Page 85 of Off The Ice

She was silent.

“Maggie,” I crooned.

“Yes!” she admitted. “Yes, okay. Fine. I like him. I don’t even know how because I’ve barely even interacted with him. But I have a big, stupid crush on him. Okay?”

I let out an obnoxious squeal.

“This is amazing. This is the first time in our entire friendship that you’ve ever liked someone!”

“Not true.” She frowned. “What about Pete?”

“Tattoo Pete? Who got your name forever imprinted on his biceps after two weeks of dating you?”

“Yeah.” She scrunched her nose. “He was kind of weird. Well, what about Kile?”

“You said the way his name was spelled gave you the ick.” I laughed, remembering the first time she saw it on his driver’s license. She broke up with him the next morning.

“Matthew?” she suggested hopefully.

I shook my head solemnly. “You said he had the fish tank smell.”

“Ugh. You make me sound ridiculous.”

“No,” I laughed. “You’re just selective, which is a good quality to have. Now tell me about Brody!”

“Well, we talked at the hockey game the other night,” she said. “And then we had that shared traumatic experience of ripping Liam away from the fight—”

“What!” My jaw dropped. “That wasreal?”

Maggie’s head snapped backward, her eyebrows arched in question. “Liam didn’t tell you…?”

“I saw an article, but I thought it was just lies and rumors that they were spreading. When could he have gotten into a fight? We were with him after the game, and then he drove me home immediately after!”

“Oh, Cassie.” Maggie’s face paled a bit.

“Is he okay?” I asked. “I mean, I know he’s okay because I was with him after, but I mean, what happened? Who did he fight? Did he get hurt?” I was too flustered to form coherent sentences.

“You should ask Liam when he comes home. I don’t really know the full story,” Maggie said, but the way her eyes wouldn’t meet mine left me with more questions and anxieties.

I bit my lip, trying to move past this news. I knew hockey was a rough sport. He’d probably gotten into a heated argument with someone from the other team, and it probably happened so frequently that it wasn’t even on his radar to mention it. Right?

“Was it some guy from the other team?” My stomach was twisting itself in knots.

“I don’t know, Cassie. Just—ask him, okay?”

She refused to meet my eyes, which did nothing to help my nerves.

“Maggie,” I pleaded.

“Nope! Not doing this. Not answering a single question that will stress you out.” She grabbed her phone. “Instead, look at my flirty little text messages.”

I feigned a growl of frustration but forced myself to move on. If Maggie wasn’t going to tell me, there was nothing I could do. She was as stubborn as they came. All I could do was reassure myself that Liam wasfine.

“Let me see,” I relented, hand held out expectantly.

She smiled, handing over the phone after opening their text thread.

I scrolled through message after message. Brody was big on emojis. The angel emoji, the smile emoji, the sun emoji. He sent ‘good morning’ messages, ‘good night’ messages, ‘how are you doing’ text messages, and what was Maggie giving him in response?

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