“Why are you so tired? Were you partying last night?” Reed asked.
“Sure.” If by partying, he meant disappearing into my sketchbook until the early hours of the morning. I’d been inspired to go in a different direction with my comic strip, and I was just a little obsessed with my new idea. It helped thatdrawing had provided a small reprieve from thinking about the game.
Three defeats in a row; it had to be some kind of record for Ransom High. If this continued, we’d be lucky to make the playoffs this year, let alone win another state championship. And with Coach Foster’s opinion of me probably at an all-time low, I was sure my slim chances of being named captain were now almost non-existent.
Reed, meanwhile, appeared to be doing better than ever. Was it possible he was still growing? He seemed even taller than before. I’d thought I was almost catching him in height. But apparently I’d always be chasing after him.
“Where’s Grayson?”
“Where do you think?” Reed grinned.
It didn’t take long for me to work out the answer. When it came to Gray, there were only three things he really cared about: hockey, food, and his girlfriend. “Paige?” I guessed.
“Yep.” Reed nodded. “She drove back with us, but wanted to drop by her house. They’ll be here later.”
“So, they’re still as loved up as ever?”
“Morethan ever.”
I laughed at the way Reed rolled his eyes, because I knew he was joking. We couldn’t have been happier when Paige and Grayson finally got together last year. They were perfect for each other, and we all liked Paige. She was like a sister.
“You could have told me you guys were coming back today,” I said, as I grabbed a sweatshirt off my chair and put it on.
“I thought we messaged you.” Reed shrugged. “Although, maybe that was Cammie.”
I grunted. It still annoyed me that my brothers had a group chat with my younger sister, and its main purpose seemed to be so they could gossip about me. I sincerely hoped the group had moved on to other topics by now, and that the monkey profile picture had also been replaced.
“Is Gray feeling okay after that hit he took in your game yesterday?”
“He’ll be fine,” Reed said. “It’s the other guy you should probably be worried about.”
I laughed and nodded. Most people who went head to head with Grayson on the ice ended up regretting it.
“I hear you made a new friend at the end of your game, too,” Reed continued.
“I got two for roughing, no big deal.”
“Sounds like you were lucky to get away with only a two-minute penalty.”
“What do you mean? The only person who got lucky was the Chargers player. He didn’t get punished at all.”
“True, but I heard you weren’t even near the play.”
“I was right there.”
“Parker, you went coast-to-coast to throw down with the guy.”
“Says who?”
“Uh, Cammie, Mom, Dad, our neighbor Jerry, some dude I bumped into at the gas station…”
“Okay, okay. I get it. Everyone saw me fight.”
Reed shook his head. “No, everyone saw you sprint down the ice to defend your new goalie. I hear you’ve been spending a lot of one-on-one time with her…”
I glared at my brother, knowing exactly what he was getting at. Yes, I’d reacted poorly to seeing Mackenzie get hit and was well aware it had cost us the game. But what I wasn’t sure about waswhyI’d reacted that way. One minute I was watching her make a save from the other end of the rink, the next I was wrestling the guy against the boards, throwing him to the ground and being ordered off the ice.
Something had taken over when I saw Mackenzie get hurt, and while I’d been sitting in the penalty box, I realized I’d been doing more than just defending our goalie. I’d been defendingher.And that was what kept me awake last night the most.
