Breaking The Ice

No One Does

TJ's POV

I clenched my teeth in frustration as I watched Louis turn over the puck in the other zone, taking off after the other player to try to get it back. He'd been having a rough game, and I knew he was becoming more angry with himself with every mistake he made. He was all in his head, and as much as I hated to see it, we were gonna lose the game if he didn't get his shit together.

With only one minute left in the third, I knew we'd be heading into sudden death overtime, and a possible shootout if we didn't get it done. We were still leading in the standings, but UMass was right behind us and we couldn't afford to miss out on the points we needed to stay on top.

I sighed as we headed off the ice, taking a seat between Louis and Harry on the bench as we watched the next line head out and tried to catch our breath.

"Sorry guys, I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me tonight." Lou said angrily as he threw his stick across the bench.

"Don't worry about it, bro. We all have our days. You'll pick it up in overtime." Harry reassured him, tapping his stick against his shin and shooting him a small smile as Lou nodded.

Harry's eyes shifted to me for a second, making a rare moment of eye contact, before he looked down at the stick in his hand and cleared his throat.

I wasn't surprised, he hadn't spoken a word to me in almost two weeks. I suppose I'd grown used to it in some ways, and I'd gone through almost every emotion possible regarding it. I'd been sad and upset that he seemed mad at me and I didn't know why, then I was annoyed he wouldn't just come out and say it, and now I was firmly settled in anger and didn't really care if he never spoke to me again.

But of course, being the complete idiot I was, I felt guilty about it sometimes. Following what seemed to be the pattern of my life, I felt guilty for being mad at him because I knew that deep down it probably had nothing to do with me. He was so obviously battling something, and as much as I hated the way he was treating me, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. For whatever reason, he was taking it out on me, and all I could do was hope that it was giving him some kind of relief.

We went through overtime without scoring, Louis continuing to beat himself up even though he didn't make any errors, and I knew he needed to get his confidence back or it would snowball into the next game. I kept feeding him the puck instead of taking shots, hoping if he'd score the winning goal he'd redeem himself and feel better, but their defense was all over us and we couldn't get it done.

Coach called us over to the bench and nobody was surprised when he chose Harry, Louis and I to do the shootout, Louis up first.

I was praying he'd make the shot so he didn't add it to the pile of shit on his shoulders, and I was happy to see him take a deep breath and look confident as he prepared. He skated back around, taking the puck and stickhandling carefully as he sped toward the goalie, flicking the puck up and scoring in the top left corner as the crowd erupted.

I could see the relief on his face as he approached the bench and I prepared to go out, just as the other team scored on their first shot. I made my way off the bench, taking my place at the blueline as I looked at the goalie, then back over at Louis. I took a deep breath as I skated forward slowly, lazily stickhandling before I shot the puck and the ping echoed through the building as it hit the post.

I skated back to the bench, taking my seat as everyone patted me on the shoulder and told me not to worry about it, but I didn't miss the way Harry glared at me as he prepared for his turn.

"Don't sweat it, Teej." Rex said as he tapped his stick against my leg. "Styles will wrap it up."

The other player missed, leaving the score 1-1 so if Harry scored we would win the game. I had no doubt he would, so I wasn't surprised when he skated out and took his shot, scoring right between the goalies legs as the crowed cheered and we won the game.