Page 78 of One Shot

Laur must have really hoped I would make it here tonight. She was ready and waiting pantiless for me, wet with anticipation. My phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s her.

Laur: I’m dripping wet for you.

Laur: I’ll call you.

Fuck. I am about to be the luckiest man on campus. I text her back.

Lucas: You taste so sweet on my fingers, pretty girl. I can’t wait to tastemore.

Someone hands me a beer and another shot. The smell reveals it’s tequila this time. I put it back on the bar without taking it and sip my beer instead. It seems we are going to be here for a while. Liam has taken five shots that I’ve seen in the last hour. He’s a big dude, but that’s a lot of shots in a short amount of time. Beer stains the front of Liam’s shirt. He’s wrapped around Tyler, telling him how much he loves him slurring each word.

“Donato, finally get what you’ve been wanting?”

Someone behind me croons. It’s Blaine Mitchell. I ignore him and focus on trying to get Liam to leave the bar.

“I wouldn’t be such a good friend if I were you. I would be at Lauren Bellinger’s house railing her sweet pus—”

I turn around to punch Mitchell square in the face, but Liam beats me to it. Blaine stumbles back and then swings, hitting Liam on the side of the jaw. It’s not that hard of a hit, but it’s enough to bruise more than just Mitchell’s ego. Mitchell’s fists are at the ready still trying to go for Liam, but Joe drags him toward the door before a bouncer steps in, yanking Mitchell to the entrance before shoving him out the door.

Liam wrenches against Tyler and Connor, who each grip onto him, holding him back while he sputters and slurs nonsense at Blaine.

“We are leaving.Now,” I bellow.

Liam doesn’t try to challenge me this time. He knows he fucked up, but at the same time, I’m glad Mitchell got what he deserved for even thinking about any part of Laur naked. I fucking hate that guy.

My head clears on the frigid, cold walk back to Liam’s place. This is not good. This is going to get back to Coach Andres. Even if Mitchell started shit, Liam is going to have repercussions too. Shit, I’d rather deal with the headache from a hangover than the headache dealing with what this is going to cause tomorrow. We can’t afford to bench Liam and Mitchell while we have another guy out on injury too. I might hate the guy, but he’s a good defenseman on our third shift, and we need to keep up our winning streak.

Chapter thirty-six

Laur

Ican’t be too mad at Bren for pulling me away from my night with Lucas, but disappointed doesn’t feel adequate enough to describe how I’m feeling either. I finally admitted I wanted to be his. I was very keen on him making me his tonight—so much so in fact that if he had asked me to meet him in the bathroom, I would have bent over the sink right then and there. But Haee’s would not have been the most ideal place for Lucas and me to finally be together . . . so I guess I have Bren to thank for that.

Bren is hysterically crying over Liam mentioning talking to scouts from Seattle and L.A. Her drunken state is too emotional, thinking about the possibility of him playing far away and not rationalizing that he was just mentioning two scouts he recently talked to. Bren hasn’t talked much about what her future with Liam looks like after the two of them graduate this year. Liam is NHL bound. Bren wants to work for a team in PR, but they could end up on opposite sides of the country or even different countries.

Libby and I try to soothe her on the couch while Suz and Jaylin are out getting some good old electrolyte drinks to try to ease her massive hangover that’s about to come tomorrow morning. I swear she’s been hysterical for over an hour. I squint to see the oven clock. It looks like it reads 3am.

We must have fallen asleep because I wake up scrunched on the couch next to Bren with Libby on the loveseat. I check the oven clock again; this time it reads 5am. Disappointment fills me realizing I missed my opportunity to see Lucas. I don’t even bother to check my textfrom him. I know I’ll just be disappointed I was asleep. I quietly tiptoe upstairs, heading to my bedroom to sleep some more. I don’t set an alarm. I doubt there will be a New Year’s Day breakfast, but even if there is, I’m not waking up until I’m good and ready.

A loud ringing pulls me from my sleep. I blearily answer the phone after seeing Lucas’ name.

“What time is it?” I groan into my phone.

“Noon,” the soothing sound of Lucas’ voice causes my system to wake up. “Guess you didn’t get much sleep last night?”

“Not at all. Bren was hysterical until at least 3am,” I groan again.

“Liam insisted we shut the bar down.” He sighs with a sense of defeat. “It’s a miracle I’m not hungover.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to come over last night and I know you can’t tonight. . . ”

“It might be the first time in my life I wish I didn’t have a game.”

We’re both silent for a few beats.

“How about I stop by on my way to practice in an hour and bring you coffee and a bagel?”

“That’s really sweet but you don’t have to.”

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