Chapter Five
Matt
Walking into the house to see Cody and TJ sitting in the same spot they were in an hour ago was exactly what I didn’t want to see.
Summer had flown by, and now, it was the end of August. For the most part, summer wasn’t very eventful.
The busiest part of it all was Lo’s wedding.
El had been her maid of honor; Jade and I were both proud to have been chosen for the wedding party.
It was a beautiful wedding back in Illinois, straight out of a fairytale.
Now, classes would be starting in a little over a week, and El was moving into her new apartment tomorrow— a one bedroom down the road.
If I’d had it my way, she would just be moving into the house with us.
Even though all six bedrooms were full, I would’ve been fine kicking one of the boys out for her. I was that psychotic.
To make things easier for her, El was driving up from Illinois and spending the night here; we all agreed to help her move in tomorrow morning.
Whenever she had come to stay here, I made sure the house was as clean as possible and stocked with her favorite snacks.
Goldfish, chocolate chip cookies, and dried fruit.
Weird combination, I know.
But that was El. She was quirky and random at times, but still always classy somehow.
When Lane and Crew lived here, I never had to worry about making sure the place got cleaned on time. Lane was always on top of it, and the rest of the guys simply followed his orders.
Now that he wasn’t here, the house was constantly trashed. And of course, no one gave a fuck about listening to me.
Dropping the few grocery bags I had in the doorway to the living room, I huffed. “Have you guys moved at fucking all?”
Both were rotting away on our adjacent couches, sucked into a Marvel movie.
Slumped against the couch with his disgusting feet propped up on the table I just cleaned this morning, Cody’s voice was sluggish, careless. “Does it look like we’ve moved?”
“No.”
“Then there’s your answer.”
Holding back a growl, my jaw ticked.
I asked them to do one fucking thing. To clean the goddamn living room and I’d take the kitchen. How hard could that possibly be?
TJ’s head tipped up, inspecting the bags that were now on the floor. “Ah,” he said, “I see you bought all her favorite snacks like the whipped little boy you are.”
Cody snorted.
Stomping over to the TV, I hit the power button.
“Hey!”
“What the hell!”
“Clean the damn living room,” I argued.
Nothing had been dusted since probably the spring, and who knew when the last time this place was vacuumed was? The carpet was stained from spills during parties and hopefully no bodily fluids, but I wouldn’t put it past some of these boys.
Cough, cough— Cody and Keith.
It felt like I could hear the crunch under my feet from food crumbs every time I took a step, and random shit littered the area— socks, backpacks, hockey gear.
Eyes thinning to slits, TJ whined like a child, “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not my captain.”
“Yeah? Well, your captain will be home soon, so you can hear it from him then.”
Even though no one could replace Lane Avery, who was by far the best captain Cedar University had ever seen, our new captain was no doubt special.
Jett Jameson.
He was definitely the most responsible upperclassman left on the team, and with Jonah Morgan as our assistant captain, they were a great duo to lead us to another successful season.
Jett was our starting left-winger, who had lightning speed on the ice and a wicked wrist shot. One of the top leading scorers in the NCAA, he’d played a vital role in us winning our title last season.
And for lack of better words, Jonah was a mini-Lane.
Our new starting center had many strengths of his own, both on and off the ice.
He was focused, giving no time to meaningless hookups or getting wasted outside of the occasional party.
And every time he stepped onto the ice, he was prepared.
He carried himself like a champion and a leader long before he was ever deemed either of those things.
Focusing on keeping my voice calm and steady, I asked, “Can you two please clean the living room?”
Exchanging glances, they sighed.
“Alright,” Cody agreed.
“Yeah. Fine,” TJ stood. Squinting deeply at me like I was his greatest enemy, he hissed, “But I’m doing it for El, not for you.”
I rolled my eyes. Dramatic as hell.
An hour and a half later, the house was clean. Well, cleaner.
It probably would’ve taken literal days to make this place spotless. After all, this house had been home to generations of messy hockey players.
Checking on El’s location every half hour or so, I threw two frozen pizzas into the oven, timing it out perfectly so that they’d be ready right when she arrived.
“Ooo,” a deep voice chimed behind me when I opened the oven to check on them, “what is that lovely smell?”
As I peered over my shoulder, there was Keith Sunset.
Otherwise known as “Sunny” or “Sunnyboy” to some, Keith was the new Nicholas Crew.
A playboy to his core and a damn good right-winger, Keith was the perfect fit for our starting line. Him and Jonah moved in last year after Lane and Crew got their own apartment to finish out their final season at Cedar.
When Lane and Crew first told us that they weren’t renewing their lease at the house, the rest of us were devastated.
We had a whole house meeting to see who the best contenders would be to move in.
Lane had made a good point, explaining that Keith and Jonah would most likely be our newest starting players after he and Crew headed to the NHL.
Since it was Lane’s idea, it was hard for any of us to disagree.
If we were going to be playing alongside each other on the same line, it was important for all of us to bond, to become one unit.
I’d say living together over the past year did exactly that.
“Pizza’s not for you, Sunny,” I said.
Throwing me his most charming smile like he was trying to get in my pants, Keith tipped his head. “Just let me snag one slice.”
“Maybe if there’s any leftover.”
Three solid knocks sounded at the front door, reminding me once again that we needed to fix the doorbell that some drunken idiot fell against and broke during a party.
Practically running to the door, I swung it open.
El stood in her baby blue set of sweatpants and a matching top, hair in a messy bun atop her head and light bags highlighted under her eyes from the exhaustion of a long drive.
But her eyes brightened when she saw me, and mine inevitably did the same.
“Hello there,” I smiled.
“Hey, Mattie.” El clutched my midsection, nuzzling her cheek against my chest.
She always gave the best hugs, ever since we were younger. If I could glue her onto me like this so that we were intertwined forever, I would. I frowned as she pulled away.
El reached down for her Louis Vuitton duffle bag that looked like it cost more than our house.
“Ah,” I stopped her, beating her to it. “I’ve got it.”
“Okay,” she smiled. “Thanks.”
The second she walked into the house, I felt off.
As if I had eyes in the back of my head, I knew exactly why.
Fucking Keith.
I turned, and there he was, leaning against the kitchen doorframe. Eyes glimmering, he watched El like a panther locked in on its prey.
“Hello,” he announced himself.
“Hi,” El said, not paying him much attention.
Believe it or not, these two hadn’t officially met before.
El only visited twice last year, and even though Keith lived here, he wasn’t home at the time. Keith was rarely ever here.
His hometown was only an hour and a half away, so on weekends that we didn’t have games, he’d occasionally go home to visit family.
If Keith wasn’t doing that on the weekends, he could typically be found in some girl’s bed, having a weird rule about not having girls in his own bedroom, or as he would call it, his “sacred space”.
And throughout the chaos of winning the championship, they hadn’t officially met during the after-party.
I pretended like Keith wasn’t there, placing El’s bag in the corner for now. “How was the drive?”
“Long,” El smiled through a sigh.
“Yeah. Well, I made pizza for us, and my bedroom is all ready for you whenever you decide you wanna turn in for the night.”
Her delicate chuckle shot straight to my core, melting me from the inside out. “It’s only six o’clock. Do you think I’m normally in bed by seven?”
Checking the corner of my eye, I was thankful to see that Keith had disappeared. “Knowing you and your schedule, probably.”
Playfully, her eyes rolled. “You act like I’m ninety.”
“My ninety-year-old grandmother goes to bed later than that, actually.”
“Fuck off,” El grinned. She threw herself onto the couch, sprawling across it. I loved how comfortable she was here, as if she lived here herself. “Wow, no TV or anything on? Seems like you’re having a boring night, Mattie.”
I couldn’t believe she was here right now, and that she’d be staying in Cedar.
Craving the feeling of being near her again, I picked up her legs and sat down on the other side of the couch, resting her legs on top of mine. It was a casual gesture, seemingly platonic, but something about her warmth resting over me made my heartbeat quicken.
“There you go again with that stupid nickname,” I grinned.
“Oh, c’mon. I know you don’t actually hate it. You stopped hating it when we were like, eleven.”
“False. I just eventually came to the realization that I was stuck with it.” Not true. I did like it at this point. Only when it came from her though.
El’s eyes crinkled at the corners, lips curled upwards with amusement. “Maybe it’s just karma for that time you tattled on me.”
I threw my head back, chuckling. “You threw a baseball at my face and knocked out my tooth!”
“Well, you told me my new haircut was ugly and it hurt my feelings!” she laughed.
The sound was sweet, angelic, penetrating straight through me. It was a sound I could hear on repeat and never get tired of. I glanced away, fighting a smile but knowing damn well that it was no use. The smile was branded on my face in her presence, the same way it always had been.
“So, you turned to violence, huh?” I joked.
“Says you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I rolled my eyes.
That smile still hadn’t abandoned her plump lips, and I’d sell my soul to the devil himself just for a quick taste.
I gulped, my hands instinctively giving her legs a squeeze on my lap.
There was a spark, so quick that I wasn’t sure at first if I imagined it or not. But El’s eyes had darkened when I looked over, chest sucking in a deep breath like she was at war with herself, battling off the same urge to jump across the couch and kiss me.
She blinked it all away though, leaving me questioning myself once again. “When does Jade move in?”
Our whole lives, we’d had moments like this— a rapid spark that dissipated just as fast as it appeared. I was used to shaking it off, but this new forced proximity would definitely test my limits.
“Next week.”
“How exciting,” El teased.
Running a hand over my face, I cringed. “Not at all.”
The thought of my baby sister at college was bad enough. Booze. Boys. Independence. There were endless possibilities of her getting herself into trouble.
And her being at the same college as me? Lord help us all.
Sure, it would be nice having her close enough to keep an eye on her, but I was worried as hell.
Jade was a troublemaker, through and through. She didn’t do well with rules, rebelling every chance she got. She was such a liability that my parents only gave her two options of where she could go to college— either within state lines or at Cedar with El and me.
I got the pizza out of the oven just as El went to take a shower.
By the time she got out, the pizza had cooled down to the perfect temperature.
“You want two pieces?” I yelled to her from the kitchen.
“Yes, please!”
“Ranch on the side?”
“Yes, please!”
I’d been paying such close attention to her since we were kids that I knew her order for everything. All her likes and dislikes. There was practically a whole corner of my brain dedicated to her.
Collectively, we finished one of the pizzas, leaving the other up for grabs.
I texted in our house group chat, and within minutes, Keith, TJ, and Cody were all out of their rooms, each grabbing a slice before fighting each other for more.
Gathered in the living room with a drink in everyone’s hand, we whipped out a deck of cards for a game of Irish poker.
Laughter filled the house, and we played until we were tipsy, enjoying one of our final nights of summer.
With El here, it couldn’t have been more perfect. I couldn’t fucking wait for all the memories we were going to make this year, and for all the nights we would have just like this one.
Minus Keith’s questionable heart eyes at El.
That, I could go without.