Page 16 of Game Changer

“I’ll tell you this tomorrow when you’re sober and more likely to remember it, but I love you, too.”

She loves me too!

Thank fuck for that.

“Are you still on the phone to her?” Jeremy reappeared beside him and caught up on his half of the twelve shots that AJ had continued to work through as he chatted to Lisa.

AJ nodded to him and held his finger in front of his lips to silence him.

“Gimme that!” Jeremy said as he snatched AJ’s phone from him.

“What? No! Give that back, NOW, Jeremy!”

AJ tried to get his phone back from Jeremy, but Jeremy had already walked a few feet away with it and was talking to Lisa. AJ was only hearing half of the conversation.

“I’ve got him, princess. Don’t worry. I’ll get him home safely.”

Pause.

“What? Well, yeah. I’m drinking too. I don’t mean I’ll drive him home myself, I’m not a complete idiot.” He turned towards AJ. “She thinks I’m a fucking idiot,” he hissed.

“I mean, she’s not wrong, dude.”

Jeremy punched him playfully. “Here, tell her goodnight and you love her.” Jeremy offered the phone back to AJ.

“I told her that already, she doesn’t believe me.”

As AJ reached for the phone Jeremy pulled it back to say one last thing to Lisa. “Oh, he totally loves you. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s got it baaaaad!”

AJ heard Lisa giggling as he snatched the phone back from Jeremy.

“If Jeremy says it, it must be so, right?” she asked.

“Exactly. He’s not the most observant man in the world. So it must be bad.”

“I think that’s kinda cute, Pim. Chelsea’s been taking the piss out of me over it for a while now. It’s no secret on this side of the ocean. The whole country practically knows I’m madly in love with a hockey boy from the internet.”

“Well, that definitely makes me feel better about being madly in love with a hockey girl from the internet.”

That’s an upgrade from I’m falling in love with you. Not that it’s a lie, it’s just… forward.

“Can you text me when you get home, Pim?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, I worry about you two being unsupervised and drunk.” She giggled again and said goodbye.

Just as she was about to hang up, AJ stopped her, “Lis?”

“Yeah?”

Tell her. Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.

Don’t be a fucking idiot. Don’t tell her. It’ll ruin everything.

“Sweet dreams.”

When he hung up the phone, he finished his last two shots and started to cry.

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