Chapter 2
Willa
It’s been three years, and she has gotten past me each and every time. I’m lucky to call her my teammate, but I’m not letting her get by this time.
Jocelyn’s skills on the ice can’t be matched. There’s been several times where I thought I had her, and I’ve been working all summer to get better.
My legs pump harder to catch up as she skates into the zone, past the blue line. Her stick winds back for the perfect slapshot. It’s a beautiful sight. Her technique is flawless.
She may be my best friend, and this may only be a practice, but I’m not holding anything back when I ram into her, checking her down as her stick propels forward. I plummet onto the ice with her and kick the puck away. We scramble to find it, and watch Danielle skate it back into the offensive zone to attempt a scoring play for our scrimmage.
“Offsides.” Coach Higgins blows his whistle to stop the play once we’re able to get to our feet. “Next group.”
Jocelyn shoulder bumps me as we make our way off and onto the bench.
“That was a good hit,” she compliments me.
“I finally got you.” I try not to gloat too much.
She laughs and passes my water bottle over.
We watch our team go through a few more plays and spend the next hour doing drills until it’s time to clean up.
“These freshmen are so whiny.” Jocelyn throws her freshly dried long dirty blonde hair up and checks her face in the small mirror we set up between our locker room cubbies to share. It’s better than sharing the large one with twenty-four other girls. “I don’t remember being that bad.”
A few new girls whine across from us, complaining about how tired they are.
“We were definitely not that bad,” I agree with her.
It’s the beginning of our senior year, and it’s all happening so fast.
Feeling nostalgic, I scan the room. I’m going to miss these girls and this school. Drexton Hall has been my home away from home for three years. I made new friends, joined a sorority, met my boyfriend, and played in the best games of my life. My time at Drexton has gone by too fast, but I’m excited for the next chapter.
In eight months, I’ll be playing for a professional hockey team, doing everything I’ve dreamed and worked so hard for since I was eight years old.
“I can’t wait for this semester to be over,” Jocelyn groans. “This event has been stressing me out.”
Tonight is the start of our sorority’s charity fundraiser that we’ve been planning since last year. It’s been stressful, but will be worth it.
“Everything is all set, and after the first one, the rest will go smoother.” We have a plan for three total events to raise money, and this is only the first one.
Letting my short blonde hair air dry, I hike my bag over my shoulder and follow Jocelyn out.
“Good job today, ladies.” Coach HIggins flashes us an approving smile with a wink of his dark brown eye as we pass him.
“Thank you,” we both pipe up with our cheeks turning red.
Our new head coach was just hired to replace our old grouchy one that finally retired, and we’ve all been trying to impress him the past few weeks. He’s a lot younger than the rest of our coaches, and Jocelyn turns around with her lip tucked in between her teeth to watch our new coach’s tight ass strut into his office.
She laughs when I catch her, and we head home to set up for our event.
Everything seems to be all set. The ladies from the Delta Nu house next door are all getting ready, and all our Beta Sigma Pi sisters are bustling around to prepare to start.
Except, I don’t have any guys.
“Luca, I reminded you last week to get a bunch of guys together.” I first asked him two weeks ago, reminded him last week, and texted him two days ago. And still, he forgot.
My best friend, Luca, scratches the back of his head with an innocent and apologetic smirk to show how bad he feels. It’s not nearly how horrible I feel if we have to cancel our event because of my mistrust in a friend.
“The event is in two hours!” I pace in front of him on my front lawn, freaking out over what we’re going to do.
Jocelyn and I have been vigorously planning the Beta charity event since last semester. The Delta Nu sorority girls have graciously volunteered to participate and offered up their house to start off the first of many events we planned. Fifteen girls are all preparing themselves to be set up on a blind date and we have no guys to set them up with.
“Relax, Willa.” Luca stops my pacing with his hands on my shoulders. “I got this. I’ll have fifteen guys, including myself, ready in thirty minutes.”
If I can trust anyone, it’s this big oaf.
“It’s twenty-five dollars,” I remind him as he bounces away to his Jeep. “The nice single guys only. No jerks and no freshman,” I yell out as he drives away.
“Did he forget?” Jocelyn comes out from our house with the blindfolds and the black bag of numbers.
Our blind date charity event to raise money for the women’s shelter in town is a literal blind date. Each participant will choose a number and be blindfolded and tied together by a strap at their wrists while we monitor to make sure everyone is having a good time. Jocelyn came up with the idea almost a year ago, and we’ve been planning it out since. But I totally dropped the ball in trusting Luca to get together the fifteen guys from the hockey team to take part.
“He promised he’d get them together in thirty minutes.” I roll my eyes.
Jocelyn steps off the porch and flips back her long, curly hair. “Let’s get the girls ready and if he’s not able to get the guys, we will lure them in some other way.”
The Deltas are all excited as they randomly choose their numbers from the bag.
“Thank you for doing this,” I thank their vice president, Kandi, as she reaches in.
“Drinking isn’t allowed?” she questions and holds up the scrap of paper she chose. “Thirteen.” She shows us her number. “Make sure they’re not a complete idiot.”
“We’ll make an exception.” I pull out the small bottle of vodka from my bag and pour her a shot in the nearest cup. Jocelyn, Kandi, and I all tap our cups together and chug the shot down.
“No drinking during the event, and we’ll be walking around to make sure no one is having any issues,” Jocelyn assures her.
Kandi is being a good sport in agreeing to this, and has shown no apprehension about it to the other girls. Although I”ve seen her go on several dates and bring home even more men than she’s dated, Kandi wasn’t thrilled about being blindfolded and not knowing who she’s being paired with.
“We have an excellent group of guys selected for you,” Jocelyn lies and pours us each another shot. “We really appreciate you being our test group.”
She elbows me to agree with her.
“Only the best guys,” I agree.
“It’s for charity,” Kandi mutters to hype herself up. “And no freshmen?”
“No freshmen.”
She knocks back her cup with a heavy sigh and motions for Jocelyn to pour her one more.
Leaving our other sisters in charge to get the Delta’s set up, Jocelyn and I race over to the hockey house. Running the two blocks instead of driving after the shots we did.
Jocelyn stops outside the house, fixing her hair and top.
“Wait,” she stops me from knocking, reaching into her shirt, and pulling her breasts up to fix her cleavage. “Just in case Luca needs help rounding them up.”
She nods when she’s ready. I knock once, and then let myself in when no one answers.
“Let’s go, I need one more.” Luca ushers the guys down into their living room.
“What’s happening hea?” Finn says in his Irish accent. He and Alex, two of Luca’s best guy friends and members of the team, jog in behind us.
Perfect.Alex is taken, but Finn is single.
“Luca, I have the last one right here,” I shout and link my arm in Finn’s. “Do you have twenty-five bucks for charity?”
“Aye.” He looks down, standing at least a foot over me.
“Luca was supposed to ask weeks ago, and we need fifteen single guys for our blind date event.”
Alex laughs and runs up the stairs to get away from the chaos that Jocelyn is trying to take control of.
“Ah shite,” Finn curses and pulls his arm away from me to swipe over his lightly freckled face.
“Please, Finn. We have the Delta’s waiting, and it’s for charity,” I beg with my hands pressed together between us.
“The Delta’s?” He clears his throat.
“Yup, no freshmen. Most of them agreed to—”
“Alright, fine.” He’s quick to agree without any details, pulling his wallet out to give me money. “I need to change first.”
“I told you I had this.” Luca winks at me while getting the guys to line up so Jocelyn can pass around the bag of numbers.
Luca pulls out the number ten and frowns. Thank god it’s not thirteen. I love Luca, but he and Kandi do not get along. She’d hate me if I let them get paired up.
The guys are all set with their numbers and Jocelyn pours them each a shot.
“Meet us at the Delta Nu house in fifteen minutes.” I point to Luca as I back away. Finn comes down just in time to get the last number. “Did you hear that, Finn?”
“Fifteen minutes. Got it.” He holds up his number, nine, with a nod.
I’ve known Luca since pee-wee hockey, but he has trouble focusing on tasks and getting places on time. Finn will make sure all the guys get there.
“Running was not a good idea,” Jocelyn laughs as we round the corner to head back home.
“We have time.” I slow down to a jog and then a fast-paced walk with her.
“Planning this event with you has been a lot of fun.” She drapes her arm over my shoulders. “We got to spend more time together.”
“We always spend time together.” I laugh as we cross the street to pass Fraternity Row. It’s the block between our sorority house and the hockey house, with a bunch of frat houses lining the street.
I catch a glimpse of my boyfriend’s house up the small block. They have tables set up on the lawn, preparing for a party tonight. There’s always a party.
“You’re always with Vic,” Jocelyn sighs, looking in the same direction I am. “When we do hang out, it’s always at their parties or when they’re away for a competition or a guy’s trip.”
“That’s not…” I try to argue, but she’s not wrong. Vic has a party every weekend, and multiple nights during the week, and I’m there for each one.
“I get it. He’s your boyfriend and I see you at practice and for games, and all the other times.” She bumps my shoulder with hers as we round the next corner to come to Sorority Row. “But I enjoy hanging out with my friend without her loser boyfriend.”
Here we go. It wouldn’t be a conversation about my life without mentioning how much they hate Vic. I get it from everyone, not just Jocelyn.
“He’s not a loser.” I defend him like always. “He’s not perfect, but I love him. And I’ll try to be around more for everyone. It’s our last year.”
“God, can you believe it?” She shakes her head in wonder. “We’re actually graduating and then it’s off to the pros.”
A grin spreads across her face, imaging life as a pro hockey player. I smile along with her. We’re living our dreams.
“By the way, what do you think of our new coach?” Her eyebrows dance up and down on her forehead. “Hot, right?”
“Oh my god, yes.” I gush with her. Our new head coach is gorgeous, but completely off limits.
For one, he’s our coach. Two, he’s married. As Luca says, an argument is best made in three points, and three, he has to be at least fifteen years older than us. But I can’t deny the man looks good.
“He’s married,” I tell Jocelyn to warn her before she gets carried away.
“Oh, I know.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “All the good ones are taken.”
The guys pull up to the house in several cars, and the girls are already blindfolded inside. Jocelyn helps line them all up in number order to match the girls waiting.
I count and recount. And count again.
“Luca,” I stand in front of my best friend. “Why are you standing in thirteen’s spot?”
“I switched.” He shrugs.
“You switched?” I shriek. This is bad. Luca cannot have that number. “You can’t just switch.”
“It’s my lucky number.” He leans down for Jocelyn to put on his blindfold. “We all switched. I switched with Carter. Carter switched with Hines.”
“Carter?” No, no, no, no. This keeps getting worse. Carter Pierce isn”t the type of guy we were looking for. “I told you to ask the nice guys.”
“He paid fifty bucks,” Luca explains, looking in the opposite direction of where I’m standing. At least the blindfolds are working. “We were in a time crunch.”
“I’m blaming you if anything happens.” I slap his arm, making him jump.
I check down the line and see Carter ready at the number six spot. I wouldn’t have let him leave the house if I had noticed before.
“It’ll be fine,” Jocelyn assures me as she fixes Carter’s blindfold.
“You overpaid.” I touch his arm, so he knows I’m talking to him. “It’s only twenty-five.”
“Keep it for the shelter.” He scratches the thick scruff on his chin. “See? I can be nice.” He heard me talking to Luca, not like I was hiding our conversation. I don’t care if Carter Pierce hears what I think of him.
“You’re an asshole on your good days.” I roll my eyes.
“Women love the asshole.” Carter’s mouth ticks up into a sly grin. “You would know that better than anyone, right Willa? How long have you been with yours?” He refers to my boyfriend.
“Dick.” I flick his shoulder.
“Oh, baby. I like it rough,” he groans with a smug smirk.
“Be nice,” I remind him and turn away with Jocelyn. “Who is he paired up with?”
“Chelsea,” she sighs. This keeps getting better and better.
Chelsea isn’t the most pleasant person either.
Jocelyn keeps watch over Carter and Chelsea as we guide the guys in, and I stay close to Luca and Kandi. But not even twenty minutes in, Chelsea screams from across the room.
“Get this asshole off me. Now!”
I rush over to help Jocelyn untie them.
“The knot is tightening from all the pulling,” I say to get Chelsea to stop tugging on the cloth around their wrists. She keeps pulling away every time I’m able to get the knot loose, only for it to tighten back up again.
“Don’t be such a bitch. I didn’t do or say anything.” Carter defends himself and tries to help me as best he can while still being blindfolded. “Just calm down and let her untie us.”
We finally get it undone with Jocelyn holding Chelsea’s arm down, and guide them out of the house as fast as we can to not disrupt everyone else’s date.
“This was not my fault.” Carter rips his blindfold off to reveal his deep, dark eyes as he points at me. “I was being nice.”
“Just go. You’re making my life harder.” I push him to go down the porch steps after Chelsea.
“I make your life more interesting.” He winks at me as he backs away.
Every other couple is getting along great. To my surprise, that includes Kandi and Luca, who have no idea they’re paired with each other.
Chelsea and Carter continue arguing outside, and a few minutes later Chelsea comes in dragging Carter behind her back with a handful of his shirt to take him to her room.
“Told you so,” Carter mouths as they walk past. Proving his point that women will choose the asshole.
It makes me sick to see how right he is. The proof is in the shelter we’re supporting and raising money for tonight. Guys can say whatever they want, be complete jerks, and still get exactly what they want.