54. Chapter Fifty-Four #2
“I missed you,” I say, not slowing down my pace. I really missed this, and I don’t know how to say that I never want to live life without her again.
“Missed you, too, Pers.”
I murmur against her jaw, “I’m no good without you.”
She nods, feeling the pressure.
“I want you––”
Her hips buck.
I hold my hips still, fully pressed inside of her. “Be my girlfriend, Penelope.”
She exhales, digging her nails into my shoulders. I move slowly and she closes her eyes, nodding. “I’m coming.”
“Is that a yes?”
She moans, “Yes.”
I pick up my pace, and she’s clenching around me, pulling me right over the edge with her. I press in deep and hold there while it works through both of us, my face dropping to her neck. I don’t move for a long moment after.
Then I lift my head. Her whole face changes as she runs her hand through my hair and says plainly, “My boyfriend.”
My heart kicks, so I lean down and kiss her. It’s supposed to be soft, and it doesn’t stay soft, but I’m spent, so it just goes long and slow until I pull out and she keeps my face in the nook of her neck.
“You’re supposed to be studying,” she says against my shoulder.
I’m not thinking about finals at all.
“I have a 4.0,” I mumble, and then lean up. “And a girlfriend.”
She laughs, and I kiss her through it.
An hour later, I’m sitting in my spot at the kitchen table, studying while Penelope is on the couch quizzing Gianna when Stanley leans back and says, “I need another break. Babe?”
“Ermington,” she replies from the living room.
He grins, looking at me. “Don’t worry. She loves me.”
Benson mutters, “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Stanley shouts, “Do you want to streak down Hawthorne?”
“Not this again,” Benson mumbles.
“I absolutely do not, Ermington,” Aspen shouts back.
I hear the girls giggling.
Stanley says to the house. “We’re doing it before we graduate. It’s tradition.”
Benson shakes his head.
Blue says, “It’s not tradition. Nobody has ever streaked Hawthorne.”
“That’s because everyone has the personality of a goddamn wall. We’re doing it. We’re also skinny dipping at Boyne.”
Benson shakes his head. “Nobody is getting naked, Stanley.”
Rowan says, “If you get a 4.0 like Percy, I’ll do it.”
Stanley looks around the room. “You know I’m not getting a 4.0.”
Rowan cackles. “Sucks to be a loser.”
I stand abruptly. “I’m going to study in my bedroom.”
Stanley puts his hands on my shoulders and forces me back into my chair. “You stay here. I’ll go.”
I watch him leave the kitchen. “Aspen. Baby girl. I need to get a 4.0.”
And shortly after, Aspen is screaming his name.
Blue and I glance at each other, and honestly, I don’t want to know why she’s shrieking like that, so I put my head back in my textbook.
About ten minutes later, Stanley walks back in with his phone and slams it on the table, catching all of our attention. Gianna follows in behind him.
“Fourteen,” he says. “We’re fourteen, Benson. You know what’s outside sixteen? Nothing. Death. The void. Teams that go home in March.”
“We’re fourteen because we split with Michigan State,” Benson says. He doesn’t look up from his laptop. “We win both this weekend and we’re not fourteen.”
“That’s what I’m saying.” Stanley slaps the table. “Two games. Friday, Saturday. We take both and we jump. We climb. We look the committee dead in the eye in March and we say —”
“The committee doesn’t watch in December.”
“But they feel it, Benson. They feel the momentum in their bones.”
Benson finally looks at him. “That’s not how the ranking works.”
“It’s how destiny works.”
Rowan says from the counter while Gianna stands next to him, “So, what’re you saying?”
Stanley points the phone at Benson. “Captain. Back me up. This weekend matters.”
“All the games matter. This weekend matters,” Benson says, and now he’s serious in the captain voice. “Every game from now till March is one we don’t get back.” He looks around. “So yeah. We win both. Then we go on the trip. Then we come back in January, and we don’t stop.”
The room goes a little quiet, the way it does when Benson stops being funny.
“See,” Stanley says, softer now, “that’s the bones.”
Benson rolls his eyes and goes back to his laptop.
“Percy.” Stanley swings to me. “You know what a shutout does to a fourteen-ranking?”
“Moves it,” I say.
“Moves it.” He throws his hands up like I’ve said something profound. “The goalie gets it. The quiet one gets it. Pers, you need to practice.”
“Fuck off, Ermington.”
Gianna laughs as she walks out. She pats Stanley on the shoulder and says, “Focus on yourself.”
“I’m in my prime,” Stanley scoffs.
Benson shakes his head. “You’re a pain in the ass is what you are.”
Everyone in the house laughs.
Final exams are always brutal. A lot of the questions don’t match what I study, but I anticipated that and don’t only study the study guides.
I end the year with all A’s, and on my last exam of the year, I’m anxious to see Penelope.
She said the girls are setting up Hawthorne to surprise us.
It’s Thursday, and practice killed me this morning, but it’s been nice that the team is helping me with my weaknesses in the net.
They’re serious about the Frozen Four, and the only way there is to keep winning and climb the rankings before March.
When I think about being a goaltender, and all I have to do, all that’s required of me, I know that if I get better and faster, I can prevent the pucks from getting in.
We have a better chance at winning if I’m good.
Stanley has always talked me up since the moment I met him.
I remember one time they let Hutch play, and he argued with Fuller for five minutes about putting me at the net.
Fuller told him he can’t make that call, but I’ll never forget the amount of belief he’s put in me.
He told me that I’m better than the other goalies he’s played with, and that’s something coming from the guy named after the Stanley Cup. He’s a fucking hockey prodigy.
I think my biggest advantage is that sometime this year, the puck flying at me stopped being a river stone.
I don’t know when that happened. I didn’t notice it happen, and that’s the part that gets me, because I notice everything — I’ve spent my whole life watching the door.
But that left without me catching it leave.
Maybe I’m growing up.
Or maybe it’s her.
My girlfriend.