He gets a lot of questions about it before he leaves, how it feels to be going, who he wants to play with. He says Josh Roy, who’ll be one of the captains, and it’s met by surprise. They probably thought he’d say that it’ll be an honor to play with every single player who got invited, which he does add, because that’s the expectation here and PR will thank him for it later.
The day before he and Paulie fly to Seattle, where the Sailors are hosting the game, Elliot sends him a text, just see you tomorrow and a variety of smiley faces.
Blake forgets to reply because Squid tries to eat his dinner and Blake has to shoo him off the table.
#
Elliot doesn’t deserve a spot at the All Star Game, even though it’s his numbers that count here, and his numbers are consistent. He’s on pace for more goals than he had last season, but it’s strange to go when his team has been struggling, especially during the last four weeks. They’re not even in a playoff spot right now.
He texts Blake the day before he flies to Seattle, but Blake doesn’t reply. He’s probably just busy. Or maybe he’d rather not see Elliot tomorrow, maybe he wishes the All Star Game wasn’t forcing them into the same place. Elliot was hoping that he’d get to play with Blake instead of against him for once.
He says hello to Blake when he sees him. Blake says hello to him. He smiles a little. Just the tiniest bit. Could be worse. He could be glaring.
Blake gets drafted before Elliot, to Josh Roy’s team, and they pick Elliot, too, two rounds later.
After, Josh Roy is talking to Blake, joking around, saying he only picked Blake because he heard that Blake really wanted to play with him, and Blake’s face goes red and Josh laughs and claps his back, turning to Noah Andersson, who’s excellent on the ice, and loud-mouthed off it. Elliot doesn’t know if he likes him, but when they’re all gathered for drinks afterwards, Noah doesn’t keep Elliot from going over to Blake, who’s talking to Noah, laughing at something he’s saying.
Elliot doesn’t like that someone else is making Blake laugh like that.
“Oh, look, Elliot Cowell,” Noah says, “to what do we owe the honor?”
“Hey,” Elliot says.
“Hi,” Blake replies.
“I think I’ll, uh…” Noah trails off when the Eagles’ Morgan Boyle joins them as well and Blake ends up signing a hockey card for Morgan’s brother and promises to get him a stick after the game.
Elliot doesn’t know much about Morgan, only that the media’s always giving him a hard time. He’s a quiet guy, but he always plays by the rules, which Elliot appreciates. Their conversation quickly derails into all of them showing each other pictures of their pets, then Morgan and Noah finally leave Elliot alone with Blake. Noah winks at Blake before he goes.
“He’s so…” Elliot starts, but trails off when Blake raises his eyebrows at him. “How are you?”
“I’m all right,” Blake says. “You?”
“All good,” Elliot says. “Nice to be on the same team again. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah.”
Elliot smiles.
“Stop it,” Blake mumbles.
“What?”
“You’re smiling.”
“And I’m not allowed to smile?” Elliot asks.
“No,” Blake says and he looks very serious about it.
Elliot ducks his head. “Fine, I’ll go smile somewhere else.”
Blake rolls his eyes, just when his fellow goaltender, Flynn Jacobi from the Colorado Hawks comes into view and puts an arm around him.
“Samuels, how’s it going?”
Elliot excuses himself, because he really can’t stand here and listen to Blake and Jacobi talk about goalie shit, and finds someone else to talk to. He ends up standing with Morgan Boyle again, talking about the season so far. And maybe Morgan’s a little serious, speaks very softly and doesn’t easily crack a smile, but Elliot quickly realizes that it’s nothing personal, it’s just the way he talks. Like he’s cautious, trying not to offend anyone.
Some of the guys come over to them, always talking to Elliot first, nodding at Morgan second and Elliot tries to keep him in those conversations, throws a few questions his way, so he won’t just awkwardly hover next to them.
When the guys slowly start to disperse, Morgan says, “I’ll head back to my room. It was nice talking to you, Elliot.”
Elliot decides to head back as well, looking around to find Blake before he leaves but he’s apparently gone already or hiding somewhere. His phone is heavy in his pocket. The last time he sent Blake a text, he didn’t even reply, and maybe he’s already asleep.
He looks at his phone.
He shouldn’t text him. Because they’re giving each other a break. And Elliot’s stomach still turns when he thinks about telling more people that he’s not straight, his heartbeat still becomes unsteady when he imagines someone finding out, so he can’t in all honesty say that he’s made up his mind about what he wants to do.
But he wants to see Blake.
He still shouldn’t text him.
Elliot grabs his phone.
you wanna hang out? he asks, and quickly adds, it’s ok if you say no.
#
Blake almost doesn’t check his phone when it buzzes. He’s changing into his pajamas, doing a terrible job at brushing his teeth as he pulls up his pants.
His phone buzzes again.
He’s sort of expecting Noah to chirp him about something when he finally grabs his phone, but then finds two texts from Elliot, asking if he wants to hang out in the first one, saying it’s okay if Blake says no in the second.
Blake sighs.
He should say
