The questions aren’t that hard to deal with, mostly because they’re all about the goal. Blake wishes he’d had a chance to watch a replay of it, because he barely even remembers how it happened. He tried to get it away from his net, he wasn’t exactly planning on putting it in the other one.
They all go out for drinks after the game and invade one of their favorite pubs. They seem to have known that they were coming, probably because Paulie called ahead. Mattie goes out with them tonight as well, usually one of the first ones to beg off, and he buys Blake his first drink.
A lot of people want to buy Blake drinks tonight.
He tries not to overdo it, starts to politely decline more offers, and has to start declining other offers, too, when Brammer’s girlfriend and her friends arrive, three of them crowding around him to ask him about the goal he scored. Blake manages to escape and basically hides behind Mattie, who’s actually an inch shorter than him.
“You wanna go home, kid?” Mattie asks. “I’ll sneak you out.”
A bunch of the guys have left and Blake wasn’t planning on sticking around much longer either, so he nods.
“Choo Choo already left, huh? Need a ride home?”
“Yeah, thanks, Mattie,” Blake says.
Mattie rarely has more than one beer and is happy to drive home anyone who needs a ride. He’s looking around the bar now to see if anyone else might need a ride, but most of the guys that are left don’t live too far from the arena. Anyway, they can easily afford a cab.
“Mattie,” Blake says when they’re in the car.
“If you say anything sappy, I’ll make you walk,” Mattie says, grinning as he starts the car. “I haven’t retired yet.”
“I know.”
“It’s time, kid.”
Blake nods.
They drive in silence, the radio turned down so low that Blake can barely hear it. The streets are mostly quiet.
Something’s ending right now, it’s been ending all season. He wants to ask Mattie if he’ll stay in the area of if he’ll take his family to Canada, but decides that he’s not ready to hear the answer to that, if Mattie even has one.
The drive to his place is short, only takes a few minutes. Mattie pulls over outside the door and gives Blake’s thigh a pat. “Nice goal tonight, kid. You’ll remember that one for a while.”
Blake smiles. “Yeah.” He doesn’t get out of the car yet. There’s something strange about tonight, like nothing’s the way it’s supposed to be. “Mattie…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m gay.” Blake takes a deep breath. It helps that he’s managed to convince himself that Mattie probably already knew. “You probably guessed that already, but…”
“Listen, kid, your private life isn’t any of my business. I wasn’t guessing.”
“Really?”
“I’ve been around a little longer than you and you’re not the first guy who’s never brought a girlfriend and who looked like he wanted to go into hiding whenever anyone asked, so…” Mattie shrugs, then reaches out to put his hand on Blake’s shoulder. “I don’t want you to think that anything changed here. I’m still me and you’re still you, and you should come over for dinner tomorrow.”
Blake desperately wants to ask about the other guys, but Mattie would never tell him. In the end, he just says okay to dinner.
“If you have a boyfriend,” Mattie says, “he’s always welcome at my house, too.”
Blake clears his throat. “No boyfriend.”
“It’s not an offer that expires,” Mattie says.
“Thank you,” Blake replies, and tries not to think about showing up for dinner at Mattie’s house with Elliot in tow.
#
Elliot and Blake agree that for the duration of the first round of the playoffs, they’re not friends. They won’t talk to each other. No chirping, not even unrelated cat and food pictures. Nothing.
They’ll go dead silent.
The day before the game, they send each other good luck texts. And that’s it.
Elliot can barely focus before their first game against the Knights. It’s the same thing every year. Once playoffs roll around, it’s like he’s playing hockey for the first time.
Their first game goes into overtime and the Knights win it, the arena exploding in cheers as the Ravens make their way off the ice. It’s only one game and it’s not over until they’ve lost four, but the room is quiet after the game and Elliot isn’t in the mood for post-game interviews at all.
One of the reporters asks him how he’s feeling about the loss and Elliot stares at him for a few long seconds before he says, “Not great.”
When he gets home that night he’s still pissed off. He texts Blake, because he doesn’t give a shit about the deal they made the day before and Blake sends back a sad face no five minutes later. Elliot almost calls him, but can’t think of a thing to say, because he lost against Blake’s team and how the hell is Blake supposed to cheer him up? Blake is probably busy celebrating right now. Elliot nearly scored on him in overtime, but he made the save, allowing Paul Mooney to grab the rebound and take off with it. The game was over less than a minute later.
They play in Newark again two days later. Another loss, this one a lot clearer. It’s a 4-1 win for the Knights, the Ravens’ lone goal scored by Andreas.
And yet, nothing’s decided. They’ll play in New York next, two games on home ice and they have a chance to tie up the series again, win two at home, take it to Game 5. After the
