I suppress a smile of my own as I look up to see August blushing, stammering his way through a thank you like a first grader with a crush.
“Steph, can you let the others know that the food is almost ready? If they don’t listen then just stand in front of the TV, theyprobablywon’t throw anything at you.” She nods her head and walks away, giving me a chance to talk to August. He’s watching her, he’s totally fucking watching her right now.
“You’re so into her” I tease.
“No I’m not” he rushes out, and strangely enough… I don’t believe him.
“Liar.” A devilish smirk takes over my face, “you were totally just checking her out, and I saw you blushing when she complimented your cooking.”
His face hardens and he turns his focus back onto the food, so I slap his hand with my wooden spoon to force his attention back to me. “You should go for it, she was flirting with you. I give you full permission to go after my best friend, but if you break her heart I’ll break you.”
His laugh booms through the house, and I’m a little offended. If I wanted to, I could hurt him. “Why would I go after her when I have you baby?” He tilts his head and plasters a smirk on his face, but I’m not buying into it.
It’s all just an act, he’s trying to deflect.
“Yeah, sure. Enough with the flirting dumbass, never going to happen. In all seriousness though, you should talk to her, she’s a great person, you’d really get along.”
He gives me a side eye before looking back up to Steph and then completely turning around… I won’t push him, at least not yet.
eight
CLAIRE
When I was younger, I thought that all hockey looked the same, but watching these boys play right now is making me think twice. All of them have the skills to make it to the pro’s and succeed with hockey as a career.
I can notice small differences in the way they’re playing, their turns are sharper, they’re also more aware of any patterns they’re creating and then changing those patterns before the other team catches on.
Maybe they’ll finally realize that I’m not such a clueless idiot after all.
I laugh to myself when Steph shoots out of her seat as the guys steal the puck and make a break towards the other teams net. She’s really getting into this game.
Lucas passes the puck to Blair –predictable– and then Blair manages to score the last goal of the game. The entire Livler U student section jumps up and roars with cheers as the team celebrates their first official win of the season. I’m so happy they won. Not only because I would have gotten ragged on if they lost, but also because I don’t want to see what these man-babies look like when they throw temper tantrums.
Chris always takes it hard, so I can only imagine my roommates aren’t much different.
God, I hated saying that.
Steph and I make our way to the back parking lot, and as we walk I hear my phone ring… it’s my mother.
Steph sees the caller ID and looks at me with a worried expression. She knows the majority of the shit with my parents, so she knows I’ve been avoiding them for a while.
I give her a half hearted smile and take a couple steps away. I trust her, but I don’t think she needs to hear how ugly this is going to get. Taking a deep breath, I answer the phone “hey mom.”
“Why haven’t you answered any of my messages?”
Alright then, no ‘hi Claire, how are you? How’s school been? Are you still enjoying figure skating?’ Just straight into me being the disappointment of the family.
“I’m sorry mom, I’ve just been super busy with everything and I really needed to focus on school and skating.”
A tight laugh comes from the other end of the line, “your brother is a professional hockey player with a full schedule and even he manages to talk to his parents every once in a while.”
Yeah, but he didn’t have his parents scream at him for his overall standing in the National Figure Skating Committee. I placed second –fucking second– out of thousands of skaters, and that still wasn’t good enough for them.
I can never please their overly high expectations.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to call more often, I’ll make more of an effort.”
“You better. Now, what’s this I hear about you coaching a hockey team?”
