Fuck.
I’m pretty sure I curse out loud because a small sound comes over the line.
Fucking Foster.
Doubling down, I push out, “I haven’t been playing well. I have extra sessions to make up for what I’m lacking.”
“Why aren’t you playing well, honey?”
Her sweet voice is almost my undoing, almost the thing that makes me scream,Because I killed my brother and I can’t allow myself to breathe when he can’t!
I decide to settle on a half-truth. “Because my best friend isn’t here to help me anymore.”
My voice cracks at the end, igniting a chain reaction that has my mom sniffling on the other line. After a sharp inhale, my mom’s muffled voice, tinged with emotion, fills the room. “Please let me see you, Grayson. Please. This is killing me.”
For the second time in my life, I make the most catastrophic choice and choose to be selfish.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper gutturally before hanging up the phone.
ICEHAWKS
ASHER O’CONNOR
Who the fuck put a dead fish in my car?
THEO IRVING
Why do you automatically assume it’s us?
JACK LEWIS
Poor form O'Connor
ASHER O’CONNOR
Did anyone see which fucker put the fish in my car?
LOGAN JOHNSON
It was Irving
THEO IRVING
Traitor! Next time you need me to take a crazy puck bunny off your ass I’ll turn a blind eye
JACK LEWIS
very happy to report I was not involved in this one
JACK LEWIS
I’d like a formal apology for the assumption, O’Connor
ASHER O’CONNOR
There’s still glitter in my carpet from the last prank you pulled, dipshit. Pay my cleaning bill
Jack Lewis has left the chat.