Welcome to part two. I know I was not going to put this part out so soon, but I felt that since the first part was so short I had to put this out.
Paws naupres@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: Remember this story is fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned or any personal knowledge about their private lives. And if you are underage go somewhere else, this is not for you and you should wait a few years.
Music Shatters Ice
Part 2: Dense as Ice
The morning had not gone exactly as planned. Lucky enough I was allowed to leave first before the other guy did. He must have been a hockey fan for the local university for I know he recognized me, but didn't say anything. And the only thing we did was exchange names and cell phone numbers and me giving him my insurance. I didn't even look at his name and number as I shoved it into my hockey bag. That's one of the many things that I was taught when doing things on the fly, take it down and read it later. No insurance, great. I would hope that he would pay for the damages, but that did not put me at ease.
I arrived at the arena to find I was a little late. Most of the time I was one of the first ones there, but this time all my guys were already in the dressing room putting on their equipment.
"Hey guys." I called out.
"Hiya Jace." Devon Sian, a defenseman and assistant team captain called out.
"I heard you got into an accident." Terry Walls, our right winger said.
"Yeah, someone hit my rear while I was just getting in my car."
"She was hot eh?" Davis Collins, the captain and goalie said.
"Naw it wasn't even a girl. It was some odd guy." I said, I kept it at that as I was not about to tell them that he looked cute.
"So who was it? Anyone we know?" Devon said while putting on his bucket (helmet).
"You may know him, but I have never seen him, otherwise I would have recognized him." I pulled out the paper with the name and number. "Let's see his name's James Bass. Anyone know his guy?" I was greeted by a few nods and a few shrugs.
Terry was the first to speak up. "Yeah, I know who that is. That's Lance Bass of the bubblegum band, Nsync."
"Yeah and how would you know?" Davis said laughing.
"Because my sister can't stop listening to their music." Terry defended himself.
"No, I've seen your car Terry, and you have an Nsync CD playing." Devon said and left to hit the ice.
Terry didn't say anything and just blushed. I always thought something was a bit odd with him, but was never sure.
"Alright, everyone on the ice." I said and headed to my office for administration work.
In my office I looked over the upcoming schedule for the new season. This looks interesting.
The guys came back in two hours later.
"Take a seat in your stalls guys. Its time to talk about certain upcoming games." They sat as I began to speak once again. "First, Maine. We need to find a way to get through their defense. The only thing I can find out is that they have a weak power killing unit and an especially weak transition between shifts. Next, Alabama-Huntsville. Boys, don't take these guys too lightly. They have been very strong in the past and they take advantage of their opponents underestimating them. The thing we need to look out here is their offense. It seems they can score whenever needed: on the power play, even strength, and even while they are short handed. I must say that they led the NCAA in short handed goals. These are the games which we need to pick up our defense alot. If we don't we could be in for some serious embarassment at their hands. Lastly, Harvard. Harvard has both a weak offense and weak defense, but their strength relies soley on their goaltender. Sure you may say that they have a weak D so it will be easy, but I don't want us to come out of that series with two ties. I want those two wins especially. Coach, anything else to add?"
"No I think that's enough for now. Everyone get showered and I'll see you later." Roberts said as he retired to his office.
I went back to my own office and sat down with the schedule. It was going to be a rough season.
"Let's see what else is there to look at. Ah yes, we must keep an eye on those juniors up North."
The phone rang, dragging me away from my examinations.
"Hello, Jace Taylor here."
"Jace Taylor, this is James Bass. I wanted to talk about the accident."
Great what was I to do now?
"And?"
"And I wanted to apologize again for what happened with the car and the store."
"Well that's very nice of you but really..." He cut me off before I could speak.
"I wanted to know if there was anything I could do for you to make up for everything. I really feel guilty."
Terry came into the office at that point and didn't see I was on the phone and began talking.
"Hey Jace, the guys are having a party at the house tonight and I don't want to be there. You mind if I come to your house for dinner tonight..."
I knew immediately what he was trying to say, it had happened several times before.
"Dinner tonight at my house?" I said looking towards Terry, who merely nodded his head. "Need the address?" He rolled his eyes trying to think. "Here grab some paper, its 519 Terrace Heights, off of the Parkway. Got it?" He nodded once again and left. Sometimes getting that kid to talk was like pulling teeth. I put my attention back to the phone long enough to hear:
"Got it."
And then the phone went to a dail tone. Great, did I just invite someone over to my house. He must have thought I was talking to him. Just fantastic. I'll worry about this later, right now its back to hockey.
"Fourth place." I said outloud.
"What's fourth place?" Davis said sticking his head into my office.
"Ah, just where we were put in the WCHA rankings this year."
"You're kidding. We'll do better than that. Who do we face first?"
"I thought you of all people would have been keeping up with the schedule."
"Nope. So who is it?"
"Our first challenge is North Dakota."
He dropped off and his face went flat.
"I guess that's a wake up call at the first of the season." He said quietly.
"Yeah, but you have to start somewhere."
Davis quickly left me to what was little of my work. It was already 5:15, I should head to my home and start on dinner. Great thing about me is I had two homes. One was my parents house, where all the kids could stay if they wanted. And the other was my personal space with one extra bedroom. Perfect if friends came over, such as tonight with Terry. Ah Terry. Terry isn't like the other guys, he's the most quiet and doesn't like to party and dance all the time. He reminded me of myself, calm and a thinker.
My house was somewhat of a wreck and would need a little bit of time to clean up. Paperwork of player stats was on the carpet in the living room, college books were on the dining room table, an empty pizza box in the kitchen sink, and my bedroom looked like a hurricane, blizzard, tornado, take your pick. But who'd care about the bedroom. No reason to go in there anyway. So it would be one less thing to clean. I started with the living room first. I picked up all the paper as fast as I could and then shuffled them to get them into an orderly stack. Putting them in one hand I went by the kitchen and tossed the pizza box into the garbage under the sink. Next the dining room. I put the stats in one book and then stacked the four other books on top of it and carried all of them into my bedroom and dumped it into a corner. Out of sight, out of mind, for now. Coming out of my bedroom, I looked at the rest of the house, pretty clean. My attention was turned to the front window as it was becoming dark. Going to the front door I turned on the outside light and turned to head into the kitchen.
The doorbell rang.
Turning around once again, I opened the door and there he was.
"So the party started early I guess?" I asked.
Terry entered, "They started their party and I left."
"Well I haven't started cooking yet, and your usual room is all ready for you."
"Thanks."
"Any ideas for food?"
"How about...taco salad? You make it pretty good."
"Sure. Ok, put your stuff in the room and I'll get started."
I walked into the kitchen and took out the lettuce and the shells. I don't know why he liked my form of Mexican food. I guess that style of cooking hadn't quite made it that far North into Canada. Digging my hands in I immediately started shredding the lettuce. Terry came into the kitchen.
"Need help with anything."
"Go in the fridge and get out any ham, cheese, and anything else you put in your salad."
"Ok."
Terry pulled out a number of hams, cheeses, and salad dressings. Ah, hockey players, pure bottomless pits.
"Ok now put what you want on your lettuce." I said putting the shelled lettuce in front of him.
Looking out the kitchen window I could tell the night had come pretty early for the moon had its full reflection gazing upon the earth.
"Ah, a full moon is out. All the nutcases are out." I told Terry as he was jamming cheese into his lettuce.
"Yeah, I think they are all over at my place."
As I opened the ranch salad dressing, it slipped and part of my hands were now covered in the white cream.
"What would dinner be without a slight mistake?" I said outloud causing Terry to give a small smile.
Two seconds later the doorbell rang. I just glared at the ranch dressing as if it knew something was going to happen.
"I'll go get it seeing how your bathing in sauce." Terry said bounding to the door.
The next thing I heard was the door opening followed by a large thud. I'd know that sound anywhere, one of my guys falling down. I rinsed my hands and gave a quick dry.
"Terry are you ok?" I called out expecting him to answer. I rounded the corner into the hall to see Terry on the floor.
"Crap." I gave him a quick lookover. Nothing was wrong and he had a huge grin on his face. I looked up wondering what had caused his out of character stupidity.
"Gee Scoop, you must be a disaster area everywhere you go." A person said next to the guy who I had come to know as James Bass, aka my bad luck charm.
"Shut up Chris." He sniped back.
"Yes I should know, he's tried to destroy my life all in one day it seems." It came out a little harder than it should have, but too late now. "I'm sorry, but it has been a busy day. Please come in."
"Thank you Mr. Taylor." James Bass said.
I cringed at that name, which caused the two to notice.
"Please call me Jace. The only ones to call me Mr. Taylor are the reporters, and I've had it with them for a while."
The two looked towards each other and nodded.
"Well come on in. Don't just stand there."
They immediately looked down to what was blocking their way. Terry.
"Damn Terry couldn't you find another place to collapse." I bent down and hoisted him up and slung him over my shoulder. "Oh I am definately going to work on getting your weight down. You may be well defined but you are still heavy." I dumped him on the couch in the living area while leading my guests in. "Please sit down."
"Thank you." Chris said.
"Where shall we begin." I commented.
"First I want to say that I want to pay all repairs to your car. It's the least I can do to repay you for all my misdeeds thoughout the course of the day." James Bass said as his voice waivered as he was looking at me, which earned him an elbow from Chris.
"I'm really fine..." I could not finish my statement as the cheeseball woke up finally.
"What happened? I remember opening the door and seeing some cute darkhaired guy that looked familiar." Terry said rubbing his eyes.
Cris blushed a little, "Thanks." He said softly.
Terry put his hands down oblivious to what his own words were and looked around for the voice. And there in front of him was,
"I oh wow." Terry could not take his eyes off of Chris' eyes.
That's it I've lost him, I said in my mind. Apparently James Bass felt the same way about his own friend. "James Bass, what do we do now, continue talking or..."
"I think we should really leave these two alone for right now. I don't feel comfortable with them starting to make faces at each other. And don't call me by my full name. James will be fine by me." He said.
"Alright James. I feel the same way. Come into the kitchen, there is salad that was going to be dinner before you two arrived." I said taking one last look at Terry. Yep gone as a loon.
James and myself got our salads and sat down at the dining room table to have a coffee talk, without the coffee. Taking a quick glance at Terry and Chris, I knew they would not be coming to eat anytime soon. They were deeply engadged in talk. James interrupted my glance.
"Jace, when the officer came earlier today, he acted like he knew you."
"Well he probably knew who I was, but didn't know who I was on the personal level."
"What do you mean?"
"I am sort of a celebrity up here in the North."
"You a celebrity, I don't believe it."
"I am an assistant hockey coach and that," I said pointing to Terry, "is one of my players."
He didn't say anything but looked in Chris' direction.
"So are you usually trying to stalk or take out celebrities?" I asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Oh, that's right you are a celebrity as well. A singer, eh? I'm sorry I don't listen to music that much, only what they play at the arenas. I figure you don't get to attend many sporting events and watch from the stands."
"Naw, not with our schedule. But it would be nice if we could every once in a while."
"If you want to check out the real deal in college sports, you could come and watch my guys play the opening weekend games here. We take on North Dakota." Yeah, that's me always trying to get new fans involved.
"We are staying around the area. So I'm up for it. I'll see later on if the others would like to go." He proceeded to look towards Chris again.
"So what's with the attention keep getting drawn to Chris and Terry?" I asked.
"Nothing, I'm just amazed that Chris is able to hold onto a conversation that long. The last time he spoke to someone that long was his ex-boyfriend Rich. And that was at the beginning of last year."
"Oh, I see." Was the only thing I said.
"You want to see a test to see how deeply involved he already is with Terry?"
"Sure." I said uncertain on what he was going to do.
"Hey Chris," James called out, "Are you almost ready to leave?"
Chris hollered back, "Are you kidding, I'm not done talking yet. Just relax."
James turned back to me, "I was right, Chris has a strong crush on your hockey player."
"Well I could have told you that, except with Terry having a crush on Chris." I said smirking.
"Howso."
"Because Terry never talks to people in extended periods of time. He's usually quiet, not shy, just quiet. Watch this."
I looked over at Terry. "Terry, I was thinking about letting you talk with each of the other guys tomorrow after practice on what we need to improve the season. Then you can report back to me."
"Wait for it." I softly said to James. The reply came quick.
"I, um, uh, I don't think." Terry tried to get out.
"I'm sorry Jace, but after practice Terry will be busy with me." Chris said.
"Ok." I said while smiling at James.
I was starting to enjoy the time I was spending with James, and I'm sure that Terry was with Chris. However the next question just floored me with surprise.
"Jace would you mind if I came to where you work and watched to see what you do?"
Shocked as I was, I still forced out an answer.
"Sure I don't mind. Tomorrow's practice will be at 1 at the arena."
We continued to talk for thirty more minutes until the conversation had reached a lull.
James stood up, "I told the rest of the guys that we wouldn't be out that long. Plus, if I'm coming to see you at the arena, I need to get sleep."
I don't think James caught what he said, when he said he was coming to see me, but I sure did.
"I understand." I said mildly. "Just try to pry your friend away from mine."
"Will do." He said smiling. And he did have quite a nice smile. "Chris, its time to leave."
"Fine!" Chris said a little angry, but knowing he had to leave. But before coming to the door he leaned forward and whispered in Terry's ear.
Unable to hear what he was saying, I escorted James to the door.
"I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."
"So do I." James said. Looking back, he saw Chris dragging his feet. "Chris! Come on!"
Chris sped up and flew right by me.
"Nice meeting you Jace." Chris said while passing me by.
I closed the door behind them and turned to Terry.
"I'm sure that tomorrow will be a long day, good night." He plainly said and went into the guest room.
I shook my head, locked the doors, turned off all the lights and went to my bedroom. Once in my bedroom, I thought about how Terry was hiding something from me. Truthfully though, I didn't care if he kept it from me. It was his personal life, if he wants to tell, he will, but the way he scurried off to the bedroom, he might not say anything for a while. Laying on my bed, I reached over toward the nightstand and grabbed a loose notebook to try and draw up new practice plays. Of course my mind was empty, it was more engadged with the conversation I had with James. Funny how something totally disturbing can turn into an interesting situation.
The phone broke my concentration. Again, I reached over to the nightstand, but this time snatched the cell phone.
"Hello." I answered.
"Hiya Jace."
"Oh, hey Zelda."
"I just called to see what you were doing this coming weekend." She said happily.
"Zee you know that I have hockey games starting."
"Ok, I wanted to know if you would escort me to the concert I am going to see."
"Wish I could, but you know I can't. Why don't you ask Chance to take you?"
"Are you kidding? Chance would not be caught a hundred feet from the arena or rather the band."
"So where are you going and who are you going to see?"
"Lansing, and Nsync." She said with a giggle in her voice. My sister always the big kid at heart.
"So is that the only reason you called?" I inquired.
"No. Mom and Dad are leaving for the week and they need someone to take care of the house. I can't do it because I have to go back to my job."
"Yeah, and they know I'm busy with mine. Why don't they ask Chance? He is just laying about the house for right now anyway."
"You know that slug doesn't do anything. But I did think he said he would do it if no one else would. Hold on, I gotta beep."
"Ok."
"Jace I gotta let you go, John's on the other line. Talk to you later, bye."
"Bye Zee." I hung up and snuggled myself back into the bed. Family members, sometimes they just keep on bothering you. It just makes you want to go live in a distant part of the world.
Turning off the lamp, I saw the time. 11:20. I laid my head down and closed my eyes.
Well that's all for this chap, what did you think? What can I say I don't like cliffhangers that much.