Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“Come on. Our sponsors have been with us forever. They’re not going to jump ship because the women’s team is performing well,” Colm replied. “You’re being insecure.”
I laughed and moved closer to him, invading his space.
“Insecure? You got buddy buddy with the enemy! The person who has made this season a living hell!” I snapped at him.
Jed placed his hand on my shoulder, shooting me a warning look.
“Calm down, Hugo,” he said.
“I don’t think traitors should have a say,” Anthony bit out as he glared at Jed and Colm.
Colm rolled his eyes at Anthony.
“Traitors? Seriously? Are you a child?” he asked, making Anthony storm over to get in his face.
“What did you say?” Anthony demanded.
Colm pushed Anthony back.
“This is ridiculous! Why do we keep fighting over shit like this?” he snapped. “We’re a damn good team. We can hold our own, and we’ve had support forever. This is the first time in a while that their team has been put in the spotlight, and they deserve it!”
I glared at him, wishing that he would stop taking up for the women’s team. We were all supposed to be in this together, defending our team and making sure no one tore us down or slowed us down. I got that he liked Leah. I believed all of us did in some fashion, but she was still a threat.
“If we get overshadowed by them all the time, our team will suffer. When we lose attention, we lose support and funding that we can’t afford to lose,” I told Colm. “She literally tried to call a truce just so she could weasel money out of us. She only cares about herself!”
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Colm replied.
“Regardless, they need to fund themselves,” Mikael said. “We can’t be expected to foot the travel bill when we have our own things to put the money toward.”
“It’s not like we’re going on an international trip. We have the funding to spare,” Jed told us.
“It’s not for us to give away!” I snapped, knowing how my father would react if he knew that some of his money was going to the women’s team. That would be a whole argument that I didn’t want to get swept up in. The moment he doubted us was the moment he would pull all of his money out.
“Whatever,” Colm scoffed as he finished putting on his gear. “You know, if the situation was reversed, I bet they would’ve given us the funding. Their team isn’t made up of a bunch of dicks.”
My jaw nearly dropped as he headed out of the locker room with Jed, leaving me there with the others to process his words. I wasn’t even sure if he was right, but I supposed if anyone was going to lend money to someone else, it would be Leah and her team. It wasn’t like me and the other guys were budging.
“Forget them. The girls can figure something out on their own. They’re adults,” Anthony muttered before walking out of the locker room with Mikael and Stephen for a tense practice.
I sighed and put on my pads slowly, not even feeling like getting out on the ice. That was an incredibly rare feeling for me because the place where I felt the most at home was on the ice. Now, I just wanted to avoid it because it reminded me of Leah and of the conflict that loomed over my head.
Especially because of my father, I knew that I couldn’t give Leah and her team any funding. But if that wasn’t a factor, was denying them the money the right choice? They were adults and could work to make the money themselves, but sometimes people needed help. Sometimes they deserved help.
There was a possibility that Leah actually wanted to call a truce. That it wasn’t all about the funding. I supposed I stormed off before she had a chance to really defend herself and explain, but I had been so angry at that moment, thinking that she was trying to use me.
If that wasn’t the case, guilt seeped into my stomach, fueling my doubt about my decisions. I didn’t know what the right thing to do was because I wanted to put my team first, but Colm was right about the women’s team deserving their placement in the tournament. I just wished that it was us getting to travel to play internationally.
I endured a long, hard practice. Besides doing usual game talk, none of us really spoke to each other. All of us were deep in our thoughts, thinking about the situation we faced. We all had differing opinions and reasonings, and I didn’t know who or what was right in the end.
It just came down to my gut feeling, and it was racked with guilt at this point.
After practice, I went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, hoping to distract myself from the turmoil in my head. Not that I had much of an appetite, but I had to maintain my physique. I couldn’t skip meals or let myself rot away because I was too stuck in my mind.