Chapter Four
Come Sunday night, Brooks Allen Arena was decked out with people in varying degrees of green and white with occasional clusters of the opposing orange. There was not an empty seat in the house.
Or so they had been told.
Dino and Jacob hadn’t yet had the luxury of seeing the record turnout for themselves. The second they had pulled into the parking lot, they had been pounced on by sign-toting homophobic protestors. They’d circled the two of them viciously, spitting at them and telling Dino that he was going to hell.
It had taken nearly two-thirds of team security just to shoo them away long enough to get Jacob and Dino safely inside.
Rockaway didn’t say anything about the protestors or the crowd as they passed, but his bald head was drenched in sweat as he paced the halls with his clipboard in hand.
Including this game, there were only three games left of the Dells’ regular season, and they had to win all three of them to earn a wildcard spot in the playoffs, a feat they had never once accomplished.
It was also Dino’s first game, and for the first time, he actually seemed nervous. He was sticking to Jacob’s side like a lost puppy. Everyone else was too caught up in soccer and other pregame rituals to care.
Puck drop was in ten minutes and Dino still had to do his solo skate. It was supposed to be a fun thing, a congratulation for making it into the league, but Jacob had not been in front of a crowd as full as this one.
He really just hoped people didn’t boo.
Just as the announcer was heading up to the booth, Jacob pulled Dino aside for some important last minute advice.
“Just play a nice clean game, okay? No tricks. No sin bin. If you get the puck, pass it as quickly as you can. Keep your head down and everything will be fine.”
He couldn’t tell from behind his helmet, but Jacob thought Dino’s expression was one of confusion.
But the D-man didn’t get time to voice his concerns as his name was already being called.
Feeling an unexpected pang in his gut, Jacob watched Dino skate out onto the ice for the first time.
Despite his nerves, he looked steady on his feet as he took two laps to rigorous applause and quite a few jeers before coming to a stop right at the blue line he would be defending. The announcers called each of the other starters one by one and they all took their places next to Dino.
Jacob was the last. He held his breath and tucked his head low during the national anthem.
He felt the familiar cool and eerie calm settle over him as he shook the opposing captain’s hand and won the puck drop.
Dino’s presence was felt the second he went out for his first shift.
Almost instantly Jacob found it easier to get the puck on the end of his stick. There wasn’t anybody breathing down his neck, just a clear path up the ice. He started toward goal until the opposing blue liners started catching up to him. Then, he swerved left and passed to Rocky, who dropped it for Salad who backhanded it into the net. The red lights flashed and the horn sounded. The men on the ice skated by and fist-bumped everyone on the bench.
The celebration didn’t last long though.
They might have been first on the board, but Dallas came back with a vengeance. The Dells went to first intermission down by two.
Dino sat next to Jacob in the locker room while Rockaway yelled at them. The kid was sulking. Every muscle in his body was wound tight like a bomb waiting to go off.
“We ain’t never had this many people in here before and we might not ever again,” Rockaway was saying. “Give the people something to come back for, goddamnit.”
He went on in this fashion right up until they had to go back on the ice.
Dino had a shift before Jacob did. Jacob squeezed his shoulder on the way out. A silent reminder not to do anything stupid. Dino shrugged him off and got into position for the faceoff.
Period two began and almost immediately went downhill.
One of the Dallas guys, a rookie named Bykowski, got hold of the puck and somehow made it all the way over to Pulks’ crease. Dino, Joey, and Mikey managed to catch up and ruin his chances of a clear shot, but instead of pulling back or retreating behind the net, Bykowski elected to crash right into Pulks at top speed. The goaltender and the net both went flying back and the whistle was called. The Dells huddled around Pulks, waiting for the goal to be reset and the linesman to call goaltender interference, but after a few seconds had passed it did not seem like the latter was going to happen.
Dino took matters into his own hands. He skated over and rammed Bykowski from behind. Bykowski turned around slowly and pushed Dino right back. It didn’t take long before Dino had the smaller man locked in a chokehold while he punched the side of his face.
He got in a solid eight or nine hits before the refs finally tore them apart and sent them both to the box for a match penalty.
“Dinosaur! Dinosaur! Dinosaur!” the crowd chanted. They may have been divided about Dino earlier, but they were all about him now. He was the only one making this game exciting.
Dino continued playing recklessly after he got out of the box. He got called twice for tripping, once for slashing, and pretty soon a couple of the other guys followed suit. The Dells took a grand total of fifteen penalties in one game and miraculously managed to kill them all off with ease.
They ended up winning the game five to three with Dino racking up two assists. Jacob smiled for the cameras and managed to sit calmly through all of the post-game shenanigans, but inside he was seething.
Jacob was silent for the entire ride home.
He parked the car perfectly in his space and took every care to make each of his movements powerful and precise as he kept up his steady pace all the way up to the apartment.
He heard Dino close and lock the door behind him.
Jacob turned around with clenched fists.
“What was that?” he asked calmly.
Dino crossed his arms over his chest. “That was a hockey game. You ever seen one?”
Jacob took one small step forward. He would never hit Dino, but he liked thinking that he could. That he could just knock some sense into him and this whole ordeal would all be over.
Dino did not step back at the intrusion of space.
“What is your problem, man?” he asked. “We won the game. I helped us win the game. Everyone else is celebrating. You should be too.”
Jacob ran his hand over his eyes. What Dino had done was draw unnecessary attention to himself. Maybe if he played soft and stayed out of trouble, the rest of the league would move on, but Jacob doubted that any of the other heavy hitters would take kindly to their stats being challenged by a “faggot.”
“You’re being stupid,” Jacob said finally. “Reckless. And I won’t stand for it.”
Dino threw his hands in the air. “What do you expect me to do? I’m a defenseman. I’m here to take hits and give hits. Sure I got a few more penalties than I would’ve liked, but they were necessary. I wasn’t going after guys for no reason. I was killing their scoring opportunities and building up morale. You know, my job.”
Jacob was having none of it.
“Play like that again and I’ll have you slumming it in the minors for the rest of your career.”
Jacob, of course, had no such authority on the matter, but Dino didn’t need to know that.
Jacob glared for an extra few seconds to make sure Dino got the message before storming off to bed.