Chapter Three #2
My suspicions were confirmed when he slyly motioned to El with his head. He was lucky she had her back to him, tapping away on her phone.
One more word and it would’ve been fatal for him.
“Are you fucking insane?” I warned, milliseconds away from grabbing a fistful of his shirt and throwing him to the floor.
Hands up defensively, he eased back. “I’m joking! I’m fucking joking.”
Huffing, I regained my composure. “You should know better than to joke like that.”
“You’re right. I probably could’ve just gotten myself killed,” he murmured, the end of his words getting drowned out by a swig of beer.
“Yeah. You could’ve.”
“Sorry,” he said.
Taking in his honest expression, I sighed. The rigidness in my shoulders fell away. I couldn’t stay mad at the kid, but joke or not, it still nearly sent me into a deadly frenzy.
Interrupting at the best time, Lane appeared with Crew on his heels, both carrying trays of shots.
“Holy shit, Cap,” Cody said.
Ditto.
Eyes bouncing back and forth between the shots and our golden boy, concern set in. “Lane... tell me you didn’t pay for all of these yourself.”
Creeping over to the table, TJ popped up over Lane’s shoulder. “Yeah, Cap. This definitely cost at least a hundred bucks.”
“Two hundred with tip,” Lane corrected him.
“Jesus Chr— Lane!” I chided.
“It’s fine,” he waved me off. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it? Our night is just getting started and you’ve already spent two hundred bucks on all of us! I’m sending you money,” I said, digging into my pocket for my phone.
Pointing a stern finger at me, Lane’s orders were clear. “Don’t send me a dime.”
“But—”
“It’s fine. I didn’t pay for it,” he admitted.
“What?” Cody blurted.
Letting out a shriek of laughter, TJ slung an arm around Lane, who immediately shrugged him off. “Did you flirt with the bartenders?”
Lane gave him a gnarly side eye. “With my girlfriend here?”
“Yeah TJ, shut the fuck up,” Cody butted in.
“So stupid,” I uttered under my breath. Hence why we referred to him as Team Idiot. “Lane, if you didn’t pay for these, then who did?”
He handed the empty trays off to Crew, who wandered back to the bar with them. Sighing, Lane dug through his pocket, glancing around to make sure the rest of the guys were distracted before he held up a credit card.
I squinted at it, and when the name finally came into view, I snatched it right out of his hand. “Holy shit! Coach gave you his fucking credit card?”
“No fucking way!” TJ screeched.
“Let me see that!” Cody hollered, grabbing at it.
Suddenly, it felt like a hot iron was burning me on the forehead. Glancing up, I realized it was Lane’s glare. He held a hand out, all business as he said, “Give it back. Now.”
Like I child, I obeyed. If there was one person on this team that we all actually listened to, it was Lane.
He was one of us— impish and buoyant, but he was also a leader. By far, the most responsible on the team. Not to mention, the most talented. He was self-disciplined, beyond intelligent, and remarkably mature.
I’d trust him too if I were Coach.
One by one, Lane spread out the shots, and I watched TJ pick one up just to give it a sniff. “What the hell is this?” he asked, hovering the glass beneath his nose. “Is this fucking Rumple Minze?”
Snatching a shot off the table, I got a whiff of it before the glass even reached my nose. “Definitely Rumple Minze,” I gagged. “Lane, why’d you get these? They’re literally a hundred proof. You yelled at us last time for ordering them, remember?”
With a smile so charming that any girl probably would’ve kissed him on the spot, Lane’s Superman blue eyes sparkled. “We didn’t win a national title last time.”
Fair enough.
Instructing everyone to gather in a circle, shots were passed out to each team member, along with the girls.
After yelling at a few freshmen to wait to take theirs, Lane straightened, demanding our attention.
And he got it. All eyes were on him.
“For starters,” he began, eyes flitting around the group, “I think I speak for both Crew and myself when I say thank you for making our last season at Cedar so memorable.”
Heads fell, and there was no doubt some of the guys were getting emotional— including me.
The thought of Lane and Crew not being here next year was a punch in the gut. I tore my gaze away from our golden boy, holding back the tears that were sitting behind my eyes, wanting desperately to escape.
I never got emotional. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried. Anger was so familiar to me, practically coded into my DNA, but sadness was so foreign.
I shifted my weight side to side, growing uncomfortable in my own skin. Trying to get a grip, I quietly cleared my throat. I’d rather inject bleach into my veins than let these emotions take over.
“We’re really going to miss all of you,” Lane’s voice shook lightly, and I could tell this was breaking his soul in two. Glancing at Crew for reassurance, Crew gave him a nod.
“You got it, Cap!” Jett shouted from behind me.
Quickly acknowledging him, Lane continued. “Don’t worry though,” he broke into a smirk. “We’ll be sure to come visit a practice or two.”
I joined in as the boys began applauding for a moment.
“But for real, every one of you should be extremely proud of yourselves. I’m surely proud of this team and I’d like to thank you all personally for allowing me to be your captain for two years.
It has truly been an honor to play alongside you.
Together, we’ve done some remarkable things.
Everything that we’ve worked for has led up to right now, and I’m absolutely stoked that we get to bring that trophy home to Cedar for the first time in over a decade.
So,” Lane raised his shot, “go Stallions!”
“Go Stallions!” we cheered, throwing our shots back. Hoots and hollers flooded the bar as we dispersed in our own conversations and raucous behavior.
Amidst all the pandemonium, El had disappeared.
Sharp panic pierced into me. In two minutes, she’d managed to vanish?
I didn’t need her in front of me every second of the night but having no idea where she went in an unfamiliar bar within a huge city was unsettling to me.
Rummaging through some of the guys and pushing them aside harsher than I’d meant to, El finally came into view, and I felt like I could breathe.
“Mattie!”
Once again, there was that annoyingly adorable nickname she’d given me when we were ten.
For the longest time, I absolutely despised it. Nowadays, it sounded especially sweet coming out of her full lips, and I didn’t mind the nickname at all anymore.
El stood in front of a set of stairs that I didn’t initially notice at the back of the bar. Her eyes were fixated on me as I strolled over wearing a mischievous smile that only grew when I noticed the top two buttons on her shirt were undone, giving me the glorious view of her cleavage.
Dangerous thoughts were consuming me at the sight, thoughts that would most definitely get me in some sort of trouble if I acted on them.
But they were also thoughts that had been recurring over the years, and whenever I spent time with El, my self-discipline chipped away little by little like an eroding rock.
Sooner or later, my prudence would be nothing but dust.
“What’s up there?” I nodded to the stairs.
“Oh, we found the dance floor!”
The faint sound of music carried down the stairs, and I’d never been a big dancer, ever, but I always sucked it up for El.
She was a pristine ballerina; she loved to dance. And if it meant making her happy, then I’d suffer through my feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment.
“I’m guessing you wanna dance?” I spoke, giving a slight cringe.
“I do, but,” she paused, her small hand enclosing around the tips of my fingers, sending a jolt of electricity through me, “I wanna tell you something first.”
El tugged me over to a secluded corner, and a million flashes of her confessing that she had feelings for me right now ran through my mind.
The skin on her fingertips felt like pure velvet wrapped around me, and I immediately missed her touch when she let go.
“Wh— what is it?” I asked, faltering like a scratched record.
With galaxies in her eyes and a smile that could heal the world’s most broken heart, El looked nothing short of beautiful.
I wanted to brush my thumb over her cheek, to grab her hand again and have the honor of holding it for a bit longer this time.
But like every other time over the past sixteen years that those urges flooded to the surface, I forced them away.
“Okay so,” she started, “I was going to wait to tell you because this is your night, and I don’t want to take anything away from you...”
“Tell me what?”
“I just literally can’t hold it in any longer...”
“What?” I let out a nervous chuckle.
Rocking back and forth on her heels, El said, “I chose what school I’m going to.”
“Stanford?” I guessed. “Harvard? Yale?”
No doubt she could’ve gotten into any of them. She was just that goddamn smart. A true Einsteinette, and I loved that about her.
Shaking her head, El’s lips nervously thinned for a moment. “Cedar.”
Did I just hear her correctly?
“What?”
El beamed, “I’m coming to Cedar.”
I froze for a second, because my first instinct was to spin her around and kiss her.
Scanning her face for any sign that she was messing with me, I asked, “Are you serious?”
She nodded frantically, and I didn’t hold back anymore.
“Oh, my God! El!” I scooped her up and spun her around, settling for a hug at the end instead of a kiss.
It was an incredible thought— us being at college together. Her being so close that I’d get to see her more than once every few months and maybe even convince her to fall in love with me.
Being eight hours away from each other for the past three years was a fucking nightmare. For me, at least.
During the hockey season, it was nearly impossible for me to visit El, and since she was always so busy with school, she was only able to visit Cedar two or three times each school year.
We didn’t attend the same high school either. Our schools were only twenty or so minutes apart though and our hometowns were right next to each other, so we’d only been a short drive away from one another growing up.
Back then, we probably hung out a few times a month. But now, we’d be able to see each other a few times a week. Hell, being on the same campus, we could see each other every day if we wanted to.
Compared to if she had just told me she had feelings for me, this was the next best thing.
“This is amazing!” I screeched. “What made you choose Cedar?”
Please say me. Please say me. Please say me.
Lightly shrugging, El said, “They’re known for having a great law school, and I wanted to finally get out of Illinois without going crazy far.”
Not the exact answer I wanted but I’m still happy, I thought.
“This is amazing,” I repeated, a smile tattooed onto my face just as the boys started belting the lyrics to “We Are the Champions” by Queen.
Tonight was shaping up to be one of the greatest nights of my life, by far.