7. Finishing Last

Ma Belle Evangeline - Disney

“You look… wow. Who knew a girl wearing a baggy jersey could look so hot?” Alex quipped as Evan came towards him down the long corridor.

She giggled in response, allowing him to drape his arm around her as he brought her down the Penguins hallway. “I think it’s just cause I’m wearing your jersey… I could change into a Flyer one and see if you still think so?”

“Yuck, orange! Orange should only be worn by men with garbage bags on the side of the road, and violent-offender convicts.”

“Hey! My fiancé wears orange!” She laughed, feigning hurt.

Alex nodded, smiling slightly. “My point exactly.”

“Gogo! Is that Evan? Holy shit she’s wearing a Goligoski jersey… I didn’t even think they made those.” Jordan laughed, causing Alex to sigh and turn around.
Jordan, Max and Billy were walking towards them; Alex instinctively tried to pull Evan behind him, but she refused.

“I’m Evan… it’s nice to meet you, finally.” She didn’t wait for an introduction from Alex; she already knew who they all were.
She shook hands with Jordan and Max, then Billy. The latter of whom grabbed her hand and pulled it towards his face, kissing it gently.

“Enchanté.” Billy grinned, releasing her hand while the boys all rolled their eyes.

“Alright, we’ll just keep going…” Alex said finally, grabbing onto Evan’s un-cootied hand and trying to pull her away.

Unfortunately, the guys had nothing better to do, so they followed after them. Alex gave up trying to lose them, slowing down to a comfortable pace and trying to keep them from saying anything embarrassing. “So, you’re watching the game tonight? If I was playing, I‘d score you a goal. I’m the game seven winner you know… I can get it in any hole you-”

“OK! Thanks guys… see you later!” Alex half-yelled, trying to still appear as calm as possible as he cut Max off.

“Oh no worries, we don’t have anything else to do for a bit.” Jordan smiled, waving away Alex’s concern as he came up and grabbed onto Evan’s free arm. “Excited to see us rape some Flyers?”

“Ugh…” Alex stared to say, trying to find away to change the conversation.

“Yah… we’re gonna mop the floor with them! What a bunch of pussies!” Billy added, causing Evan to giggle.

She knew that the guys had no idea who she was dating; of course, Alex had told her different reasons for his secrecy. Evan believed that he didn’t want to cause some kind of deeper animosity between the teams; really, he just didn’t want his team-mates to mock him. “Ugh, I know! I hate the Flyers!” Evan laughed, egging the guys on. “Especially that Carter… what a jerk!”

“Is he ever! Him, Gagne and Hartnell… we should take em all down tonight!” Jordan roared, throwing his hands over his head as he dashed off towards the locker room, followed closely by the other two guys.
Alex sighed, glad they were finally distracted.

“Make sure you hit him once for me, Jordan!” Evan called sweetly from beside Alex, causing him to laugh.

“You realize that they’re going to be on a man hunt now, right?” Alex grinned, not at all minding the idea of Carter getting flattened.

Evan nodded, grabbing onto Alex and resuming their walk towards the family room. “I know but, what can you do?”

Smiling, Alex pulled the door open for Evan, letting her walk in ahead of him. The room was empty; the wives and girlfriends of the Pens were usually always late, everyone else was in their seats.
“Hmm… I guess they’re still not here. Want to just go up to the seats?” Evan nodded and Alex opened the door again. “Alrighty, you know where you’re going, right? I have to go get changed.”

Evan hugged him goodbye and headed towards the friends and family section, taking an unoccupied seat on the end of a row. She sighed to herself as she waited for the guys to come out.


Alex all but ran to the locker-room, praying that he wasn’t that late. He didn’t want to get in trouble but, he also hated giving up any time he got to spend with Evan. “Man, no wonder you’ve been hiding her Gogo! She’s a fucking hottie!” Max growled as soon as he entered the room.

Sighing deeply, but not arguing, he made his way to his stall and quickly changed into his gear.
When he was done he stood up, trying to focus on the game, and less on the girl in the stands.

He followed everyone out onto the ice, thankful that none of the guys brought her up again; Sidney was busy keeping everyone focused on the challenge at hand. “Not in our house…” He was saying, making sure each guy was listening to him. “Stay calm, stay focused, stay together… we’re a better team then them… remember it. Don’t let Carcillo under your skin… boys, are you listening to me?”

Alex tried to look like he was following along with Sidney, but his eyes were already zooming in on Evangeline. She was sitting off by herself and she lifted her hand in greeting as their eyes met. Alex grinned back at her, nodding.

It took him back to old times, seeing her sitting up there in his jersey; of course, those games were usually always followed by more intimate moments. Moments that he couldn’t afford to think about right now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maybe I Will - Julia Nunes

The third period was underway, and things were starting to get messy, for everyone involved.
Alex had taken special care to stay away from Jeff, he didn’t want to start anything with him on ice; at the rate the other boys were going, anything was possible.
The penguins were winning four to three. Alex felt good about himself, having notched an assist and a goal so far; but that still didn’t compare to Jeff, who was already at one goal and two assists. Some guys just had all the luck.

At least, that’s what Alex was thinking as he headed back to the bench after the whistle went. He went through the door and sat next to Kris, who was already intently focused on the game.
They watched together in silence, for another thirty seconds before Tyler Kennedy slammed another puck into the back of the net. “Yes!” Alex shouted along with his team, happy to have the buffer goal, with only twelve minutes left in the game.

“Jesus, Alex…” Jeff laughed as he headed back towards the bench. “You’d think by that excitement, you actually did something useful.” He sneered, earning a few choice words from the boys around Alex.

Alex shook it off, trying not to show any emotion as he went back out for his shift. He stayed out with Kris, longer than usual, trying to fight Hartnell for the puck when it happened. “He fucking bit me!” Kris shouted as Alex skated up to get his teammate's back, he gave Jeff a shove, as Evan’s fiancé moved to take a cheap shot at the French defenseman. “He fucking bit me!”

Alex grabbed Kris and pulled him out of the fray, trying to use his body to get Hartnell away from him. “Who bit you?”

“Hartnell! What the fuck?! Who bites… he bit me like a little bitch…tu es un homme mort!” He shouted as Alex dragged him towards the bench.
Kris threw his glove down, holding a bloody finger up in front of their medic’s eyes.

“Holy shit!” He gasped, grabbing Kris’s hand. “Someone get the ref over here!”

Alex stayed on the ice, trying to give everyone the room they needed to figure out what was going on.
He felt something slap the back of his legs and he turned around, not surprised when he found Jeff skating past him. “You’re taking up room num-nuts, why don’t you give up the pretence and go watch the game with the rest of the chicks. Who are you trying to impress?”

“What the fuck is your problem Carter? You want me to come over there and shove your stick up your ass?” Rupp shot back, jumping up in Alex’s defence.

Dan yelled a warning at him. “Sit down Rupp… we don’t need any penalties from this!” Their coach grabbed onto him and shoved Rupper back down on the bench. “You too Cooke!”

“Yah, yah… in a minute… I’ve got some trash to take out!” Cooke replied, trying to pull his body over the boards.
Coach Dan jumped forwards and stopped him, as Jeff laughed, shaking his head.
Alex glanced up at the stands, realizing for the first time that Evan was staring at them; annoyance and worry on her face.

“Of course, should have figured… think you’re big time cause she’s got your jersey on? She’s still gonna be fucking me tonight.”

It seemed to Alex that everything stopped as soon as those words left Jeff’s mouth. Jeff skated off, satisfied that he had declared his dominance - a verbal ’marking his territory’, so to speak - not only to Alex, but in front of the entire team.
Jeff, of course, had no idea that the Penguins even knew who, or what he was referring to; but he was so angry at Evan for wearing Alex’s jersey, it didn’t matter.

Alex pulled his eyes away from Jeff and glanced around, everyone was looking at him; even coach Dan and a still bleeding, Kris. They all looked confused, each one of them staring at him with questions in their eyes. Sidney was the first to speak, as the linesman finally made his way over to the Penguin’s bench to discuss penalties. “What’s going on? Why’s he talking about Evangeline like that? Well… he’s a dick but… how does he even know she’s here?”

“Because he’s getting married to her this summer.” Alex said quietly, glancing back up at her to find that she was still focused, intently, on him.

“Woah, wait… like… Jeff? That’s the Jeff guy that stole your woman?” Jordan shouted, much too loudly for Alex’s liking.

He sighed, as he watched the linesman skate off. “She’s not my woman, she hasn’t been for a long time.”

As the game resumed, the issue got worse. The guys seem to feel it necessary to single Jeff out, try and take him down a few notches. However that plan backfired when he ended up scoring again.
The Pens still won, but Alex was feeling much too bitter, and personally defeated to enjoy the victory; the mood was subdued in the dressing room. “Why didn’t you just tell us?” Max asked finally, as the rest of the guys finished changing into their street clothing.

Alex shrugged, not looking up. He knew why, of course. He didn’t want to feel embarrassed or have them try to turn this into some kind of insane vendetta against the Flyers; like that fire needed anymore flame. “Does it really matter?” He finally asked at length. “She’s getting married to someone… it doesn’t matter if you know him or not.”

“Yah it does! Gogo… Carter’s a fucking asshole! We all know you’re still in love with her… and even if you weren’t… you guys are suppose to be best friends. You know how much of a douche he is, how can you let her marry him?” Max continued to press, more than a little annoyed that he was among the last to find out about this juicy gossip.

Alex sighed, annoyed. “I’m not letting her do anything.” He growled, “she’s an adult, she can do what she wants. I’m not gonna start trying to control her… I’m not gonna turn into him.” He shook his head, defiantly as he pulled his coat on. “I’m not gonna try and run her life like him…” He added more softly, more to himself than to anyone else.
He turned around to face his team-mates, silently pleading for any of them - one of them - to understand what he was trying to say.
He loved her enough to let her go, wasn’t that the most important thing?

Like the bible story Alex had heard as a child, in one of those hazy, Sunday school mornings with Evan.
Two mothers had fought over a child, both claiming him as their own. The king decided that he would cut the child in half, and each could have an equal part; after all, it was only fair.
But one mother said no, and let the child go; deciding it was better to hurt herself, than hurt him.
Through this act, the king saw that she must truly be the child’s mother; to love him so much she would give him up.

Alex liked to think he was noble and honourable like that. That given the choice between making himself happy, or causing pain onto Evan, he would take the highroad. Only in his situation, there was no king to make Evan see what should have been right in front of her… oh well, he supposed that was the price he had to pay for being a ‘nice guy‘.

Nice guys always finished last.