Page 183 of On His Schedule
He nods once and goes back to talking to the assistant about the bus to Chicago in the morning.
At the steakhouse, the boys are loose. Stanley spends most of the appetizers reenacting the brawl with a Camdendstick as my stick, and Percy, who has been at the table for thirty minutes pretending not to be the player of the game, finally lets himself smile when Rowan toasts him at the end of the salad course. Coach lets everyone who’s over twenty-one have one beer because he’s in a good mood. The beer takes the edge off my cheek without quite making me forget about it.
My phone has been going off in my pocket since the third period. Gianna, Mom and Dad had a lot to say about the fight. Not to mention that Lucy and I have been texting all day, and I’m not annoyed by it. That’s how I know I have it bad. I hate texting.
Stanley catches me on my phone and looks over. “Reeve.”
I continue typing my message to Lucy. “Yes, Ermington.”
He looks over. “Tell her I scored the second one.”
“Stan, you assisted on the second one.”
“Tell her my pass was a thing of beauty.”
He moves on to Walsh who’s also texting under the table, telling him to tell his girl the same thing. I shake my head.
When dinner’s done, I hang back from the group at the front doors of the hotel.
The boys go in with Coach. Stanley pats me on the shoulder.Blue glances at me on the way past the doors and doesn’t say anything. I stand on the sidewalk under the awning. The Wisconsin air has the kind of cold that finds the cuts on your face that you forgot were there. I pull the hood of my hoodie up, and then I pull my phone out.
I scroll to Gianna.
I look at her name for a moment.
Then I hit call.
She picks up on the second ring.
“How are you doing?” she answers the phone.
“My face is swollen.”
“I saw the camera shot from the box, but I only saw blood. Is it bad?”
“It’s fine.”
“You did not need to take the elbow for Blue.”
“Yeah, I did.”
I can hear her shifting around while I think about how I’m going to ask her.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Yeah. We won. Percy was a wall.”
“Percy was awall.He had the glove save in the third — I screamed at the TV.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Lucy’s at her mom’s house.” She huffs. “She’s staying the night there, so I don’t think she watched your game. She is going to freak out when she sees you.”
“It’ll be a bruise by then.”
“Yeah.”
A beat.
