I sat back down.
The rest of the guys started to get changed.
I put my head back and relaxed.
After a couple minutes, I felt someone hit my leg with a hockey stick.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Reid and Lay smiling.
They pointed to Abel.
Abel had fallen asleep.
Curled up across a bench, his mouth open, drooling.
“Poor guy,” I whispered to Riff.
“Who do you think keeps him up more at night? The baby? Or the wife?” Riff winked.
“Probably both,” I said.
“We have to fuck with him,” Reid said.
“He just had a kid,” Remi said. “It’s not like he’s hungover.”
“Then we’ll take it easy on him,” Lay said. “Watch this.”
Lay crept behind the bench.
He crouched a little and smiled ear to ear.
“Holy fuck! Abel!” he screamed as he stood up and flipped the bench.
Abel’s eyes popped open and he screamed.
He hit the floor with a hard thud.
We all started laughing.
Abel wasn’t amused.
He pushed himself up way too fast and jumped over the bench at Lay.
A second later, he had Lay pinned against the wall, his right fist cocked back.
Lay knew he deserved to get punched, so he just kept laughing.
Before Abel could land the well-deserved punch there was a loud bang from behind us.
When I turned, I saw Coach standing with his arms folded.
His nostrils flared.
He was pissed off.
“Coach, we were just messing around,”Reid said.
“I didn’t realize you all got paid to mess around,” Coach said. “Must be an easy paycheck, huh? Where’s the goddamn integrity for the locker room?”