“Z!” Isla chimes, already sounding a bit drunk.
Zhuri bites down a laugh. “How much have you had to drink, Icy?”
“Not enough,” she slurs, pink hair flowing in the breeze that blows by.
“I don’t understand how she’s this much of a lightweight,” Elisabet laughs.
“You need water, Isla,” I assert. “You can drink more later, but you need to hydrate first.”
Zhuri and Elisabet both sling arms around her and start steering her away. “Bet and I have her. Gonna get her away from the pool for the time being so she doesn’t drown.”
Sid comes over to join us, and we all watch the girls walk away. Once they set her up on one of the lounge chairs with a bottle of water, I turn around to see Nico and Wes staring at me while trying to hide their smirks.
I cock my eyebrow. “What?”
“Zhuri baby?” Nico asks in amusement, and I roll my eyes.
“What’s wrong with that?”
Wes shakes his head. “Well, supposedly, you hate each other.”
“We did,” I shrug. “But we’re moving past that for the sake of the team. I call her that to annoy the shit out of her, though.”
“And you hid from a demonic goose for the same reason?” Nico is acting like he doesn’t believe a word I’m saying.
“We hid from a goose because it chased her down the trail. She ran by me, so essentially, the goose was chasing me, too.”
Sid looks at me curiously. “Were you running together?”
“No,” I shake my head. “We were both out for separate jogs, and then she ran right into me and knocked me on my ass. After that, she kept running until Goosifer decided to hunt us down.”
Nico scoffs. “And you sayI’mthe most dramatic.”
“Are you and Zhuri trying to be friends now?” Sid asks.
“We spent eleven years despising each other. We’ll never be friends, but we can get along well enough to lead the team.”
While we may have only hated each other for shitty reasons—Zhuri hating me because of everything Jack told her, and me hating Zhuri solely because she hated me—it’s still been long enough that I can’t see us just forgetting that.
I never thought I’d have to work in close proximity to her, but I’m happy we’ve both agreed to leave everything behind us so we can move forward in a healthier way.
God knows I don’t need another unhealthy relationship in my life.
Hockey players are goddamn heathens.
The mess left behind after the team finally left makes it look more like a fucking EF-5 tornado swept through my pool deck.
Or a hurricane. Hurricane Comet.
I sigh and start picking up the Solo cups lying around, readying myself for a long night up here cleaning everything up.
“Want some help?” I’m caught by surprise when Zhuri walks up to me.
“I thought everyone left,” I say.
She shrugs. “Everyone else did. I wasn’t going to leave you to clean up after the grown-ass toddlers that are our teammates alone, though.”
I throw my head back and let out a genuine laugh. “They are fucking toddlers, aren’t they?”
