Page 63 of Off The Ice

@hannahbby: nooooooo, he’s so hot

The redhead responded,

@sam_3xo: don’t tell him that, apparently he has a gf and can’t even have a conversation without letting you know about her.

My jaw ticked. I had only brought out the imaginary girlfriend card aftermultipleattempts to get the girl to back the hell off. Now she got to spread shit on the internet where people would just believe it as fact? It was fucking stupid. And I couldn’t say anything about it without getting bad press.

Like a masochist, I kept scrolling.

@bCassiebuns13: receipts???

@sam_3x0: oh, I got them

Followed by a blurry photo beneath the tweet that had me sucking in a sharp breath.

It was me, standing by the karaoke stage, my body angled slightly toward Cassie. Our faces weren’t visible, but anyone who knew me would be able to tell it was me by my posture alone.

Cassie was barely visible. A blurry face and long blond hair were the only things you could really make out about her figure.

The only thing that was incriminating was how close we stood to each other. I didn’t even realize I’d been leaning into her that much.

But it had been loud? Hadn’t it?

My grip on the phone tightened, my jaw working as I tried to figure out a solution. I knew better than to believe the story would just die out. Social media was like a curse to humanity, spreading lies and misinformation as rapidly as fire, with no way to drench the flames.

The replies were endless, each comment written by people who clearly had no real lives of their own.

My fingers threatened to crush the phone they held, but still, I couldn’t put it away. This wasn’t just my life they were messing with now, butCassie’s.

Cassie, who clearly would rather hide under a rock than face any type of public scrutiny like the type that came along with my life.

My mind was racing, my blood was boiling, and then, a soft voice cut through the static of my thoughts.

“Hey,” Cassie said, sliding back into her seat as she tucked a loose curl behind her ear. “Are you okay?”

I blinked at her, the anger still vividly thrumming in my chest.

Her bright blue eyes were open, searching mine for an answer.

I swallowed anxiously. Did I tell her? That right now, thousands of strangers were likely zooming in, analyzing, trying to track her down, all because of me? That some random girl was spreading rumors about her just because of her connection to me?

Did I tell her the idea of her life getting muddied and messed up with and put under a magnifying glass because of me made me want to throw my fucking phone across the room?

She tilted her head, eyes pinched nervously.

“Liam?” she asked again.

I inhaled deeply through my nose, pocketing my phone once more, though it now felt like more of a bomb waiting to detonate.

“Yeah,” I said, voice rougher than I intended. “I’m fine.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Cassie

Hockey season had officially started. If I didn’t know from the fact that Liam was now gone all the time, my coworkers at school would’ve given me the clue. Apparently, hockey in Boston was a bigger deal than I realized. I guess before, I had always tuned in, but now, I was hyperaware of every mention of the Harbor Wolves, specifically their center, who was apparently a bigger deal than even I imagined he could be.

Liam, who had taken to avoiding me following that night at the pizza place. I don’t know what happened, but there was a sense of distance from him after that.

---