Game day

"So., He told the team that you cheated on him. With me?"

"Yup." I popped the last consonant, licking ice cream off the spoon in my hand. "And now I'm banned from their games apparently. Well at least Wednesday's, but I'm in no rush to talk to him right now,".

We were sitting in the Walmart parking lot enjoying our sundaes while we hung out in the truck. Chase was leaning back in his seat, looking at me with his eyebrows raised while I awkwardly sat half cross legged in the passenger seat facing him.

"Well, that's easy, just come to my game Wednesday. Cheer for me. We're playing our rivals,"

I dropped my spoon "Wait, you're playing the Ravens?"

He shot me a cocky grin "Yup. I have a new vendetta against one of their guys. It'll be a good show," He took another spoonful as he waited for my response. "Look it's a win-win situation. I have a cheerleader and you watch us destroy his team. By the way? First red flag is dating someone with the same first four letters of you name. Gross,".

"You're gross," I took a spoonful of my own, taking my time to think. "They think I'm sleeping with you,"

"Yes. And?".

"And they already hated you, and now they hate me,"

"They don't deserve to have you there then,". "You're coming,"

"I'll think about it,"

After we got in the truck and I told him he owed me some form of ice cream, we had a quiet drive first to the MacDonald's then the back forties of the Walmart parking lot to hang out. I tried to stay angry at him, but it was hard once he started talking. He dropped the "I'm walking sex on a stick, "act and sounded like a normal person. I filled him in on the Wyatt situation as it was the reason, I had embarrassingly cried at him, and some of the Will situation, including Robin going after him. Which is when he explained to me that the comment about my friends wasn't about Cass and Ollie, it was about the twins. He had seen Robin and Will together Saturday night, but I was too drunk to notice and he didn't want me to be upset.

"You know, you're too good for them. Never mind their personality and Dick hunting expeditions, but the first time we met, everybody there was looking at you and not them. And it pissed them off,"

"Ha! Whatever. They were dressed to impress, I was wearing 'boyfriend approved' attire,"

He sputtered. "What, does he help you get dressed in the morning?"

"Basically. He didn't want me to draw too much attention. Like I could do that anyway, "I said rolling my eyes.

And that brought us through my 'rules and regulations for dating Will Saunders' list. The more I talked, the more pissed off he looked. This was the first time I had ever really told anyone how controlling he could be, especially when it came to the way I looked.

"Are you serious? He didn't want you dressed up to go out with him? Fuck I'd take you out in a pair of heels and a nice dress any day. Or a skirt. Or one of those-"he cut himself off when he registered the look I was giving him. "Just saying,". He shifted in his seat. "So, what happened if you didn't follow his choice for your outfit?".

"Well, there's a few scenarios there. One: he would accuse me of cheating, then give me the silent treatment until I either changed or decided not to go. Two: accuse me of cheating, but with tears or tantrum throwing complete with the whole "You deserve better, you've probably already found it too," or three: If we had plans together, he would cancel them and thank me for ruining his night, then give me the silent treatment or demand I leave and then cry and apologize later,"

Saying the words out loud made me realize how absurd the situation was. It had become so normal for me to deal with that I thought it was a common issue. But the look on Chase's face was telling me it wasn't. Even though I was still upset with him and probably shouldn't be anywhere near him, it felt nice to be able to vent.

"That's messed up. You know that right? He manipulated the hell out of you. Only an insecure douchebag would stoop that low. That is so fucked,". He levelled me with a look that had me looking away. He looked stern, but also sympathetic.

I shrugged, heat rising to me face. "Yeah, I guess so. He was my first real boyfriend. I just thought it was normal,"

"It's not normal to make a beautiful woman feel like shit about herself just to keep her around,".

The heat in my face intensified, making me focus on the now empty container in my lap. "I don't want to talk about it anymore,".

I looked up at him to see him staring at me, working to soften his stare. "Okay, I'm sorry. But you will tell me about it at some point. All of it,".

I sighed, opening my mouth to tell him that it was none of his business when my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket, eyebrows knitting together when I saw that it was Mark Owens, another player on the raven's team. Chase, being nosey peeked over at my screen before I answered it.

"Hey Mark what's up?"

"Not Mark actually. How are you, sunshine?"

"Will? What the fuck are you-"

"You blocked me, didn't you? Because I told you the truth" I could almost see the smug look on his face

"No because you're a lying sack of shit who is n ow using my friends the same way you used me,".

"Wyatt doesn't seem to think so,"

"I don't give a fuck what my brother-"before I could finish, the phone was gone from my hand and pressed against Chase's ear.

"She's busy Saunders, fuck off,"

I could hear muffled yelling coming from the speaker while Chase smiled. "Actually, you ruined your own relationship by cheating on her for one, and two you must be really desperate to call her from someone else's phone. What? Your slut from Saturday didn't work out? Either of them. I guess the rumors I'm hearing about you are true. You do fuck like you play,".

More muffled yelling, but Chase cut him off. "As I said: She's busy Saunders. Call again and you wont even make it to the arena on Wednesday,". His tone went from condescending to lethal and it had me raising my brows, trying to ignore what his tone had me feeling. I bit my lip, taking my phone back from him.

"Uh, thanks,". Heat pooled in my face once more and I tried to calm the pulse forming between my legs. "What did he say?"

"That I ruined his relationship, I'm a piece of shit. Will stuff." he waved his hand flippantly, but his jaw was still clenched tightly, leading me to believe that wasn't all he said

"This has been such a weird day,". I commented.

"You've got that right. I thought I'd never be able to convince you to hang out with me. Look at you, you little rebel, " He teased, ruffling my hair.

I snorted, shoving his hand away.

"Besides, I've seen you out there with your camera, I bet I'm much more photogenic than they are. And it gives you a good reason to be on our side of the rink," He shot me a wink.

We hung out in the truck long after our ice cream was finished just talking about everything, I found out he has a full scholarship, though with loaded yet detached parents he didn't need it. His parents were both lawyers (and yes that did make their arguments much worse) who opted not to let their child slow them down. He was an only child who grew up with his parents throwing money at his hobbies, and his uncle driving him to practice and coaching when he could while he was in house league. His parents only ever made it out to a handful of games, and never seemed too impressed with his performance.

Not that it was an excuse or anything, but it did explain why he could be such a goon on the ice. He could do whatever he wanted with parents who didn't care. Which started on the ice, and branched outward. Teenage boys could we wild. But parents who didn't know or care made him that much wilder. Drinking, "Dabbling," in drug use as he called it, fighting, nearly failing out of his classes. It wasn't until is aunt and uncle all but forced him to move in that he started to improve. He got his grades up, kept playing junior hockey, and mostly cleaned himself up, then decided to go to college when he turned 21.

I almost felt bad when he asked me about my own parents. My dad was a millwright, my mom a teacher. No where's near as loaded as is parents but at least they didn't treat Wyatt and I like a burden. They both did their best to make all of our practices and games, when I decided to buy my first real camera, they bought me a lens set for my birthday and my mom got her own so we could learn together. They were actually a large contributor to my income because of it. I made a killing back home during hockey season selling prints of the players on the ice, once I was done playing myself, I attended every tournament I could get my booth into and sold prints. After I came here, I was still able to make decent money covering games by selling photos to the local journalists who wanted a profession looking photo for their articles. Players parents still bought prints even though their children were grown. It was really sweet. And you would be surprised by the number of girls who wanted pictures of their boyfriends in gear. It paid the bills anyway and kept me out of the ever so pleasant dorms.

I used to do them for free for the Raven's but since I'm banned from their games, I guess they could find someone else to do it for them. And as Chase said, it would give me an excuse to be there. Which is how we wound up here.

I couldn't say no to his invitation after hearing how his parents never cared to show up. Then again that may have been part of his plan, though I doubted it since we both agreed that the majority of what we talked about wasn't common knowledge and didn't need to be. So here we are, riding together in his truck on the way to the arena much earlier than necessary so nobody saw us coming in together. He even parked at the far corner of the parking lot just in case. I had my camera with the large zoom lens attached, my cord and my laptop with me. Chase wanted to see them after the game, but they always show up better on the computer than the tiny screen on my camera.

"Make sure you get my good side," He jokingly reminded me as I hopped out of the truck. I could have driven my car, but Chase insisted he drive me since the arena was further away than ours. I think he just wanted to drive with me "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you?"

"I'm sure, ". I grabbed the carrier bag with my second favourite lens in it before tucking my lap top bag behind the front seat. "No need to cause more drama tonight,". I smiled at him. Since we were here so early, I decided to snap a couple pictures of the team rest of the current game and the one right before Chase's while I was here. I didn't plan on selling any of them tonight so I didn't bother with the printer or my laptop.

I made my way into the arena with fifteen minutes left in the game, opting for a seat in the middle of the stands to hopefully get some breakaway shots. I lasted for the rest of the first game, and half of the second before I travelled upstairs to the concession stand to grab a snack and warm up. I sat in the few available seats near the window with my camera resting firmly in my lap. While I carefully tried not to drop any crumb from my pretzel on it. A group of girls chatting loudly sat down in the seats towards the other end.

"I hear Will is going to be out for Chase tonight,".

"That would be interesting. I bet Will could take him,".

"Chase? No way. He might be a goon, but he's smart about it. He never swings first but he's always last,".

"Yeah, seems like he's last to the table, too. Guess he likes leftovers,".

I tried to keep the heat from rushing to my face, it was a first response when I got angry. I stared pointedly towards the ice, trying not to draw attention to my presence. The girls giggled

"Speaking of left overs, she's right there,". That voice I recognized.

I smiled sweetly, turning to the girls while contemplating how many times I could punch her before they kicked me out. Robin was the only one I recognized, with that nasty 'I'm the alpha woman' smile on her face.

"What, did you bring a mirror with you?" she jumped, looking at me guiltily. "Yeah, you've never been great at whispering. Or being quiet about anything in general,".

The girls looked at me like I was some kind of roadkill, which apparently gave Robin back her confidence. "Why be quiet? Chase seems to like leftovers, just an observation,"

I laughed. "Maybe you should observe the fact that Not only did you go pining after my leftovers, but you also fed him Callum's," I stood, acting braver than I felt, and shot her one last dirty look. "Speaking of which, how did I taste Robin?"

Her jaw dropped, face turning bright red while the girls around her just stared. I turned around and called over my shoulder "While I'm at it I should point out that unlike yourself, I don't have to fuck every man I shake hands with,".

With a wide grin on my face, I made my way back down the stairs to the ice. The players were just exiting the ice, so I held the door open for the people leaving before making my way down to the far corner of the ice. They were the home team so I sat on the same side as their bench for now, but in the corner, knowing a lot of the game would be played there, and so I could get some good shots of their goalie.

Soon, they were done flooding the ice and people were filing into the stands. The doors opened and both teams hit the ice. As they skated their half ice lap. Chase shot me a grin and a wink when he passed, turning his head to say something to the guy behind him who lifted his hand in a wave. So, he told them about me. I smiled and sat patiently while they finished their warm up, shook hands, and set themselves up for the first faceoff. Luckily, Will wasn't first line tonight. Maybe I did ruin his goal streak. The thought made me smile. Especially since Chase was first line, and so was Wyatt.

The wolves won the face off, but were cut down just past the blue line with an intercepted pass that had the raven's forward rocketing toward our goalie. I raised my camera, hoping that he made the save, which he did and I got the shot. The defensemen Chased the puck into the corner, quickly followed by a Raven. I snapped a few photos of them battling for the puck before it was shot out. Chase picked up the puck and caught a breakaway down the ice. In seconds the ref blew the whistling and signaling a goal. I got a zoom shot of him receiving a fist bump from number 19.

It was a good first period, minus the cheap shots Will was throwing. Unsurprisingly the talk about him 'having it out for Chase' was not well followed. He was playing cheap. Tripping, slashing, the odd check that was just a little too high. Not even a charging attempt. He was acting like a disgruntled child. Chase took in in stride, not bothering with a reaction, which seemed to piss him off even more. When the buzzer went, I stepped a few seats further from the corner to get a better view of the goals the wolves were hopefully going to score as well as some open ice shots.

The Ravens goalie replaced ours at this end and the whistle went once more. We won the faceoff again, Chase receiving a pass and launching it across the Ice to the other forward who picked it up easily. He made his way to the net, wound up and took a beautiful shot, flying just over the shoulder and into the net. I got a few good shots there, keeping the camera up as they started the faceoff and wound up back on this end of the ice.

Will, apparently still having a tantrum had branched outward in his attacks growing more violent. He'd gotten a defenseman with a nasty cross check, and another with a headshot. He was also currently charging towards number 19, who fired a far shot at the net. It bounced off the blocker, he shot again, fumbled it and it turned into a scramble. The goalie had it covered, whistle blown when Will came charging in. He was half way there when the whistle blew but he didn't stop.

Chase took a step forward, yelling. 19 turned around and in a split second, threw himself at Will in what was one of the hardest hits I'd ever seen from up close. Will flew back and landed flat on his back. It was going to be a glorious photo. I set the camera down, grinning. Chase put his arm on the guy's shoulder, and gestured at me. I waved my camera, and saw them both shake their heads, laughing.

Will on the other hand rose slowly and skated back to the bench, not even registering that I was here, taking photos of his childish behavior. I snapped as many good shots as I could until the last ten minutes, which I enjoyed just watching. By the end of the game, the wolves won 5-2. While they exited the ice, I made my way through the arena and out to Chase's truck, regretting not taking the keys before he went into the dressing room.

I leaned up against the tailgate, out of view of the arena and reviewed tonight's photos. Apparently, Chase didn't have a good side. All of his pictures turned out great, and would only look better once I got them edited.