Chapter 22: Sawyer

After messing around taking some dirty pictures to send Bryn I decide the responsible thing to do is for me to head to the rink and work out. I’ve been lax about it thanks to all the sexy fun I’ve been having, but it’s time for me to crack down. Coach hasn’t been happy with my lack of enthusiasm in going the extra mile, so I need to show him I have my head in the game. He’s kept practices to twice a week while we get all of our schedules and meetings with advisors done, but starting Monday we will be having practice six days a week.

Yep, we get one day off to rest but most of the guys still head in for a three- or so-hour work out. Right now, I could blow off some steam. Bryn and I broke her rule and kissed yesterday. Usually something like that is a minor detail that I don’t think too much about. It gets things going but it isn’t much more than a step toward the final show. Even yesterday I didn’t think it would matter much but it felt different with Bryn. It started slowly and slowly grew until we were stumbling into my room trying to pull our clothes off as fast as possible.

Even when I had her naked beneath me, I took my time kissing her. She smelled so good that I couldn’t keep my mouth on just her lips. I needed to taste her everywhere and I did. She came twice…once on my face and the second time came quickly after. I smirk at the memories of her whimpering and gasping from each time he kissed a different part of her bare skin. A loud horn sound shakes me out of my thoughts, and I raise my hand in apology as an angry soccer mom drives past me.

I clear my head of all naked Bryn thoughts and focus on getting to the rink without causing an accident. Well, I try anyway because I can’t be walking into the work out room with a raging hard on in front of the guys. I would never hear the end of it. When I get to the rink, I see a few of the guys walking inside with their gym bags thrown over their shoulders. I grab mine from the back seat and climb out of my truck to catch up.

The rink is quiet but the closer I get to the work out room I hear a ton of voices. The guys are all laughing and talking over each other. All that stops the second I step into the room. I look around and narrow my eyes on each of the guys.

“What?” I snap at them.

“It’s nothing man just some dumb rumors.” One of the guys says as he passes me.

Rumors?

“What are you talking about?” I ask but he’s already holding his phone out to me.

It’s a picture of me and some girl in bed. She’s smiling and laying on my arm which I isn’t that weird but it’s the comment that must have everyone going off like a bunch of old ladies at brunch.

‘Bad Boy Hockey hunk scores a 1/10 in the sheets. Too bad the face doesn’t make up for what’s below.’

What the fuck?

I look through a couple of other photos she’s posted trying to make her face seem familiar, but I don’t know her. Yeah, I’ve had a few drunk hook-ups, but I’ve never gotten so drunk that I blacked out and forgot everything. So how did some chick get pictures like this and I don’t remember who she is?

“It’s okay man we all have our bad days.” One of the other guys says while the others laugh, but I can barely hear them.

This might seem like some dumb prank but I’m worried. Not only will this look bad during the draft on top of all the other negative news surrounding me already. That’s a small thing compared to the worry of forgetting an entire night with this random girl. I hand the phone back and walk over to my locker and dump my bag inside, pull my shirt off and slip my ear buds in.

I’m not in the mood to shoot the breeze with these assholes right now. I pick a machine and start lifting while my mind digs for an explanation. There is no denying that I made some bad decisions over the last few months before I was forced to move schools, but it was never that bad. I can’t figure out when and where this happened. The fact that the girl says I’m a bad lay with a small dick doesn’t bother me one bit since it’s not true. Bryn can attest to that.

Not that my girl would go around broadcasting it or anything.

I push myself through several reps of arm work and then move on. The guys are moving around the room but I ignore them all and they seem to get the idea that I want space. I’m not sure how long I’m in there working through several reps of different workouts that I normally wouldn’t bother with, but most of the guys are gone when I look up and notice Bryn standing in the doorway. Her arms are crossed, and she raises a brow at me. I smile and pull my ear buds out.

“Hey-“

“Don’t Hey me. What the heck are you doing?” She snaps at him.

“Uh, what do you mean?” I grab a towel and wipe some sweat away from my face.

“Thirty-five said you’ve been in here since ten! Are you crazy? You can’t push yourself this much right now!” She storms toward me, and I have a second there where I’m scared of her.

She might be a tiny thing, but she packs a sassy punch, and it can be a little scary. You would think that most of these guys and especially I tower over her that she would be a little more meek but that isn’t Bryn. She stops right in front of me and pocks her finger into my chest.

“You can’t push yourself like this anymore! Are you trying to get hurt again? God Sawyer do you even care about hockey anymore because this was a rookie move.” She shakes her head and blows out a long breath.

She’s steaming mad. “I didn’t realize how long it had been. I was thinking about something and lost track of time.”

“Yeah, I know all about it.” She says.

I freeze and watch her closely. “You do?”

She crosses her arms again and nods. “Yeah, apparently you are the worst guy that girl has ever been with. I have to say that she must also be a bad lay if you didn’t bother getting fully undressed first.”

I hadn’t bothered to look that closely, but I vaguely remember I still had my boxers on. So, I wasn’t fully naked then…

“Do you believe that shit?” I ask hoping she doesn’t detect my worry.

Not that I’m worried she doesn’t like my sex skills but about the fact a girl posted a picture like that for the whole world to see.

She laughs. Laughs! “Of course not! Sawyer you forget that I’ve been around the sports world just as long as you have. This kind of thing happens all the time especially in the Pros.”

The amount of relief I feel in that moment is intense. “Good because I swear, I don’t remember that girl at all. Or that party or wherever it was. It’s a blank.”

That has her giving me a confused look. “You don’t remember?”

I shake my head. “No. I’ve been here trying to remember but it’s a blank.”

“You don’t remember being at a party where this girl was?” She asks but not in an accusatory way.

“Nope. Which is weird since I don’t black out like some people do when they get drunk. I usually remember everything by at least the second day after when my hangover clears. I can’t figure this one out.”

Her forehead wrinkles in thought and she starts to pace. She does that when her thoughts are too big to contain in a seated position. That’s how she explained.

“Sawyer…this isn’t good.” She says still pacing.

“It’s not that bad. Hopefully it will blow over before it could affect anything important.” I’m not sure if that’s true but I don’t want her worrying about it.

“No. Sawyer I mean this is bad. We need to go to the school clinic now.” She grabs my hand and starts to pull me toward the door.

I’m able to grab my bag on the way to the door and I let her drag me over to her ugly car. She pushes me inside and takes off as soon as the rusted thing doesn’t sound like it’s choking any more. I need to convince her to get rid of this thing. It’s a safety hazard.

“So why are you dragging me to the clinic?” I ask.

“Because I think I know why you can’t remember, and I know when that party was.”