Chapter 6
Callie
“Come on, pleeeease!” Molly gets down on her knees in front of me and pouts her bottom lip.
I sigh. “Get off your knees, knob head.”
“I will when you agree.” She smirks, yanking playfully at my legs, her blonde waves shaking with her head. Molly is my best friend, has been since we moved into this dorm together but my god she can be annoying. “Fine.” I huff, crossing my arms over as she stands and yanks me into a hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She sings and I wriggle away from her.
“But you’re not coming to the party afterwards.” I point a warning finger at her and she puts her hands up in surrender.
“I won’t even ask.” She flashes me a bright smile and runs into her bedroom to get ready. If we’re going to make this damn hockey game on time we need to leave in ten minutes.
Molly, unlike me, loves hockey and used to play as a child. She’s a runner now and is the best on her team here at Redwood, I’ve watched her run and I’m not exaggerating when I say the girl looks like she’s flying. Her feet barely touch the ground when she runs and it’s the thing that makes her happiest in the world, except for me of course. She came home after practice today and told me there was a hockey game this afternoon, I told her I didn’t give a shit and she slapped me around the back of the head. This lead to us rolling around on the carpet together, fighting playfully like we were in some sort of cheap porn movie. She then proceeded to beg me to get tickets from my dad so we could go and watch the game. There’s also a party at Jamie Macdonald’s house after the game, which is the usual routine. The gymnastics team and the hockey team often have joint parties, we train in the same building so it kind of makes sense as we all know each other. I wouldn’t normally be so opposed to going to watch a hockey game, I don’t love them like Molly does but I can enjoy it occasionally. The only problem with going tonight is I now have a stalker by the name of Sean Taylor, also known as Redwood”s hockey team captain. As soon as I got home last night I had countless Facebook messages from him, I know he’s just trying to get into my pants and I get it, I know I’m attractive. I don’t have a problem in that department, I work hard for my body and I”m proud of it, but I don’t give it away to just anyone. I’ve made it clear to him that I”m not looking for a hook up with the biggest playboy in our university, but it doesn’t seem to be sinking into his thick skull. Even if I was up for some casual sex, the last person I would choose to engage in said sex with would be Sean Taylor. He’s the most irritating, big headed asshole I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting and for some unknown reason he’s set his sights on me.
“Ready?” Molly says, emerging from her bedroom sporting a Redwood hockey jersey and spinning around to showcase her golden waves that reach all the way down her back.
“You make me cringe.” I roll my eyes and grab my jacket, not bothering to change out of my jeans and tank top.
She swings her arm over my shoulder and presses her cheek to mine. “I love you too Cal.”
The stadium is pretty packed when we arrive and we shuffle our way through the crowd to our seats just above the penalty box. My dad saves the seats for us every game, hoping I’ll decide to come and watch his boys play. Don’t get me wrong, hockey is a great game to watch if you like adrenaline, it’s fast paced and there’s constantly something happening on the ice, but I don’t get the same thrill from it as my dad and Molly do. Molly grabs a handful of sugary popcorn and shoves her fist into her mouth, chewing happily.
“This is going to be such a good game Cal. Redwood and Preston are arch enemies so there’s bound to be endless fighting today, which I fucking live for.” She groans dramatically, grabbing another handful of popcorn and ramming it straight into her lipgloss covered mouth. “Oh god, they’re so sexy.”
I twist my head, turning my attention back to the ice and away from Molly’s hamster cheeks that are now bursting at the seams with popcorn. The guys emerge from the tunnel and slip onto the ice one by one, each of them looking fine as hell. My subconscious mind is searching for him and I want to punish myself for even wanting a smidge of his attention, but I can’t help it. When Sean launches himself onto the ice, following the track of his teammates and skating in a circle around the rink I watch his eyes lift up to the stands where Molly and I sit. He’s looking for someone, my stomach jumps to think he might be looking for me, then I remember the man has never held interest in one woman for more than an hour in his entire life before moving onto the next one. I”m sure he’s forgotten I exist by now, I fucking hope he has anyway, the pig headed arsehole. He glides across the ice, skating in an ’s’ shape before dropping down to stretch. He bends his knees and gets down on the ice, stretching his legs and keeping his chocolate eyes flitting around the stadium. When he comes up empty I watch him skate over to Kyle and whisper something in his ear. Molly hasn’t noticed my eyes following Sean, she’s too busy singing along to the music that pumps through the arena as both teams complete their warm up skate. Sean and Kyle are still whispering to each other and after a few seconds Kyle points directly at me, drawing not only Sean’s attention but some of the other guys in the team too. Thank god Molly is too drunk on her second cocktail of the night to stop singing along and actually pay attention to the fact that half of the hockey team are staring at me. Before I can turn a dark shade of red Sean lifts his gloved hand to his mouth, and blows me a kiss.
The fucker blows me a kiss in front of everyone.
I want to die of embarrassment, but I don’t want the man whore himself thinking he’s getting to me. I can’t let him get to me.
So I do the only thing I can think to do, I lift my middle finger and direct it straight at him, which only widens the smug grin that was already plastered across his handsome face. His toothy grin is blinding as his caramel eyes lock mine in place and I have to fight to break his invisible hold on me.
Luckily Sean doesn’t stare at me the entire game, but every time the ref blows the whistle his eyes catch mine immediately and his face widens into that shit eating grin that’s come to live in my head rent free. During the third period Redwood are two-nil up and the Preston boys are getting more and more aggressive on the ice. They’re constantly bashing our boys into the plexiglass and sneakily tripping and jabbing at them with their skates. Like Molly said earlier, they are arch enemies and the whole stadium can feel the heavy tension and growing violence filling the air as the timer moves towards the end of the game. The second the ref blows the whistle to signal the end of the game, the captain of the Preston boys launches at Sean. Sean is known for fighting during games so he was likely prepared and hoping one of the Preston boys would give him the fight he was waiting for. The two of them whip their helmets off and start hitting each other, and all I can think of is, why does Sean have to be so hot for no reason? My heart jumps into my throat as I watch them land punch after punch on each other and I can’t decide if I’m turned on or worried for Sean’s beautiful face to be ruined.
Molly is loving it, whooping and shouting, “Go on Sean, smack him!” When my dad and the refs finally break the two of them up I see Sean’s face is bloody, a small gash across his cheek which he wipes with his jersey. My dad escorts him off the ice whilst Molly and I stand to leave. I’m trying to be sneaky, glancing Sean’s way and hoping Molly doesn’t spot me, god knows the girl will have twenty-thousand questions to ask if she sees me eyeing up the one and only Sean Taylor. Luckily my best friend is now three cocktails and a large popcorn down so she simply saunters ahead of me out of the stadium, not even glancing back to see if I”m following. I let myself look one more time towards Sean and see that my dad has an ice pack on his face. My dad looks mad, he’s cursing at him, I can tell. As if he can feel me staring, Sean looks up at me, his eyes softer than I’ve ever seen them and he gives me a quick nod as I scurry out of the stadium.
Fuck, how could he tell I was worried about him? I don’t want to him to think I give a shit because I don’t…Ok, maybe I do a little but I don’t want to. God how do I stop his charm from seeping it’s way into my pours and making me want to do something I know I’ll regret?