Jim, the team’s medic, was beside him in seconds, saying, “Phillip, what hurts?”
“My mouth,” he said as he sat up. The crowd all gasped as Jim placed a towel against Phillip’s mouth. Phillip took it and stood up, holding it as he skated towards the bench. He wasn’t dizzy, which was great, and it didn’t seem like anything else hurt, just his mouth. He looked up to see Claire watching him, her eyes wide, and he shook his head quickly, waving her off. “I’m fine,” he called out, but he wasn’t sure she could hear him as he sat on the bench. Jim tried to get him to come to the back, but Phillip shook him off. “I’m good.”
“Anderson, go!” Baxter yelled.
Fucking hell. He just wanted to play!
Phillip rolled his eyes, following him to the entryway, right by Claire, removing the cloth so Jim could see.
“Dizzy?”
“No, I want to play,” he said, but then he felt like something was hanging and asked, “Is that my tooth? Or a hole in my lip?”
“Your tooth, you’re going to have to go to the back, and let the dentist look at you. It needs to be pulled. That’s the only thing I see.”
“Fuck that,” Phillip said, reaching up and pulling the tooth out. It stung, but he needed to get back on the ice. He wasn’t done scoring. He smiled at Jim and asked, “Everything else look good?”
Jim laughed. “Yeah, I think you got it.”
“Awesome,” he said, handing Jim his tooth. “Hang on to that, maybe they can glue it back in.”
The guys on the bench laughed as Phillip fell back into his spot, pushing his tongue up into the new hole. It felt weird, but he didn’t care. “Hope this doesn’t dent my reputation with the ladies.”
Everyone continued to laugh as Shea said, “What reputation? You’re still ugly as shit.”
“That’s not what your wife said,” Phillip said, sending him a newly toothless grin.
The bench went silent as Shea just glared. “Don’t worry, I fully expect you to knock out more of my teeth.”
Shea had a satisfied look on his face as he looked back out at the ice and said, “Good, at least you are expecting it.”
“Too far, man,” Erik laughed as he shook his head.
“Got to keep him on his toes.”
Phillip didn’t score the rest of the night but not for lack of trying. Shea also didn’t kick his ass, but boy, did he have a lot to say about respect and how Phillip owed him laps. It was better than getting his ass kicked, so he left the arena grinning. His mouth was still aching, but he was finding that the missing front tooth added character to his face. Once he went outside and Claire and Skylar were completely disgusted with it, he decided he would be visiting the dentist tomorrow.
“I can’t believe you just pulled it out!” Claire screeched as Skylar laughed.
“It was so freaking awesome! Everyone saw it! They had you on the jumbotron!” Skylar exclaimed as they reached his car.
“Yay,” Phillip laughed as he started the car and headed towards Skylar’s house.
“Your goal was awesome. Great job tonight.”
“Thanks.”
Well, that was nice, he thought as he drove.
“So guess what,” Claire said, turning to face him.
“What?”
“I am doing a duet with this dude Brian now. His partner got hurt and Reese needs someone to duet with him. Guess what is better than all that?”
Phillip wanted to go back to Brian, just to inform her that he would gut the guy if he tried anything, but he asked,” What’s the best part?”
“Reese chose my choreography!”
“Wow, that’s awesome.”
“It really is, Mr. Phillip. She was amazing, blew all of us away,” Skylar gushed from the back seat.
“That’s great.”
“Thanks,” Claire said with a big grin as Phillip pulled into Skylar’s driveway.
“Mr. Phillip, is it okay for Claire to stay the night? My mom said it was fine with her. She just texted me.”