins.”

“Everyone knows that already, Lance. I don’t have to tell them.”

“Um, if you are interested in, you know, the same s*x, you know I won’t be mad, Hans.”

“f**k off, Lance. You know me. I would have told you if that’s what I want.”

“Right.”

“I know what I want and what I don’t want, big cousin. Believe me.”

“Is it still about -?”

“No, Lance.”

Emily has her headset on and I can hear some of the angry music blaring in her ears from her phone. How does she not damage her ears like that? For most of her teenaged years, she’s been listening to loud music. But I can’t exactly remind her about the damage it can do to her cochlea. She’s taking pre-med courses just like me. She would hate me “mansplaining” for her. I’ve never been patronizing to her – I think not anyway – but she always seems to take what I say the wrong way.

She’s like that. One moment, she looks like on the brink of giving you a smile. Next, she’s cold and absent. I don’t take it personally. She’s like that with everyone. That’s why Jason and I were surprised that she found new friends, Bianca, Celeste, and Hayley. I don’t blame her for steering away from the rich girls from her private high school. Not at all.

For Emily, I’m barely there just as I’m barely paying attention to what’s on TV. Her legs are up on the love seat’s arm now, as she gets more comfortable. She’s wearing short shorts because she doesn’t expect anyone to come over. The oversized black rock T-shirt balances things out. Somehow. Maybe? Not really.

It’s difficult to concentrate with her long legs on display like that. She’s around five-foot-seven, only an inch shorter than her former model mom, who has been friends with my mom, a former actress, since they were teens. Life has thrown us so many links, and here I am grappling for even just one, while she just ignores each of them.

A tattoo wraps around her left thigh. It looks a circle of text, more likely of a quote she loves. Typical. She has had henna tattoos before, but it’s the first time I’m seeing this one and it looks pretty convincing.

“What the hell are you looking at, Blom?” she asks, straightening herself on the love seat. Her brown hair is now loose on her shoulders, as she glares at me. Her headset has been pulled down around her neck.

Oh, are you now ready to listen, Ems?

“I was just wondering about your tattoo. Is it real this time?”

“None of your business,” she mumbles, eyeing me warily.

“Does your mom know?”

“I’m eighteen now, Hans. You were at my deb party where you hogged my dance card. I can’t believe people keep on forgetting my age.”

“I would never forget your age, Emily,” I say honestly, thinking of that one little instance when she did a number on my forehead with a spoon.

“Right. Don’t you think it’s getting late?”

“You still have a bedtime?” I ask, even though I know she would hate me even more.

“Of course not. But you’re not supposed to be here.”

She’s right, though, but my mind goes back to her tattoo and what’s bothering me about it.

“Well, you’re not supposed to have someone touching your thighs for hours just to get that tattoo there,” I say before I can stop my mouth. It’s at that moment I realize that I’m pissed someone’s had their hands up her thigh without me, Lance, or Jason guarding her. “Was it a male or female tattoo artist?”

“None of your business. I’m not your responsibility, Blom. Just because Jason and Lance aren’t here anymore doesn’t mean that you should be watching over me. I’m eighteen. For godsakes, let me enjoy my life. How can I get a date when you’re always following me around? Someone asked me if you were my boyfriend.” She looks heavenward as if asking for the answer to her prayer. It’s funny, but it also hurts a little.

The urge to invite her to Lance’s birthday comes and goes. Maybe it’s a good idea to stay away, but damn, it’s going to be difficult. With her long silky brown hair, almond-shaped brown eyes, and bow-shaped lips, Emily Park has a certain magnet – a forbidden one.

“I saw you watching my sister, Blom,” Jason said one time during my freshman year. “She’s only fifteen.”

“Sixteen.”

“Look who’s keeping tabs. Yeah, she’ll be eighteen in two years, but damn it, Blom, there are other girls. She’s like your sister, too.”

“It would definitely be icky to date your sister, dude.” Lance added to the conversation I was beginning to hate.

It’s probably time to move on. She doesn’t want me that way, and it’s putting both of our lives on hold. Maybe I’ll find a girl at Lance’s party – someone who’s actually excited to see me.

Yeah, I can do that. I’m Hans Blom, Brooks Haven’s hockey captain. I was a winger. They changed my position to center, and I’m thriving even more. I’m a pre-med student with a perfect GPA. I model on the side. I do everything without grumbling, with a smile for everyone I pass in the hallways. I can do anything.

Erase that. I can do anything except make her like me. There’s no sense arguing with Jason and Lance about her when she doesn’t even care.

“Okay, I’m going home,” I say. “I’ll leave you alone, Ems. But if you ever need any help, you can always send me a text.”

She looks at me and scrambles to rise as soon as I get up. Her mouth is hanging open and her eyes are puzzled.

“Bye, Hans,” she says.

I feel another rush of disappointment. I was hoping she would say something else, but what? She won’t really ask me to stay with her, and I understand. I try my best to understand.

**

“Yes!” Coach Simmons yells, as I score another goal during practice. Lorenzo mock-groans. He’s playing for the defense, and I’ve managed to score three goals past him and the new goalie Riddick.

“Were you able to do that when Hollis was still here?” he asks good-naturedly, after practice.

“I’ve scored a couple past him,” I say, grinning. The ice makes me happy, although my dad, an orthopedic surgeon absolutely hate it. It may not be because I look like I’m headed for a different path from what he wants from me, but his specialty exposes him to all kinds of fractures, some of which I had as a child playing hockey and other sports.

“Well, I really wish you’d be here for the Frozen Four. You’re our chance to win it again a second time in a row.”

I’m supposed to graduate at the end of the semester, and move on to the NHL, but Brooks Haven U needs me. I didn’t think things clearly when I took advanced classes. I’ll have a talk with Dean Matthews, Coach Simmons, and the dean of the graduate school, Dean Harford.

“I might still be here, Lorenzo. Don’t say anything to the other guys yet. I’m working on something.”

His eyes light up. It’s not like they won’t win without me. The team is full of great guys, some of whom played last year. Some were in third or fourth lines, but were no less important.

“I hope it works out, Blom.”

“I hope so, too.”

A couple of days later, I finally get the meeting I’ve been waiting for. This meeting will decide my future. It all depends on lines of rule that don’t often get read and examined in Brooks Haven.

“Blom, have a seat,” Harford says, gesturing at the seat next to Simmons. While Simmons and Matthews look about my dad’s age, Harford is younger, maybe in his mid-thirties. He has a prematurely receding hairline and he wears glasses, but his youth is still obvious.

“Thanks, sir.”

My hands are clammy. I don’t often feel nervous around people of authority, but today will decide everything. I should have known this would happen, but I was too proud and enthusiastic. I wanted to see if I could finish all my subjects in a shorter period. In three a half years, I would be done with all my subjects plus several random ones I added for fun. I even took summer classes. For fun. What the hell was wrong with me?

Escape. In a way, it was escape.

“Hans, do you want to go to the movies? Heard that awesome new horror movie is up.”

“Sorry, Glenda. I’ve got Chemistry and Biology tests next week.”

“Wow. How do you get time for them and hockey?”

But I had time for her – Emily. I had time to pick her up at random places, sometimes seedy streets where she experimented with random stuff: henna tattoos, m*******a at one point, and getting into bars when she was obviously too young. I threw her fake ID into a heaping bin, adding to my litany of real and imagined sins.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I read the rules several times, and it looks like you can play one more semester with the Brooks Haven Bears while you’re enrolled at the graduate school level. You can stay as long as you play with the team at a maximum of five years only.”

“W-what?” I’m stunned. My breath whooshes out of me as Simmons and Matthews give me high fives.

“I’m going to miss you after this semester, Blom,” Matthews admits. “But you’ll be in good hands. Harford is just like you. He’s a nitpicker. He’ll look at every line of rule to make sure we’re good.”

“We’re headed for the Frozen Four. I can feel it in my bones, son,” Simmons says, shaking his head in disbelief. I swear he’s tearing up a bit. The last few weeks have been emotional, after it dawns on everyone that I’ll be graduating soon.

Despite my common sense, I still text the person who won’t even care about whether I stay or not.

ME: Ems, I’ll be playing for the Bears next semester.

I expect that she won’t answer, but my phone pings a few seconds later.

EMS: Why the hell would you do that? Are you not graduating?

I laugh. I don’t expect anything else from Emily Park.

ME: Graduate school students can still play for the Bears.

There’s silence. She’s probably pissed I’ll be staying for longer. Then, there’s one more text.

EMS: Oh okay. Congrats, Hans.

She’s like a little sister, Hans, I remind myself. I’m going to have fun on my last semester. Damn it. I may take up Lance on his offer to find me a girl I can finally lose my virginity to.

“I know someone, Hans. Someone discreet. Get ready for my party this December.”

“Hope not a prostitute, asshole. I'm not paying for - you know.”

“Nope. Nothing like that. Just a big fan of yours.”