69. Kassian

Chapter sixty-nine

Kassian

Monday, January 15, 2024

C oach Allister called a meeting prior to our game, explaining that we needed to be on our best behavior and that we were having a press conference after the game to clear some things up. Hearing about Alessandro's diagnosis of multiple sclerosis the way we had didn't feel good, especially as one of his best friends, but I can't say I'd be forthcoming with that kind of information if I were him either.

From the sounds of it, he was receiving treatments and taking care of his symptoms, and his athletic trainer had been made aware, so he was always under her watchful eye. That said, it was still a bit of a slap in the face, and the press was eating it up.

After Coach told us all to clear out for warm-ups, he pulled me aside to discuss my behavior at the game the other day. But instead of the lashing I was expecting to receive, he gave me a slap on the shoulder and a look of approval I hadn't known I needed until I got it.

***

A few of us are gathered in the conference hall, watching as everyone involved prepares for the onslaught of questions they'll need to dodge and strategically answer to avoid creating an even worse situation.

I wait anxiously, my hands getting clammy, and beads of sweat start gathering along my spine, this charcoal-gray suit suddenly feeling too heavy and tight.

The press asks questions, and Matt Bowman, our captain, answers several of them, with Ale following his lead, as I'm sure he was directed to by our PR manager.

The meeting drags on, and the more questions asked, the more my heart stutters, thinking of how my sister is probably taking it all. She hasn't been answering my messages today, so I know she isn't doing well with all of this.

A reporter I recognize for all the wrong reasons stands, and her line of questioning digs deeper into topics that have absolutely nothing to do with hockey. 1 She throws around accusations she knows nothing about, and as she does, my fists clench tighter and tighter until my knuckles are white.

Then she does the unthinkable.

The words fall from her lips, a web of lies and truths carefully intermingled in just the way she needs to spin the perfect story that'll get her on the map, and with each word, blackness seeps further and further into my mind, dragging me back to that day.

"… Is it also a coincidence that she and her brother have some very sticky history?"

I can barely hear Alessandro's reply. His words don't make it past the darkness looming in my mind. My "sticky history," as she refers to it, is mottled with a deep emotional trauma that I've never fully recovered from.

And now it's about to be put on display for the whole world to hear.

"Wow, true love must be real if you're willing to deal with all that baggage." Her words cut me like a knife, digging straight into my heart, driving it deeper and deeper with every sharp-tongued word she speaks. "I mean, what child hides in a closet while their brother witnesses their own father shoot their mother in the head before turning the gun on himself? Stuff like that makes for really fucked-up adults, but I'm sure true love endures and all that." She looks so smug as she says it. And she's not wrong.

"Stuff" like that really does make for a fucked-up adult.

1. STRINGS – MAX (ft. JVKE & Bazzi)