Page 57 of Play Maker

Dane shook his head. “Yeah, like those words don’t make me nervous atall.”

I said my goodbye to Dane and headed off to the dorm.

When I got to my room, I dropped off my bag. My stomach growled up a storm, so I grabbed a protein shake from my fridge, downed it in record time, and then chugged another one for good measure.

I was pretty sure Axel went back to his room. It was fine. We'd have it out, he'd yell at me, and then it would be done. He’d have to deal with it. I wasn't going to let this fuck up the team.

Jace: We need to talk.

Axel: Nothing to talk about.

Jace: I’m headed to your room.

Axel: Don’t.

Jace: Don’t be an ass.

Axel: Fuck off or I’m blocking you.

Okay, I’d try another tactic.

Jace: There’s a party crawl going on to celebrate our win. You have to come. Everyone on the team will be there.

Axel: I don’t have to do anything.

Instead of responding, I shoved my phone in my pocket and headed for the elevator. The ride to the third floor seemed to take forever. Kayden’s room was 333 and I’d found out through him that Axel was in 339.

When I arrived at Axel’s door, I raised my hand to knock and noticed that my hand was shaking. Weird. I rapped on the door twice and waited.

And waited. I rapped again.

And waited.

I was about to knock for the third time when the door opened, an irate Axel staring back at me.

“Get lost,” he replied and slammed the door in my face.

I knocked again. “I’m going to camp out here until you talk to me. Or, until you come and party with us.”

A minute passed. Then two. Five.

I sat down on the carpeted hall floor and put my earphones in, listening to some tunes while I waited. And waited.

Ten minutes later, the door cracked open again. Axel had his jacket on and stared daggers at me.

“I’m going for an hour. For the team,” he declared with a scowl. “But that’s it.”

“Fair enough,” I replied and stood up.

Axel closed and locked his door, and we made our way silently, awkwardly, to the elevator.

“You played amazing today—” I started.

Axel slammed the elevator button so hard that I worried he might have broken it.

“Really? Do you hear yourself?” Axel grumbled.

“What? It’s true. I wouldn’t have scored without that pass. You?—”

---