Friendship
Chapter 6: Playing With Fire
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Notes: From Charlie’s point of view.
Something
was wrong with the team. The whole First Line seemed to be at each other’s
throats, except from Fred and Adam. It was strange, because they were the ones
most likely to be pissed at each other.
So much did
Charlie understand, that Adam and Fred had talked things through and made up.
He did not know what was up with the rest of his players, though.
Cecilia
seemed to be mad at him, for some reason. Maybe because Adam had told her about
his argue with Charlie two days ago. Charlie was a bit annoyed with her too; he
didn’t think it was any of her business what he and Adam talked about when she
wasn’t around.
“Hey, what
the hell are you doing?” he yelled, grabbing Cecilia’s arm. She was pushing his
temper, by going against his line-ups. She was trying to be in two lines at the
same time, even if the result wasn’t too good.
“I’m trying
to play, Charlie,” she yelled back. “Let me go! Whoa!” She fell backwards into
the ice when he let go of her arm and pushed her away. The referee blew the
game off, and went over to Coach Bombay, who looked rather pissed.
“Charlie!”
Bombay shouted.
“Shit,
this can’t be good.”
Cecilia
smirked at him when she finally got back on her feet again. Charlie was about
to knock her over again, but decided he was in too much trouble already.
Adam gave
Charlie an evil stare when he went past him to get to Coach Bombay. Charlie
sighed. This was more like World War Three then a simple hockey-game. All
because he wanted to solve Fred’s problem.
“They’re
giving us a last warning, Charlie. If you pull a stunt like that again, we have
to forfeit the game. I don’t care what Cecilia did to deserve being pushed over
the board, but I don’t want my team captain to behave like that during a game,”
Bombay told him.
“But,”
Charlie objected. “She was...”
“You be the
bigger man in this, Charlie. Just because she behaves badly, doesn’t mean you
have to...”
Charlie
stopped listening to the rest of the speech. He had heard it several times
before, like every other normal kid with parents. Coach Bombay was wrong, if
she behaved badly, someone had to knock her down to earth again. Since she was
the assistant captain, who was better to knock her down, then the team captain?
“Another
thing,” Bombay continued. “If you have trouble with the others, don’t solve it
by pushing them around, okay? I mean ‘pushing’ as in both bossing them around
and hitting them.”
“I don’t
hit my team, I just hit Cecilia sometimes. Besides, she hits back too.”
Charlie was
pretty sure Bombay was talking about his and Adam’s fight. There wasn’t much
that went past Coach Bombay. And, Muck had probably told him about it too...
“Fine, I’ll
stop tormenting them, can I go now?” Charlie felt like his own mother was
giving him a lecture. Ironically, Coach Bombay and she were very similar when
it came to give speeches.
“Go,”
Bombay said tiredly. Charlie could understand him; no one in the First Line
ever seemed to listen when they were being yelled at. Especially not Cecilia or
him.
Charlie
pushed his way back to Cecilia, who was standing at the bench, trying to wipe
away some snow from her jersey.
“Got yelled
at, huh?” God, she was annoying, sometimes.
“Screw
you,” he replied. He was tired of arguing with her. He kind of missed the time
when she was to shy to speak up. What ever happened to that girl? Had Adam
killed her off completely?
Cecilia
chuckled when she sat down on the bench again. Why did they have to sit in
clusters with their lines? Charlie sighed. Right, it was his idea. Maybe he
could change it later.
Fred leaned
up against Cecilia and whispered something to her. Cecilia nodded and laughed.
She laughed even more when Adam mumbled something from his place beside her.
Charlie could, without trying very hard, figure out that Fred’s comment somehow
was about him.
Between the
second and third period he managed to pull Cecilia away from the others. She
tried to push him off, but he was way stronger then she was.
It was very
surprising that she was a hockey-player sometimes, since she seemed to be
neither big nor strong enough for a contact sport like hockey. She wasn’t nearly
as strong as Charlie was, but she was definitely stronger then any other normal
girl. Even stronger than Connie, and Connie was very strong. It was just her
dilute body that threw some people off.
Charlie
wrenched her arm around and she whined. Maybe Coach Bombay was right? He should
stop hurting his players. He better start as fast as possible. After he was
done with Cecilia, that was.
“Look,
Cecilia,” he began. “I know you’re pissed at me. Could you please tell me why?”
“Look,
Charlie,” she mocked him. “I can be pissed at you at any time I want. And I
won’t tell you why, because you already know why!”
God, she
could behave like such a girl sometimes.
“Stop with
your baby-behavior. It’s the whole Adam-thing, isn’t it? I was trying to talk to
him, I wasn’t trying to be mean or anything like that.”
“Well,
leave him alone, then. You don’t have to watch him like he’s a baby.”
“You don’t
either! Just because I told him the truth, you have to attack me? You’re the
baby here. Adam can take care of himself, without you looking after him. I was
just trying to help Fred.”
“Fred
doesn’t need your help,” she growled.
“So, now
you’re telling me what Fred needs too? You’re very bossy sometimes. I was just
saying that you and Adam spend a lot of time together. That’s all.”
“Like it’s
any of your business, Charlie!” she yelled. Great, now he’d pissed her off too.
This was just going great...
“You’re
just jealous because Adam hangs out with me, instead of you. Leave me alone,”
Cecilia continued. She pulled herself away and was almost about to fall over
once more, but didn’t.
Charlie
tried to grab her again, so he could try to talk to her. He knew that he
wouldn’t be able to calm the conversation down. It was more a fight than
anything else by now.
“Don’t
touch me,” she screamed loudly. If Coach Bombay overheard them now, they’d be
spending the rest of the game in the locker-room.
“Calm
down,” he muttered. “Could you just listen to me?” Somehow he already knew that
it was not going to happen.
“Leave me
alone, Charlie,” she repeated with a lower voice. “I won’t go against your
rules anymore, so you can cut that ‘team-captain’ routine out.”
Charlie
felt like strangle her. Before that last Saturday, they had been getting along
just fine, but now? He had to restrain himself, so he wouldn’t beat her up or
something. That wouldn’t be so smart, since she was pretty good at fighting
back.
“Bitch,” he
mumbled. Too bad that Cecilia overheard him.
“What?
You’re calling me a bitch? You’re out of your mind, Charlie. There’s something
seriously wrong with you,” she hissed. “You can have your own little
dictatorship here in this little world of yours, but I won’t be a part of it
anymore, until you apologize to me.”
It could’ve
been so easy to just apologize. To say how sorry he was, but somehow, he
didn’t. Maybe he was too mad at her, or too regretful, but he just glared at
her with an evil stare.
“Good luck
with the team, you asshole.” Cecilia tore off her ‘A’ and placed it at his
jersey. Then she turned around and ran towards the locker-room.
“Cecilia,
what the hell are you doing?” he yelled after her. Why was he so upset?
“I’m
leaving the team to you, control-freak. Have fun trying to run it without me.”
Cecilia ran
into the rest of the team, who was leaving the locker-room to get out on the
ice again. Charlie wasn’t sure he should let her leave like that.
“Cecilia,”
he began. “I don’t...”
“I don’t
give a shit about what you ‘don’t’,” she shouted at him and threw her helmet at
him. It nearly hit him in the head, but he managed to duck before it hit. Now
he was too mad to apologize.
“Fine,
leave, I don’t need you bitching around at me anyway. I was fine running the
team without you before, I’ll be just fine now too.”
He tried to
rip the ‘A’ from his jersey, but it was stuck. He couldn’t walk around with the
word ‘AC’ on the ice. He tripped over Cecilia’s helmet and fell into the wall.
“Shit,” he
mumbled. With a last try, he managed to get the ‘A’ off. Those sticky-things
just weren’t made for any rough turns, because it ripped into two.
“Charlie,
what was all that about?” Next in line to yell at him was Connie. If she found
out what he and Cecilia just had been fighting about, she’d be mad.
“Nothing,” he
replied. “Just get out on the ice, Con.”
Connie
pulled his arm. “You didn’t fight with each other, did you?”
“So what?”
“Did you
hit her?” Connie sounded like he had killed Cecilia off.
“No, I
didn’t. Unlike her, I’m not a violent idiot.” Okay, that was the way wrong
answer; he already knew it before he had said it.
“Neither is
she,” Connie pointed out. “You can’t turn on someone twice your size, Charlie.”
“Well, if
you don’t stop bugging me, I have to knock you off too. Leave, Moreau.”
Connie went
over to Guy, probably to tell him about the recent event. Great, now Guy had a
reason to be mad at him too.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Notes: From Cecilia’s point of view.
Cecilia
kicked her shoes off, and accidentally knocked down the lamp on her desk. She
had changed from her hockey-gear and went straight to her room after her fight
with Charlie.
She
regretted that she’d thrown her ‘A’ away just like that. If it was something
she appreciated more then anything in this world, it was that stupid letter on
her jersey.
She wasn’t
sure what she and Charlie had been arguing about. He had ticked her off by
pulling her arm, that must’ve been it. She wasn’t sure why just that had been
the final straw; Charlie always dragged her around like that.
Now she was
depressed. She felt like crying, but even if Charlie wasn’t it the room, she
wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He had gotten to her, but she would never
admit it. Never.
She was crawled
up under a blanket on the bed, when there was a knock on the door. She wasn’t
done being depressed, so hopefully it wasn’t Charlie.
It wasn’t.
“Cee, are
you there?” It was Guy, surprisingly enough. He wasn’t the first person she had
thought would try to comfort her. He was number seven, somewhere after Fred,
Adam, Charlie, Connie, Scott and Travis.
“No,” she
answered. “Waddya want?”
“Talk. Open
up, before the others get here.”
Cecilia
took a deep breath. “It’s open, Guy.”
Guy opened
the door and the light from the hallway made her whine.
“I see
you’re taking this lightly,” Guy smiled. “Look, don’t be sad.”
“I’m not,”
she snored. “I’m just trying to think.”
Guy laughed
and closed the door. “Congrats, Cee. About time.”
“That
wasn’t funny, Guy. I already made that joke at science this week.”
“I know, I
was your victim. Get up from there, and stop moping around. Connie told me what
happened.”
Cecilia sat
up and reached for the tissues. Okay, so she’d been crying a little, big deal.
“What did she tell you?”
“Charlie
had sneered at her after your fight. She said that he had threatened to beat
her up. I don’t think that was the whole story behind it, but that’s how much I
know. Sounds familiar?”
“Charlie is
the worst captain in the world,” Cecilia sniffed pathetically. “I hate him.”
“You sound
like a five-year-old. Stop crying now. Charlie is a good captain, and so are
you. And you don’t hate him. That’s my final word. Now, come with me to
Charlie’s.”
“Don’t
wanna,” Cecilia sniffed again. Okay, now she was behaving ridiculous.
“I don’t
care,” Guy said firmly and pulled her out from under the blanket. She winced
and whined some more, until Guy hushed her quiet.
“You’re
like a baby, Cecilia.” That was the third time she’d heard that today. Could it
be true?
“Am not,”
she objected. “I’m depressed. Leave me alone in my agony.”
“I would,
but I won’t,” Guy grinned. “I’m here to mediate between you and Charlie. Give
him a break, Cee. Both Adam and Fred are mad with him now. Maybe you could try
to solve this whole mess?”
Cecilia
looked unpleased. She wasn’t to good with admitting when she was wrong. Why
start now?
Guy didn’t
wait for an answer; he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Why did
everyone have to be so much stronger then she was?
“Let me go,
Guy!”
Okay, so
yelling didn’t seem to work. Neither did the kicking and turning seem to have
any effect. He put her down outside Fred and Charlie’s room. Now what? Was he
going to force her to talk to Charlie? Good luck, Guy!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Notes: From Fred’s point of view.
Fred had no
idea what was going on between Cecilia and Charlie. Connie had told him that
they’d been arguing, that was all he knew.
When he got
back to his room after the game, Guy was standing outside his door, with
Cecilia in a firm grip. Fred wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was going on.
He and Adam
had been the only ones without any knowledge at all about the fight between Charlie
and Cecilia. They had been with Coach Bombay and Mike in their office, getting
a lecture in how to not behave at a game.
He was
pretty sure it had something to do with Charlie’s behavior earlier on in the
game. Okay, so it wasn’t so good to push players over the board, out on the
ice, but maybe Cecilia had been asking for it. God knew, she could be a real
pain sometimes.
“Let me
go,” he heard Cecilia shout. He decided to return to his room later, when this
argues had blown over. He couldn’t figure out why there always had to be
something going on with the team.
He and Adam
hadn’t been arguing at all, but somehow, their ‘fight’ had been the trigger for
this whole mess. Why Charlie and Cecilia had to interfere in the first place
and start another fight was a good question.
Now, when
he and Adam were on good terms with each other again, everyone else had to be
at each other’s throats.
He went
over to find someone else to talk to, besides from his crazy girlfriend and
that lunatic Charlie. He met Connie in the mailroom. She was collecting her
mail, and he managed to run into her, so all her mail flew over the floor.
“Sorry,” he
mumbled and got down on his knees to help her pick up all the letters. “Gee,
you’re really popular, aren’t you?”
Connie
blushed, for some reason. “It’s from my family. They write me sometimes.”
Fred
smiled. Were all girls so insecure? Besides from Cecilia’s latest outburst, she
usually got insecure too, every time she had to explain something. He wouldn’t
have thought Connie was like that; she was usually filled with self-confidence.
“That must
be good. To have a family that writes sometimes,” he said bitterly. He didn’t
mean to make it sound like that, so when Connie looked at him, he shrugged.
“Sorry, I’m
just jealous, I guess.” Nice explanation. Very nice.
“It’s okay,
they just write me sometimes anyway.”
Fred handed
her the rest of the mail and went over to his own mailbox. Usually, he just
checked it every once in a while, since he never got any mail. When he opened
the compartment, a brown envelope fell out.
“See? You
get mail too,” Connie exclaimed. Yeah, one little envelope, next to her pile of
letters? That was the same.
She stayed
at the door, waiting for him to tell her what the letter was about. Fred ripped
it open and read the message.
“Shit.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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