Travis’s POV (earlier before practice)

I walked into the locker room, feeling fairly good about myself. I had told Zach my exact thoughts. He had been so frazzled he didn’t even want to talk to me.

I stood in the locker room anxiously waiting for him to come in. I was the first person there, which never happens to me. Zach is always first. Or so everyone says. I’m always last.

Zach walked in, with a key in his hand, with a surprised look on his face. “Travis!”

I smirked. “Hello.”

Zach looked really distracted. He moved over to his cubby and started taking out his phone. He didn’t smile as he typed something in. Zach shook his head and put his phone down on the bench.

“You didn’t show up last night man.” I said, to state the obvious.

“Yeah.”

“Where’d you end up? Clarkson’s? “

Zach shook his head. “No, not at um, David’s.”

“What’s up man? Did Molli say anything to you about how much she likes ME?”

That got him to talk. Unfortunately, he said everything I didn’t want to hear.





Molli’s POV

It was game time, and I walked into the building with Nicole.

“Excited?” She asked me. She was obviously confused about something.

I nodded. “I guess.” Honestly, I was super excited. Seeing my best friend and my boyfriend (Maybe?) play.

Nicole kept quiet. “Why?”

I looked into her eyes. “Well, my former boyfriend-”

Nicole spit her gum out onto the pavement. “What the hell? You didn’t get back together with Zach?”

I eyed her with a confused look. “Wait, what?”

Nicole stopped. “Alright listen to me. Some of this is going to come as a surprise to you. Try and keep up with me. You were in a car crash when you were 19 and lost most of your memory. We both know that. Now here comes the new stuff. Your mom and Elizabeth missed quite a lot when they were filling in your life. You are an obsessive hockey fan who dated Zach Parise. He hurt you, and Elizabeth and your mom didn’t want you to go back that road. She lectured me to not let anything like this slip out of my mouth.” Nicole waited for me to take it in.

“We all knew you were drunk last night but I don’t think any of us thought you were THAT drunk. Because I know all that Nick.” I said with a shrug. “Now come on! I wanna go to my first hockey game!”

Nicole smiled and gave me a hug. “Let’s go!”

We basically danced into the building. Someone pointed at Nicole and said, “Nicole Kovalchuk.”

“Random fan!” Nicole replied with a smile.

The fan smiled and moved on. Nicole said to me, “One day they’ll say that to you! Molli Parise!”

I blushed. “Molli Regan-Parise.”

Nicole shook her head. “Oh no. If you marry ZP, you are Molli Parise. Like me. I would be Nicole Truscott-Kovalchuk, but he’s freaking Ilya Kovalchuk, so I’m Nicole Kovalchuk.”

I nodded. “Maybe I’ll keep that in mind.”

Nicole smiled. She showed someone our tickets.

The game started quickly. I just watched in awe as Nicole explained the game. I had watched a game or two on TV when Nicole made me.

“Whoa!” I said. We were sitting right next to the glass, and some guy was boarded. “Travis? What the hell was that?” Nicole yelled as the whistles started to blow and the game stopped.

I watched. I identified Zach, Travis and Ilya.

“Dude what the hell?” Zach hissed at Travis.

“You got what you deserved, asshole!” Travis snapped back. Travis smacked Zach in the face, and Zach hit him back.

‘What are you doing?” I screeched. “Travis Zajac!” Our eyes met. “What the hell was that?” I whispered, knowing he could hear me. The people around me were all staring at me now.

“You know why.”

“So don’t take it out on Zach, take it out on me!”

“We’re not on the same page here Molli.”

I crossed my arms. Zach’s eyes met mine next.

“I’ll kill you in your fucking sleep!” Travis screamed at Zach, then hitting him in the nose.

Zach was pissed now. It was plain on his face. “You know what Zajac? That’s it!” He pulled Travis’s sweater over his head and punched him in the face a good couple of times. Travis ripped Zach’s jersey off his back and threw him to the ground.

“Nicole! What the hell are they DOING?” I exclaimed.

Nicole looked at me. “Actually, I think you know a little bit better than I do. They’re best friends, or were anyway. What happened at your house last night Molli?”

I looked into her eyes. “Nothing that would warrant this!”

“Was Travis there?”

“No.”

They were still throwing punches. Travis and Zach had both clocked the refs a good couple of times. Adam Henrique and Bryce Salvador were working on pulling Travis and Zach off of each other.

“You’re going to fucking die!” Travis landed a hard blow on Zach’s neck. I could see the pain on Zach’s face.

Finally, Zach and Travis were both pulled from the ice.

“They’ll be out the whole game.” Nicole said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. They’re on the same team!”

The score was eventually 0-4, and the Penguins won the game.

“Okay, the Devils need to win the game in two days to win the series and move on to the eastern conference championship. Let’s go back to my place, I’m sure Zach, Ilya and Travis will join us, and probably some others.” Nicole said, and pulled me out of the arena.






Zach’s POV

There was only a minute left in the 2ndperiod. I was going after Crosby, and then was boarded and someone slashed my right leg with his stick.

The whistles blew. I turned around to see Travis. I was caught by surprise as Travis started his attempt to kill me, and I had no choice but to fight back.

A few minutes later, Travis was still hitting me, and the jersey was torn off my back. I felt someone pull me away, and when I looked behind me it was Bryce. “Dude what was that? I knew you all were acting off in practice.”

Oh yeah. Travis had been at me all practice too. All because I told him Molli was mine, and what happened last night. Probably in a little TOO much detail.

He had been REALLY pissed. I had tried to calm him down, but that wasn’t happening.

He had drawn blood a few times in practice, explaining the little scratches on my face.

Boy, oh boy. I thought. I was going to have QUITE an interview after the game, wasn’t I?

I was escorted off the ice wordlessly. However when I got to the bench, it wasn’t so quiet.

Lou was already standing left of the bench. So was Pete Deboer. Dave Barr was going to watch the team, I suppose.

I winced. This was going to be bad. I snuck a look at Travis. He looked unharmed. I felt blood dripping down my face, seemingly coming from below my right eye.

Lou glared at both of us and handed both of us our sneakers. "Leave your skates with Coach Barr." He said icily.

I unlaced them and handed them to the assistant coach. He just glared at me. Yikes.

Travis and I followed Lou and Pete down the long hall. We came to a room and there were 6 chairs in a circle.

Pete practically threw the two extra chairs of to the side. Lou invited us to sit down. After a long staredown, Lou spoke. "What in the damn hell was that?" Travis looked at the floor, but I answered. "Travis attacked me. I would be in the ER if I hadn't put up the fight I did." Lou silenced me with a glare. Jeez. "Travis." He said coldly. "It's a personal conflict that Zach and I need to work out for ourselves." Travis muttered to the floor. Still being in complete uniform, the temperature was starting to rise. Pete lost it. "What the hell was the jackassery that went on down there? WHAT IN THE DAMN HELL IS GOING ON?" Jackassery is Pete's original word I suppose. He uses it a lot. "Look Pete, Zach and I like the same beautiful girl and Zach made out with her last night!" Travis spat, sounding like a spoiled child. I kept quiet. "Get your act together! Do either of you know what this is going to do for the whole fucking organization?" Lou snapped. "It's not going to be good. Nothing good happenedtonight. The game isn't even over. The think that absolutely kills me is that you both care about this fan base so much. Probably the most out of the whole team. But this is jackassery, as Pete might say. You both are jackasses. Idiots." "I'm sorry." Travis mumbled. "Damn right you should be." Pete said critically. "I'm sorry for defending myself." I said. Lou blew up. "This is BOTH of you! Not just Travis! You aren't INNOCENT like you SEEM TO THINK YOU ARE! What the hell are we going to do? You are both just assholes. I can't believe you boys. You're both such good kids. Then you do THIS? You don't THINK. Neither of you do. Now GET OUT! You'll both get phone calls tomorrow. Get your stuff and fucking leave!" I nodded once I had stood up. Travis and I walked together. "What was that for anyway?" I asked. "Fuck off!" He snapped. I looked at the ground sadly. Travis wasn't my friend anymore. He didn't even seem like my teammate.