Page 55 of What Are the Chances
“Because Riley is my friend.”
“But I’m your boyfriend. We don’t keep secrets from each other, babe.”
Grace shrugged simply. “I don’t break girl code.”
Levi glowered. “Boyfriend trumps friend.”
Grace squared her shoulders defiantly. “You didn’t tell me Will cheated on Riley. Does that mean girlfriend doesn’t trump friend?”
Levi opened his mouth then closed it. Grace had him there. And also –ouch. I was in the room still.
“Nah-ah,” Levi bellowed, shaking his head. “This isn’t happening. Will, apologise to Grace.”
I balked. “For what?”
“For screwing over Riley. Then apologise to me for not telling me you slept with her last weekend.”
“Um, no.”
Levi set his coffee cup down. “Come on, bro. I can’t have my girlfriend and best friend arguing. It’ll ruin the dynamic.”
“If anything, your girlfriend should be apologising to me,” I bit. “If she’s part of this house, she should be on my side by default.”
“I don’t live here,” Grace retorted.
“Please. You haven’t slept at your dorm once since you came back on New Year’s Eve.”
I roughly crossed my arms over my chest. Grace mimicked me and did the same. Levi chaotically dragged his hands through his hair.
“I – Grace can you – no, Will you’ve got to – FUCK!”
He shouted the last word before grabbing his mug and stomping from the room. In a stunned silence Grace and I watched him go. I think we’d just broken Holloway.
*
The winning streak was over, at least it was looking that way. Jersey State was handing our asses to us. We were down four-two with eight-minutes left of the third period. Our supporters were oddly quiet. It was an eerie feeling.
I charged at Jersey’s State’s centre, trapping him against the boards as we fought for the puck. He came off better, fluking a pass to one of his d-men. Levi was on him, but not quickly enough. They got the puck out of our offensive zone.
I headed for the bench, stepping through the open door as Ryan jumped over the boards. As our best defender, he’d been run into the ground tonight. He looked as spent as I felt.
Levi was silent beside me, which was unnerving. It wasn’t my fault we were losing, but I certainly wasn’t helping things.
Coach paced behind us, his dress shoes clicking in time with his heavy footsteps.
When my next shift came, I put my body on the line trying to move the needle. Our team needed momentum. I could see the defeat in the way each player skated. But no matter what I tried, nothing paid off.
When the final buzzer sounded, I skated off the ice straightaway so I didn’t have to witness Jersey State’s celebration. They were extra pumped considering we’d beaten them earlier in the season for the first time in six years.
I fell onto the bench in front of my stall, mentally cataloguing everything that’d gone wrong tonight. It wasn’t like anything specific had turned to shit as such, more or less that we hadn’t played with any excitement. There was no fight.
I knew no team won every game, but I fucking hated losing.
The team was silent as Coach let loose, berating us for things we already knew. Once he was done, Levi picked up his towel and stood.
“You gonna shower?” he asked.
“Nah. I’m going to hang back and work on a few things.” I scooped up my helmet and stick. “I’ll see you at home.”
