Page 47 of Tutor With Benefits
“Looking good out there, boys! Keep it nice and tight, good!” Coach claps his hands as he watches the way we execute our play. It’s the same way we’ve been working it all season, but with practice we are getting faster, smoother with our execution.
“You keep that up, and we’re getting the championship for sure,” Coach tells us. “Well done. Well done. Give me a few more laps around and we can do some relays.”
With the mouth guards in, it’s difficult for us to speak, but we acknowledge what he said by raising our gloves to show him we’ve heard.
He’s walking slow laps around this half of the ice rink, keeping an eye on everyone out skating. He’s got a sharp eye, and now that we’re getting closer to the playoffs, I know he’s being a lot more critical than he is the rest of the season.
He did the same thing last year, and I have to say, I’m glad this is the way he does things. The fact that he’s able to build such a strong team is what gets us so far, and I’m planning to make it all the way to the championship this year. I want that trophy, and I know both Zach and Cory do, too.
We all go through the rest of the practice as Coach directs, then we go through the other exercises he’s got on the list for the day. We’ve done it so often, we have it memorized by now, and I’m grateful for that. It means we can do some talking with each other while we’re going through the motions of the drill and not have to stop to hear his direction.
“So have you talked to Tori?” Cory asks the two of us as he skates between me and Zach.
“Not since yesterday right after English,” Zach says. “She was pretty excited Johnny finally took notice of her.”
“I bet,” I say. “That was the main goal of everything, right? I think we should be proud of ourselves and what we’ve accomplished here.”
“Right,” Zach says.
“Right,” Cory echoes.
No one says so, but I know none of us are actually that proud of what we have accomplished. We haven’t really talked about it seriously, but we all know we wouldn’t mind keeping the same situation we have going on right now. And I know it’s not just something I don’t mind.
This is something I really enjoy.
“Did Johnny ask her out?” Cory asks.
“I don’t know if he did later on, but he didn’t right after class,” Zach says. “He nearly broke his neck checking her out, though, so there’s that. I mean, I’m sure if he didn’t say anything to her yesterday, it’s not going to be long before he does.”
“She probably already said yes before he even got that far,” Cory says.
I laugh. “She probably wrote him a note that said if he asks, her answer is yes. Then just left it for him to figure out what the fuck she was talking about.”
My two friends laugh at this with me, and while I’m just teasing, I know we’re joking about this because none of us want to face the truth. We all sense that we’re on the brink of losing Tori.
And none of us are happy about it.
“So, have you seen anyone else you’ve got your eye on lately?” I ask, trying to bring in more women to fantasize over.
“Nope,” Cory says.
“I’ve been trying, but none have caught my eye yet,” Zach says. “I’ve got hope though. I’m sure it’s just going to take a bit of a shift in mindset for me to find someone, you know?”
“And with the games picking up again, I bet you anything we’re going to be swimming in the pussy sooner rather than later,” I tell them.
“Yup.”
“No doubt.”
The conversation feels forced. There’s no other way around that. I’m sure we’re all thinking the same thing, and I don’t like it. I don’t like the feeling that we’re on the verge of a breakup, and even more, I don’t like that it doesn’t make any sense for us to feel that way. It’s not like we’re dating Tori.
This was just a crazy friends with benefits sort of situation that turned out to be a lot more fun than any of us had anticipated.
“Is it just me, or have the other girls on campus gotten uglier?” Cory asks.
“What do you mean?” Zach replies.
“I mean, I used to look around and try to figure out who I wanted next. Like you know, going to some buffet but with chicks. Now it’s like, I don’t know. I can look around and see the girls who are single, but I don’t want to put in the effort to try to get with them. Not that I’d have to even try that hard with many of them.”