Page 15 of Find Me Again

Then, over a year later

Neil stared at the phone, the busy signal still beeping after they'd disconnected a minute ago.

Andrew Phillips.

Somebody had shown Andrew Phillips Neil's tapes, and he wanted to arrange a meeting if Neil was interested.

If.

As if there was anything that could stop him from going to see the head coach of one of the best college hockey teams in the country.

Neil hadn't even thought about Chicago before, hadn't considered it a viable option. He'd learned to hedge his bets, even though Ryan had repeatedly told him he'd underplayed himself too much. Neil could already hear him—

Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Ryan had applied to a bunch of schools that were considering Neil, but none of them was in Chicago or even anywhere close.Shit.

Clutching his phone, Neil dropped back onto the bed.

It was only a meeting, nothing final. He could go there, talk to the guy—Andrew! Freaking! Phillips!—and check out the place. That was it. He wasn't making any decisions yet, or anything.

He and Ryan were going to decide together, as they'd agreed on a long time ago. Neil was simply considering all the options.

His phone pinged in his hand with a new text.

Ready for tonight? ;)

Neil bit his lower lip, doubt creeping in fast. With the restof Ryan's family away for the weekend, Neil was supposed to go over there for a sleepover, and he'd been looking forward to it the whole week. It had been a while since they'd had so much uninterrupted time to themselves, and Neil had more than a few ideas of what they could use it for.

Still, if he went there tonight, there was no way Ryan wouldn't notice something was up, and if Neil spilled, they would most likely end up fighting instead of having sex and the whole night would be ruined anyway.

I can't tonight :(he finally texted.Headache from hell since noon. :(

He got a string of sad faces in reply, followed by a heart emoji.

Sucks. :( Lmk if anything changes, but get some rest in the meantime.

I'm prob going to go to bed early, Neil wrote back, and it felt like he'd jinxed himself when a shot of pain pulsed through his head as he hit send.

He closed his eyes and put his knuckles against the side of his forehead, hoping to relieve some of the tension. To distract himself, he focused on the trip to Chicago, and he drifted off after a while to the mental pictures of Andrew Phillips personally giving him a tour of the place and introducing him to the players.

* * *

The reality, as always, had been different, but not by much. He was going to talk to Coach Phillips later on, but for now, it was one of the associate coaches, Coach Pine, who was showing Neil the place.

And it washuge.

The sports center on this campus seemed twice as big as the one he and his parents had gone to see in Boston. He wastrying not to gape like a fish, but this whole thing felt more like a commercial instead of real life.

At least until they were passing the locker room and Neil heard some shouts and hoots, and then—

"Get off, what are you, a fag?"

"Shut your mouth, you asshole."

There was more laughter later on, but Neil still tensed and glanced at the man next to him.

"Boys will be boys, huh?" Coach Pine said with a twist of his mouth Neil couldn't tell was a grimace or a concealed smirk. "Don't worry, we don't allow freshman hazing here or anything like that."

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