Chapter 26

26

BEN

My meeting with Coach has my gut feeling like a giant hand is squeezing it.

I know I fucked up. I admit it. I’ll face the consequences of my actions. If they no longer want me to be captain of the team, so be it. But I could not let that shit goblin get away with hurting Mabel. I’d do it again.

Mr. Miller is in Coach’s office too when I arrive there. Great.

They gesture for me to take a seat, and Mr. Miller slides the door of the office closed, soundproofing us in.

I rub my palms on the knees of my dress pants but I hold their gazes when they talk.

“So do you want to tell us your version of what happened yesterday?” Coach says.

“You’ve already heard a version?”

“We heard from the security guard who was on duty yesterday. And a couple of other people.”

I pull in a slow breath, nodding. “Okay. Here’s my version. That guy is an abuser who hurt someone I care about. I admit I hit him. But he deserved it and I’d do it again.”

They regard me silently.

“Is he… pressing charges?” I ask.

“No. We’ve talked to Legal about it, though. He still could.”

“I’ll deal with that if I have to. I’m sorry if I’ve put the team in a bad spot. It was totally my fault. And I understand if you’re taking my name off the list of possible captains.”

They exchange glances.

“We considered that,” Mr. Miller says. “But we wanted to get all the facts.”

“I understand.”

“Marek came to talk to me earlier,” Coach says. “He wanted to explain what happened.”

My jaw loosens. “He did?”

“Yeah.” One corner of Coach’s mouth lifts.

“He told us that the man you punched is his sister’s ex-boyfriend.”

I nod, my mind racing.

“He said Mr. Clark is an abuser. He said she was lucky to leave the relationship before he actually physically hurt her.”

I blink a few times, shocked to my core that Marek told them this.

“Marek also said that you and his sister are in a relationship. And you were defending her.”

I gnaw briefly on my bottom lip. “Yes. She left that guy a couple of months ago, and he’s been trying to get back with her ever since. Trying to find her. And it was my fault he did. He saw pictures of Mabel and me at the Keeping Kids Safe fundraiser, so he came here looking for me. And he found me.” I lift my chin. “He demanded to know where Mabel is. I’d say I lost my cool, but the truth is, I knew exactly what I was doing.”

“Marek said Mr. Clark is lucky he wasn’t there or he would have hit him, too.”

I huff a tiny laugh. “Oh, boy.” This makes my breath tighten in my chest. Smitty was defending me. A sense of relief slides through me that I didn’t permanently wreck our friendship by getting involved with his sister. And hiding it from him.

“Okay, yeah, that was a lapse in judgment,” Mr. Miller says. “We wanted to talk to you and hear your explanation before making a decision.”

I nod, keeping my mouth shut.

“You’ve taken responsibility,” he continues. “And while we can’t condone that kind of thing…” He glances again at Coach. “We understand the reasons for it.”

Something loosens in my chest. A bit.

“So… we won’t announce the decision until after the end of the season. Right now, we’re focused on making the playoffs and seeing how far we can go. But you will be our next team captain.”

My breath leaves me all at once. I try to keep my face stoic. I swallow. “Thank you, sir.”

“We’ve been watching you step up,” Coach adds. “You’ve really stepped into the leadership role we hoped for. We hear great things from Sue Milner about your interactions with the organization, how you’ve really embraced their mission.”

“Thank you. It’s all been… easier than I expected.”

Because of Mabel.

They smile.

“Glad to hear that,” Mr. Miller says.

“I’ll work my hardest to be a good leader for this team,” I tell them. “I care about these guys and I want them to feel that thrill of holding the Cup one day.”

Mr. Miller rises and claps a hand on my shoulder. “As do I, Ben. As do I.”

I leave Coach’s office feeling somewhat better. Now I just have to deal with Mabel and what’s going on with her. She’s been in Philadelphia for a few days. I don’t know for sure if she’s coming back. Smitty says she left her stuff here but she’d talked about moving farther away so that doesn’t make me feel optimistic.

I go to the locker room to get my bag for our trip to Charleston. The bus leaves for the airport in a few minutes.

I’ve been beating myself up about being too loose with the “L word”. But over a few days some of my anger at myself has faded. I was honest with Mabel. If she doesn’t feel the same, she should at least do me the courtesy of telling me. We’re not sixteen, like I was with Hannah. We’re both adults. If she’s ghosting me, that is not cool.

I have a hard time seeing Mabel do something like that, though. Ghosting is not her style; she’s open and sincere and doesn’t have any issues approaching people. Like I do.

So then I go back to wanting her to have the time she needs to deal with whatever she’s dealing with. It’s a fucking roller coaster of emotions and I don’t like it.

But I have other things I need to focus on. We have a game tonight. A big game, since we’re still battling Charleston in the standings.