Chapter 10
Ten
Eloise
I’m coming out of the locker room after practice, trying to figure out how much pain I’m going to be in for Grouse Grind when Taylor corners me in the hallway.
She looks like she’s been pacing out here for the last couple of minutes, her forehead scrunched in worry and her thumb in her mouth as she chews on the skin around the nail.
“Hey, Eloise,” she says, coming up to me. Her eyes look haunted as she looks around us in a way that I can only describe as worried someone is looking for us, or at us.
Hurt lances through me in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. She doesn’t want to be seen with me? Fine.
“What’s up, Taylor?”
She blinks, taken aback by the flat tone.
It’s not like she’s told me several times over at this point that she doesn’t want to be near me. Or that there's been occasions where she’s desperately looked both ways to make sure that no one can see us beside each other or, gasp, talking to each other.
That would ruin her reputation as the mean girl.
“We need to get along for Coach,” Taylor says.
“And the good of the team,” I say. She begrudgingly agrees.
I can see her jaw clench.
“And Brynn. She’s going to be insufferable if we don’t get along.”
I place a hand on my chest, gasping loudly. Taylor jolts at the noise, ducking to make sure no one sees her.
It’s a difficult ask considering she’s 5’10” and I’m 5’9”, but sure, no one is going to see you if you hide. But there’s also no one in the hallway, so she’s fine. “Brynn would be insufferable? Oh, the horror.”
Her eyes narrow, and I have to bite back a smile as she tries her best to look intimidating. “Anyway, we need to look like we’re getting along for Grouse Grind.”
I shrug. “What do you want to do?”
She’s gnawing on her bottom lip like it’s a chew toy. “Do you want to practice together? That would get Brynn and Coach off our backs and we could do with the experience playing together,” I suggest, but she shakes her head.
“No, we don’t want to do that.”
I try so hard not to roll my eyes, I think that they may pop out of my head. “What do you want to do then?”
“We just pretend.”
I think my jaw has dropped at the thought. “We pretend?”
“Yeah, of course,” she shrugs. My eye twitches. “We pretend to get along and they don’t catch onto us.”
“Or we could, you know, try to get along?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Eloise, the only reason you’re here is to replace Rosie, and the only reason I’m still here is because they like having me on the team, and I’m one of their best defenders.” I bite back a groan. “You don’t get to tell me how we get to play this. I’m choosing.”
Choosing wrong, of course, I think. “So, what’s the play then? How do we convince Brynn that we went from loathing each other to being able to tolerate each other?”
She stops moving for a minute, and I wonder if I broke her. I’ve been too salty with her; her brain has stopped working.
Or maybe it’s started working considering how asinine that last thought was. “We’re just going to have to pretend that we’re hanging out. Give me your cellphone.”
She pulls it out of my hand as I reach for it. “I’m giving you my number so that we can text to figure out a time and place to get our stories straight.”
The twitch in my eye has gotten stronger. I think she’s trying to give me a stroke. Do I smell toast? “So, you want me to text you to find a time to get together to get our stories straight about hanging out, but not actually hang out?”
She nods.
Taylor has taken too many pucks to the head. She has to have lost brain cells playing hockey for as long as she has. It’s the only explanation for this conversation.
The other part of me, the one that still harbours affection for this dumbass, is telling me that I’m a morosexual. Forget being a lesbian; I love this idiot.
“Right, okay. Sounds good,” I stammer through. I don’t know if she’s being serious anymore or if she’s going to scream psych at me. No, she doesn’t like me enough to do that.
She has to jump through too many hoops to even enjoy being in my presence, let alone like me.
“Awesome. Text me tonight, and I’ll check my calendar. We’ll have to try and do this before Grouse so that there’s something we can talk about with Brynn.”
“Surely Brynn will see through this,” I mutter, but she’s already speed-walking away. I rub my eyebrows, groaning at the inevitable headache that is currently starting to form. Jeez, I need to find someone to talk to about this, or at least talk her out of this plan.
It won’t be Brynn, though, because I see the two of them near the entrance of the arena walking together.
Brynn is laughing at something Taylor says, with her hands exaggerating a motion as they walk out to their car.
Winnie brushes past me, looking at me with confusion before her eyes shift to the door.
“Oh,” she says, smirking.
“She’s an idiot,” I whisper, and Winnie nods.
“Of course, but so are you.”
I sigh, rubbing my eyes. “Yeah, I am.”
Her laugh is magical as she pulls me out of the building with her. “Want a drink and rant?”
“How about at my hotel, then you can help me find a place too?” I say, and she nods.
“I can do that.”
I stop, looking at her suspiciously. Her pink hair is dripping. “You’re not going to pretend that we’re hanging out, are you?”
She snorts. “Of course not.” Her eyes shift to where Taylor and Brynn are. “Did she say something?”
I shake my head. “No, just curious.”
She purses her lips. “Just let me know if she does something that makes you uncomfortable. We want you here. I want you in front of my net.”
“You want to be in front of the net,” I mutter. She laughs again, dragging me out the door into the cooling October air.
“You’re right, but I want you as backup. You’re good, and I’ve known since college. I’ve been trying to get the coaches to get you since forever.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, right. You were probably telling them how shit I was in college.”
She stops me, arm across my chest as she levels me with a serious face.
“I’m serious. You’re fucking unstoppable.
Don’t get into your head about this, especially not with Taylor doing whatever the hell she’s doing.
I love that girl, but she’s been going through some shit, and she’s not fully on the other side yet. ”
I bite my cheek, nodding slowly. “I heard.”
“It doesn’t excuse the shit she’s pulling, and we all hear about it.
As soon as she pulls that crap in front of me, I’m beating her with my pads.
” She cracks her knuckles, and there’s something ironic with her saying this, being at least half a foot shorter than Taylor.
Her presence in the net is terrifying, and with the pads she could easily take any of us down.
I’ve watched her do it in games.
Somehow, she never gets called on it either.
“I’ll let you know if I need you to come defend my honour,” I say with a smile. She grins back, hugging me with one arm as I stop in front of my car. “Want to follow me to the Resonance, or do you want to meet me there?”
“I’ll meet you there. Get the bubbly flowing, and we’ll look at apartments and gossip.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I watch her leave and feel a weight lift off my chest. At least the imposter syndrome is lessening. This is starting to feel a little bit more like home.
If only Taylor would get with the fucking program.