Chapter 21 Bohdan
Bohdan
Then - College
Talon and Jay love to party after a game—win or lose.
Talon says it’s good for morale. Jay’s only serious about one thing—hockey—and he wants to spend the night either being lauded for his performance and celebrating his own superiority, or drinking his feelings away before he goes to the rink at six a.m. to start watching game tape and dissecting everything he did wrong.
I don’t particularly care either way. I play well because I’m better than almost anyone, and when I don’t, I usually take my frustration out on the ice.
But I’m the captain, and Talon and Jay are the alternates, and our line is just generally the best in the entire country, so it’s sort of expected.
The size and severity of the parties typically depends on how we played. And tonight, we played really, really well.
You can barely move through the throngs of people gathering in our hallways, standing littered on all levels of the staircase, blocking access to our rooms and all the quieter parts of our house.
Some of our teammates dragged a keg into the kitchen, and I think our goalie is upside down on it doing a keg stand right now.
Talon and Jay hold court where they usually do—in the centre of our living room, at either end of a beer pong table, already covered with cracked red plastic cups, puddles of foam dripping over the edges onto the scratched hardwood flooring, surrounded by their many admirers.
I play sometimes. Usually with Sloan. She makes an excellent teammate, and even though she doesn’t have a competitive bone in her body, she likes winning games with me.
Tonight, though, she’s on my lap, legs slung lazily over the arm of the chair, a red cup between her teeth, eyes glued to a Sudoku puzzle on her phone.
Nights like this work for us, when we’re in our own little bubble. I don’t always feel like talking, and Sloan doesn’t always want to participate, but this way, she feels like she’s still a part of things.
Talon says he can always tell if it’s going to be a “bubble night” or a normal night if I sit down and play video games before the party starts.
“That’s a six.” I tip the bottom of my beer bottle towards her phone screen.
She frowns, taking the cup away from her mouth. Her lower lip sits in a pout and she cuts me a sideways look. “I wasn’t working on sixes right now.”
I knock my head against hers. “Well, I was.”
“Alright, oh-so-wise Sudoku master. Let’s see.” She straightens her shoulders, making a big show of moving her finger in a circle to touch the right box before she taps the six at the bottom of the screen.
The number flashes green.
“Told you.” I grin, biting down on her neck.
Sloan rolls her eyes, pushing my jaw away. Her hair shifts when she does, and for the first time I notice a small green loop sitting just inside her ear.
“What are these?” I tap at the pale green rubber.
Sloan’s brow furrows, and her hand comes up like she forgot there was anything there, fingers tracing the circle before she smiles brightly at me. “Oh! They’re new. Tia got them for me. They’re for noise sensitivity.”
“Do they work?”
“Yeah. I wore them to the game tonight.” She nods, the seventeen still painted on her cheek creasing, her freckles visible just below the fading white paint. “They don’t block any of the sounds, but they reduce them and I can still hear.”
“Cool.” I smile, pressing my mouth to her temple.
She swings her legs over the arm of the chair, setting her phone down. “I’m going to go get another drink. Do you want another beer?”
“Sure.” I nod, watching her stand, tugging at the hem of her shirt before weaving through the crowd towards the kitchen. Talon pauses his throw to ruffle her hair, and when he sinks it, he immediately starts shouting for her to come back.
“Sloany!” He cranes his neck backward towards the kitchen. “Get back here! You’re my good luck charm.”
I don’t hear it at first because Talon’s voice carries, but when he realizes Sloan isn’t going to do more than flick up her middle finger over her shoulder and he quiets down, it sounds a bit like someone just stabbed my brain.
Two girls sit on the couch beside me—probably Sloan’s age, I think I’ve seen them around before, they might be friends with one of the rookies—huddled together, giggling and whispering, not all that quietly.
“She’s so fucking weird. Why is she wearing earplugs?”
“Who knows. I’ve seen her cry at these parties like, seven times. He’s so hot, he could do so much better.”
“Maybe she’s as weird in bed as she is everywhere else.”
I bite down so hard I think I crack a tooth, my grip tightens on the bottle, and I don’t know what I’m about to do but I turn with a jerk of my head. “What did you just fucking say?”
“You about done with your drink?” Jay interrupts, calling from across the table, arm suspended in midair, gripping the Ping-Pong ball so tightly the cords across his arms pop, drawing more attention to the array of tattoos spread across his bicep.
“Oh.” One of the girls glances sideways at me before looking at Jay like he’s just saved her, sitting straighter with this smile that’s probably supposed to be flirty but just looks fucking demonic to me. “Almost.”
Jay nods, a tight smile stretching across his face. “Great. Now you can get the fuck out.”
“Pardon me?” She pulls her head back, blinking, a bit stunned.
“Couldn’t hear me? I’ll repeat myself before Bohdan beats the shit out of whatever loser boyfriend you came here with.” Jay hikes a thumb over his shoulder before pointing back and forth between them. “Both of you can get the fuck out.”
Her face pales, eyes cutting to me. I clench my jaw, jerking it towards the door. She swings her gaze to Talon, like she might find an ally there. But he claps his hands together and points towards the door, too, grinning when he says, “Don’t bother coming back, either.”
“Because we said she was weird for wearing earplugs?” the other one finally sputters.
“Because I just don’t fucking like you.” Jay flashes her a smile that’s mostly teeth before he narrows his eyes. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Talon clicks his tongue, clapping again. “Chop-chop.”
I bite down on a fist, breath ragged, eyes narrowed on them as they gather their ugly coats, tugging down on the hems of their dresses, and practically sprint out the door.
“Breathe, Novo.” Talon shoves a cup of foamy beer in front of me, clapping me on the shoulder.
I drain the rest of my bottle, dropping it unceremoniously to the ground beside my chair, and grab the cup from Talon when I stand.
Rolling my shoulders back, I drain the mostly foam beer and drop that to the ground, too. I crane my neck, hoping for the only time since I’ve met her that Sloan is far, far away. Hearing something like that would fucking destroy her, and she spends enough time destroying herself.
I catch sight of her in the kitchen talking to Tia, propped up on the counter, head tipped back in laughter.
“Who did they come with?” I jerk my head towards the door.
“Forget them. They sucked.” Talon’s lips pull back and he waves a hand like it’s of no consequence.
“Fucking losers.” Jay nods, bringing his arm back to ready another throw.
“If Sloan had heard—”
“She didn’t.” Talon shakes my shoulders. “We’ve got her back, too, you know.”
Talon and Jay ended up on the same team as me by chance, really. We all had plenty of interest from other schools. And we ended up playing on the same line because there was something there, innate chemistry, during training camp.
I’m not a big believer in fate or the universe or anything like that. But something, somewhere brought them to me, and dropped Sloan off in the same first-year dorm as Talon’s sister.
Feels a bit like fate, maybe, if there’s such a thing. That we’re all supposed to be together.
I grin at them. “Thank you. She can stand up for herself, you know. It’s just—”
“Yeah, we know.” Jay cuts me off with wide eyes. “Quite frankly, I find her almost as terrifying as the other one.”
“Are you talking about me?” Tia tips her chin up, arms crossing over her chest when she shoves her way towards the table.
Sloan follows behind her, clutching her cup, almost full to the brim with a new vodka soda, holding out a new beer for me.
“Not really.” Jay rolls his eyes, tossing the Ping-Pong ball into an open cup. “I was talking about Sloan. But you are ‘the other one,’ so I guess I was, so to speak.”
Sloan arches a brow. “The other one has a name, you know. Unless you’ve taken one too many hits to the boards and forgotten?”
“Don’t pretend to forget my sister’s name.
” Talon hits Jay in the back of the head with his palm before slinging an arm around Sloan’s shoulders, gesturing with his cup towards me and Jay.
“You want to play them, Sloany? We need to bring them down a few pegs—each scored two goals tonight, and now they think they’re better than the rest of us. ”
“What about me?” Tia’s hand comes off her arm, held up expectantly.
“You can referee,” Jay deadpans.
Tia rolls her eyes. “Fine. No cheating on my watch. That means you, Talon.”
Sloan looks over to me, tipping her head. “Do you want to play?”
“Yeah, why not?” I ignore Talon’s arm around her and grip the back of her head, bringing my mouth roughly to her forehead. “You weren’t going to win at Sudoku anyway. Might as well not win at this, too.”
“Sudoku isn’t a competition.” I can hear the eye roll in her voice.
I shrug, pulling back. “Everything’s a competition when I’m playing.”
She shoves at me, brushing off her shirt and pursing her lips, before looking at Talon. “I think you’re right. They’re both a bit full of themselves tonight.”
“Finally!” Talon raises a fist, triumphant, before steering Sloan towards the opposite end of the table. “Someone understands my brilliance. Hey—what are those things in your ears?”
“Oh. They’re like earplugs. They help with the noise.” She tucks her hair behind her ear, and Talon leans forward, inspecting, like he’s getting a degree in otolaryngology, not economics.
“Can you get me a pair?” Jay glances up at her as he moves the cups back into a triangle.
“Why?” Sloan wrinkles her nose. “Do you think they’re going to be a good accessory for your game day outfits?”
“No, so I don’t have to hear Talon speak.”
Tia nods along empathetically. “Don’t worry, Choi, I have extras.”
Talon throws his hands in the air. “Can we just play?”
Sloan laughs, and I think all the windchimes in the universe start moving together, swaying in a phantom breeze caused by a beautiful girl who somehow ended up here with me.
She rolls her eyes when I wink at her, and picks up her ball.
Maybe fate’s not such a bad thing to believe in after all.