Refusing to cower to him, I cross my arms and straighten. The two of us stare each other down, though his attention is quickly stolen, his eyes going wide.
“You’rebothhere?”
Tytus shuffles closer. He puffs out his cheeks and releases a long breath. “Yeah. Sorry, man. I meant to check in.”
Oh, he didn’t check in. I suppose I didn’t either. Is that what all of this is about?
“My phone died yesterday,” he tells my brother. “I don’t have a charger with me.”
Mercer sidles up and nudges Tytus. “I would have lent you a charger. All you had to do was ask.”
Atty’s brows shoot up into his hairline, his eyes darting back and forth between the two men.
“What are the rest of you doing here?” I ask over the rising chatter. The question may be for the group, but I zero in on Cam. “You knew I left the party with Noah, Mercer, and Ty. What’s with the cavalcade?”
Cam plants one hand on her hip, side-eyeing Bryant. “The ice arena is closed because of the storm and the water main break.”
We knew that.
“So these guys decided to have a little party of their own last night. Beer Olympics: the Rink Crew vs. Hockey Players.”
I snort. That had to be one hell of a party.
Cam shakes her head, silently confirming I don’t even know the half of it.
“Atty mentioned that he hadn’t heard from Ty since Saturday night. That he was worried. Then everyone started to panic.”
“By panic,” Kai says, “she means develop outlandish conspiracy theories. That one over there started crying,” they reveal, pointing to Haas.
Aw. Poor guy. Wesley Haas is a freshman, like Atty and Ty, but he’s a literal, just-graduated-from-high-school-a-few-months-ago eighteen-year-old freshman.
“Bro.” Swayzee rubs his hands together and blows warm air between his palms. “You can’t just ghost us like that.”
“Seriously,” Tanvers adds. “You’re gonna get the whole team in trouble. We swore to coach we’d look out for you. Kinda hard to do when you fucking disappear.”
Beside me, Ty’s cheeks have gone pink, but he only grunts and shrugs. He may act indifferent, but he’s remorseful under that façade—he cares that they all care.
“Bryant had access to the department van keys and knew it could use a tank of gas,” Cam explains. “He mentioned it to the group last night, and here we all are.”
“Hey now.” Bryant holds up both hands. “Wearefueling up on the way back to campus, just like we said on the sign-out form.”
Noah hovers on the last step, lording over everyone. “How were the roads?”
“Mostly clear,” Bryant responds. “They’ve got Main Street and Summit torn up because of the water main break. But most of the snow has been cleared.”
“Don’t worry, Sawy. You weremytop concern,” Arjun declares. “Once we figured out no one had heard from you either, I made it my personal mission to scour the campus and township.”
I chuckle, shaking my head. Thetownship. Classic Arjun.
“I even went as far as to research off-road and all-terrain vehicles. I was fully prepared to rent a Sherp.”
“Awhat?” Mercer presses.
With a dazzling smile, Arjun stands a little taller and wags his eyebrows. “It’s something I saw on Reddit. This guy lives on an isle in this big mansion with, like, four other people. They use watercraft to get to and from the mainland most of the time, but in an emergency, they have this underwater all-terrain special-forces vehicle called a Sherp.”
Atty grimaces.
“That can’t be real,” Tanvers mutters.
