Ethan's head hit the ice first, then his right shoulder, then the rest of his body. He never saw the hit coming but he heard the cheer when he got it. Whoever hit him connected with his knee first. The pain shot through his entire body as he flipped and landed on the ice. He didn't know who hit him, but he had a good idea who it was.
He laid on the ice, not moving. His left knee screamed in pain. His body wouldn't let him get up. He heard shouts and cheers from the crowd and whistles from the refs. He kept his eyes closed. The guys on his team was probably fighting with the other team. He should be in it, wanted to be in it, but when he tried to move, his whole body screamed in pain.
Someone touched his shoulder and asked if he was all right. He recognized the voice of Dave, the team's trainer.
"No," Ethan said.
Dave knelt on the ice beside him. "Where are you hurt?"
"My knee."
Ethan looked away. He didn't want Dave or any of the other guys on the team to see his tears. He was afraid his knee was blown out for good. He had worked so hard to be a good hockey player and get a scholarship to play in college, and now all that might be gone.
"Can you get up?" Dave said.
Ethan shook his head. He heard the voices of others over him.
"Let's get you to the locker room. I want to get some x-rays," Dave said.
He hooked his arms under Ethan's and lifted him. He put his arms around Dave's shoulder and Jamie, his teammate. He tried to keep his leg up, but his skate touched the ice and he screamed in pain.
"Karen, hold up his leg," Dave said.
His wife, Karen, put down an equipment bag and held up Ethan's leg.
The crowd was booing. The ice was littered with gloves and sticks. Most of the players from both teams were clumped against the far boards, pounding on each other, and the refs were trying to peel them apart. Some of the guys were sure to get game misconduct penalties. It was just as well. It was a vicious, ugly game from the start. Every game against Riverview was ugly.
They carried Ethan to the locker room and helped him sit on a bench.
"Let's get those skates off so we can get an x-ray," Dave said. He opened a cooler and picked out two bags of ice.
"Dave, can I go?" Jamie said. His eyes were wide and he had a bit of a grin.
"Yeah. Go," Dave said. He looked at Karen and shook his head. "That boy can't wait to get in on a powerplay."
Dave put the ice on Ethan's knee and wrapped it with a bandage to hold it in place. Karen removed his skates, gingerly unlacing the skate on his left foot.
Three other guys came in. All had been given game misconduct penalties and had bruises and bloody lips. Karen set Ethan's skate aside to treat them.
"Dude, you should see what we did to Tokit," Herbie said. He had blood dripping from his nose and a big grin, like he had just robbed a bank.
Karen gave Ruder an ice pack to hold over his right eye.
"You're lucky. Coach Riley reamed us out good. He was pissed. He's gonna suspend all of us," Ruder said.
"Yeah. That sucks," Ethan said.
He brushed his hand over his mouth to hide his smile. It was too bad these guys would probably get kicked off the team for a few games. They were good players and he counted on them. It was another thing, though, to know that his best guys would look after him when he took a cheap shot.
"All right guys. Get your showers and get out of here," Dave said.
All three guys hopped up and trundled to their lockers with their ice packs and bandages.
Karen unlaced Ethan's padded shorts. He lifted himself off the bench with his hands and she pulled them down. She set them off to the side with his skates and pads.
His jockstrap was tight. He nudged it aside. Karen helped him pull it down and his partly erect penis flopped out. She dropped the strap with his other stuff and turned away to get a towel like she didn't even notice how his penis hung between his legs and was quickly growing hard. He shouldn't be surprised. She'd seen it many times when she had to fix his cuts and bruises. What he couldn't figure out was why it was getting hard when he was in so much pain.
He put the towel around his waist and Karen helped him to the x-ray room. He put his hand on her shoulder to get up on the x-ray table. She started to remove the ice pack from his knee. He laid back on the cold table and his erection pushed up the front of the towel. She glanced at it.
"Ethan, try to keep that thing under control, will you?" she said with a sly smile.
"Sorry."
He put his hand over it and pushed it back down. That only made it harder. He let out a slow breath and tried not to groan. Why was he so aroused?
Dave took two shots and Karen helped him off the table and they hobbled back to the bench. She rewrapped the bag of ice on his knee with the bandage. By the time she finished, Dave had the x-rays ready.
"There's no damage. It's a bad sprain. Just try not to move around too much and keep the ice on it," he said.
He and Karen left to return to the bench. The locker room was quiet. Ethan laid his head back against the locker and closed his eyes. His knee throbbed. He could hear the noise of the crowd through the walls, and the drip of water from the shower.
His penis was still mostly erect. He remembered the look in Karen's eyes when she looked right at it and he smirked. His penis throbbed and became a little harder. She had seen it before, but never erect. Was she curious? Most girls were the first time they saw it. Some liked it and some didn't, but most wanted to try it at least once.
Would Karen want to try it? He hoped so. She was at least as twice as old as him, but he didn't care about that. For so long he had thought of her as one of the guys. She never seemed sexy until now. What happened to change that?
The creak of the locker room door opening echoed through the quiet room. He made sure his penis was covered with the towel. How weird would it be if Coach Riley or one of the other guys saw him with his hard dick standing up in the air? Maybe it was Karen coming back to check on him. Maybe she would touch it. It stiffened a little more and he had to push it down to keep it from showing.
"Hi, Ethan."
He opened his eyes. It was Michelle, in her blue and yellow cheerleader uniform with a short, pleated skirt. She had long, wavy brown hair that fell past her shoulders on either side of her face.
"Hi," he said.
She stepped toward him. Her brow was creased and she had a pained look in her pale, grey eyes.
"How's your knee?" she said, and sat on the bench beside him.
"It hurts," he said, holding his penis down with both hands.
He watched her out of the corner of his eye. What was she doing there? Of all the stuck up cheerleaders she was probably the most stuck up. He studied her eyes a little closer. She'd already slept with a few of the guys on the team. Was she there to see him because she was genuinely concerned, or because she wanted to add him to her list? Did that even matter?
"Are you going back in the game?" she said.
He shook his head. "I'm done for a while."
"Oh," she said in a disappointed tone.
She touched his leg, just above the bulge of the ice pack.
"Is it broken?" she said.
"No, just sprained."
"Sprained," she repeated. "I never saw anyone get hit so hard. I thought it was broken for sure." Her fingers moved up his thigh to the edge of the towel. "This hasn't been a good year for you, has it?"
"No. I haven't had much luck."
Her fingers slipped under the towel.
