“Stop inviting people over,” I can hear Elliot gripe through the phone.
Jax rests his phone on his exposed thigh—the guy runs warm, never wearing pants even when it drops below freezing—tapping speakerphone. “I’m only inviting Cooper!”
“Which means the whole lot of you will also tag along.”
“Beckett doesn’t hang out with us anymore. Cooper barely does either.” He turns my way and pins me with sad puppy dog eyes. Deep in his forest eyes though is the lingering question of why.
The past few months have been the heaviest I’ve felt. Painting a smile on my face and showing up how they’ve needed me is more draining, and I find myself turning to silence and being alone more and more. I’m careful about disappearing, but apparently not careful enough if he’s noticing.
Have they all noticed?
Beckett has a valid excuse for not hanging around with us. He’s from around Bensen, and goes home to help out his sick mom with his little sister.
A door across the hall cracks open, and our six-five goalie leans in my doorway shirtless. His chest is covered in black tattoos. There’s a spot on his right arm covered in Saniderm, fresh ink that he’s definitely not supposed to have gotten during season underneath.
“I can hang tonight,” he says casually.
“See!” Elliot exclaims. There’s whispering in the background.
Jaxon points at Beck. “Now that’s definitely new. What is it?”
“I’m going to pick up my sister from basketball practice. Text me the plans.”
“You should go shirtless for the moms! Isn’t someone supposed to bring snacks each week? You could be the snack,” he jokes while Beck stares at him emotionless before pushing off the doorframe and closing his door.
“If you come over, you have to bring pizza,” Elliot finally says.
“Done. Cooper will pick it up.”
I smack his arm. Give him a look for volunteering me, and push a hand through my hair.
Elliot must have put her phone on speakerphone too because we can hear their conversation clearly. “Yeah, pizza is good,” Sutton says, barely audible. It’d be easy to miss but my ears have a frequency reserved for her.
“What kind do you want?” Elliot asks Sutton.
“Oh, it’s okay. I’ll eat cheese or pepperoni. Whatever he gets is fine.”
“You sure?”
“It’s pizza.”
“Okay, get whatever, Coop,” Elliot tells us.
“See you in an hour?” Jaxon asks.
“Perfect. Byeeeeee.”
Jaxon hangs up and turns over on my bed. He rests his head on a closed fist, elbow digging into the bed. “You okay, man? You stormed out of practice. I was calling for you, and then when we got home, you were asleep.”
“I think I ate something weird,” I lie. I hate lying to him—to any of my roommates, but they wouldn’t understand, and what would they think about me?
Ungrateful. Selfish. Spoiled. Or worse…maybe they’d agree.
His face brightens, then falls with horror. “Did you eat one of the green containers? I had one for breakfast and thought it smelled funky. Was good with hot sauce on it, but we should tell Dawson.”
“Yeah, that was probably it.”
“Feeling up for tonight? I can grab the pizza.”
