Drama...drama....drama
Title: You Are My Signal Fire (Part 35)
Characters: Andrew Raycroft / Ian White, appearances by Justin Pogge, Vesa Toskala and Dustin Boyd (random...maybe...)
Word Count: 1828
Rating: PG-13ish, swearing
Setting: Toronto, Ontario (Andy's POV), Steinbach, Manitoba (Ian's POV)
Disclaimer: I don’t own these players, nor do I know their sexual preferences. The whole thing is a work of my imagination. The title is part of the lyrics from snow patrol’s song ‘Signal Fire’.
***This chapter dedicated to
bhavna_grint and her love for drama, like me :P
Andy’s POV
Practice was going well enough and I was doing my thing, making the stops I needed to and improving in the ways the trainers told me to. They seemed pleased with my progress, but they have been cutting me a bit of slack due to my sore hand. Scotty and Justin were down at the other end, the veteran giving our bright future star some important tips on his game. He would be a decent mentor for Pogge, I had no doubt of that and they seemed to get along really well.
From my perspective, I was itching to just hit someone. Everytime that stupid smirk crossed Vesa’s face I just wanted to wipe it off of him. He infuriated me to the point where I wanted to mess up that pretty face of his. I sat fuming on the bench as the trainers did some last minute work with him, laughing at some joke I couldn’t hear. He grinned and looked over at me waving arrogantly. Cocky mother fucker, I’m gonna…no! No fighting. That’s not going to help your situation except make you look immature, and that’s clearly not what they’re looking for.
I gripped my stick so tightly over my knee that I actually snapped it, throwing it aside I got up and went to go take a shower and cool down in the locker room. I couldn’t watch this anymore. I threw my helmet in the near vicinity of my bag and quickly stripped out of my equipment planning on getting in and out of the shower before the others came in.
The water felt nice against my tight, tired muscles and I longed for one of Ian’s massages. He knew just how to work the knots out of my shoulders, knew the places where I held my stress and knew just how to make me relax. Right now though, all I could feel were those tight bundles of nerves. A pain shot through my hand as I accidentally bumped it against the tiled wall and I swore loudly, losing my patience and throwing the soap across the shower. Vesa ducked just in time as the soap went flying by his head and out the door into the locker room. His reflexes were pretty fast….what an asshole. He raised an eyebrow at me and smiled as though he were amused at my frustrations.
“Smug son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath, scooping my shampoo bottle up off the floor and squirting some into my hand.
“What was that?” he asked softly, I looked over to find him using the shower right beside mine. Was that necessary? Didn’t he understand that I wanted my space? That I didn’t like him? What the fuck?
“Nothing.” I grumbled, scratching my scalp almost violently in my attempt to soap up my hair quickly and get the fuck out of there.
He grinned over at me, “Whatever you say. Or don’t admit to saying”
That’s it. “Alright listen up you cocky little-“ I turned to yell at him and he immediately took the opportunity to jump on me, crushing his lips against mine desperately. I pushed him off immediately, wiping shampoo out of my eyes and my mouth was wide in shock.
“What the fuck man?!”
“What?” he asked innocently, “You’re a good looking guy. I’m a good looking guy. Word is you’re a pretty good lay, so how about you welcome me to the team?” He moved in again and I punched him in the face, knocking him on his ass.
“It doesn’t work like that! Fuck!” I glared down at him, “I’m with someone and not only that…I wouldn’t cheat on him with the likes of you! Rolling in here and trying to replace me like it’s nothing.”
Slightly dishelved I stormed out of the shower, almost knocking Justin over as the door flung open. Quickly dressing, hair still slightly soapy I whipped out my cell phone and pushed a button on my speed dial.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ian’s POV
“That was awesome. Give my regards to your mom.” Dustin said sleepily, patting his stomach.
“Yeah she’s pretty great.” I stretched, muscles tightening up after sitting for so long. “So what are you up to today anyways?”
“Nothing. I have no plans. Coming back home is always kind of weird. My friends all have “real jobs” now and don’t have time for me.”
I laughed, “Yeah me too. Can’t be bothered with us kids playing games all the time.”
He nodded, but looked kind of sad, so I threw a suggestion out there, “Wanna watch a movie or something?”
“Yeah that sounds great!” he smiled, perking up immediately. “You can pick.”
“No, you pick! And I’ll go make some popcorn.”
Popcorn made, I tossed the bowl in the middle of the table and sat on the couch beside him so that we could share, handing him a bottle of beer. I looked up and I could see that he’d chosen ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Typical. My dad was a huge war movie fiend and had everything from Platoon to the entire Band of Brothers series on DVD.
As the movie progressed we both got a little sleepy, relaxing further and further into the couch until I noticed that he was leaning against me, his head lightly resting on my shoulder. I ventured a glance down at his face, his eyes wide awake…he wasn’t tired at all. Um…okay. His eyes flicked up and held my gaze for the tiniest of moments before I looked away. He sat up and cleared his throat and I clasped my hands together in my lap feeling somehow awkward now. What the hell is that about?
I glanced over at him again and he was doing he same, when our eyes made contact he looked away again. This is juvenile. I should just tell him I have a boyfriend. Unless I’m totally misreading this in which case I could totally creep him out. Why can’t things ever just be black and white? I hate these gray areas!
As if to answer my question I felt his hand on my knee, gently at first and then moving more insistently up my leg. I turned to tell him to stop, but his face was already right up close to mine mere inches away. My loss of words was all he needed and he leaned in, kissing me softly on the lips as his hand squeezed my inner thigh. I gave in for a moment, savouring his light touch as he leaned in a little closer, momentarily forgetting myself.
A door creaked open and I snapped back to reality pushing Dustin away from me, but too late the damage was done. My father stood in the doorway, dropping the firewood he was holding onto the floor with a loud crash. I jumped up off the sofa, “Wait dad! It’s not what it looks like…”
“But you have a girlfriend!” he spluttered, completely disbelieving that his only son was kissing another boy on the living room couch.
“Actually….” I started but just then my cell phone went off and looking down at the display I saw that it was Andrew. I pushed send and held the phone up to my ear, “Can I call you back this is a bad t-…what’s wrong?” He sounded really upset, but was talking too quickly for me to fully get what he was saying.
“Will someone explain to me what the fuck is going on?!” My dad yelled suddenly.
“Vesa’s such an asshole…”
“What were you doing just now?”
“He tried to kiss me Ian! …actually he did kiss me!”
“Get off the phone right now and explain it to me!”
“Aren’t you listening to me?!”
“STOP!” I yelled at both Andrew on the phone and my dad, Dustin sitting nervously on the couch looked slightly sick. “Hold on for one second!” I said into the receiver, pushing the phone against my chest so he wouldn’t hear. Enough is enough, “You want to know what we were doing dad? We were kissing! Why? Cause I’m gay! There I said it! That and I’m an asshole because I have a boyfriend, whose name is Andrew! Not Andrea dad….Andrew! As in our goaltender Andrew! I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but I knew you’d react like this and I just couldn’t tell you.”
He looked at a complete loss of words and I sighed angrily turning away from both of them and turning back to my conversation with Andrew, “He did what?” It came out angrier then I had intended, but I was just pissed about everything that had just happened in the last 5 minutes.
“He kissed me! I need to see you, I don’t know what I’m doing. My next practice is like 5 days away. Can I come out and see you? I’ll stay at a hotel or something, your parents won’t even know I’m there, I just have to talk to you. I miss you so much.”
I sighed, but it was softer this time, “Of course you can. And you don’t have to stay at a hotel. They know…just now.”
“Oh. Sorry…how did it go?”
“I’m not sure just yet.” I turned around to see my dad, sinking into a chair and staring at the wall across from him, clearly still in shock. “Call me when you get to the airport and tell me what flight you’re going to be on and I’ll come pick you up okay? Love you, bye.”
Dustin got up looking slightly dejected, “I think I’m going to go…there’s a bus stop just down the way. Er…thanks for the lunch.”
As he slipped out the door I sat down beside my dad, “So…you’re not going to disown me or anything are you?” I laughed nervously, trying desperately to make light of the situation.
He looked up at me, but then looked away quickly staring at the floor instead. I felt my heart sink a little at the reaction, but then he spoke. “No, of course not. I just…I don’t know what to say right now…it’s just…you never seemed like…”
“Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you need to dress up in tight jeans, talk with a lisp and be able to decorate in pastels dad.”
He managed a grin, “I guess not. So that was Andrew on the phone?”
I nodded, “Yeah. He’s coming. He’s having some problems and really needs to talk to me about it. Can he stay here? It would really mean a lot to me if he could. He can sleep in the guest room if you guys would feel more comfortable.”
“It’ll be okay…” He nodded, looking at the ground, “It’ll be okay.”
I threw an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a one armed hug, like the one he had given me at the airport, “Thanks dad. And yeah, it will be okay.”