He looked back at me like I’d hurt him. “Fuck, man. Fuck.”
Paige came by to take our order then. “What’ll it be boys?”
Nick didn’t even crack a joke, just asked for apop.
“Someone’s got their panties in a bunch,” she said in a peppy voice. Then she pet his head as she turned on her heel and walked back to the counter.
“We’ve still got this summer,” I told him.
“Yeah, I guess,” hegrumbled.
“It’ll be a good time,” I said.
It had to be… because it would be our last summer together as kids. Who knew what would happen in the future… but at least we had the next three months.
17. Griff - summertime
The first week of summer was amazing.
School was out and I officiallygraduated.
Nick did not.
He ended up failing two of his four last classes and he didn’t seem too eager about retakingthem.
I was pretty mad at him when I found out about it. I even yelled at him– which I never did.
“What the fuck were you doing on your laptop when I was doing class?” I asked. “Why didn’t you ask me for help?!”
He just laughed me off. “I was busy Facebook poking Savannah,” he said with a goofy grin.
When I didn’t budge, he continued: “I’m done with that, bud. I only tried so I could stick with you, now that we’re not gonna, who cares? Not me. That stuff didn’t interestme.”
I immediately felt shamed for even telling him I was going to take the college offer and basically forcing him to go for the AHL.
He just patted me on theback.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it. It was my choice. Life is short, I’m playin hockey ‘til the day I die.”
I thought he was off his fucking rocker. How did he expect to buy Savannah a house one day if hockey fell through? Then again, maybe Nick didn’t think that far ahead?
I couldn’t force him to care about school though… and he bizarrely seemed proud of me for graduating even though he didn’t.
We didn’t have a printer, so Craig let me print off my diploma in the rink’s front office. Nick immediately snatched it up and brought it to Benny’s to show it off to Paige… but I knew he had a secret motive in mind.
“Look it, Paige. My best buddy in the world graduated high school. You know how hard that is? I couldn’t do it!” he snorted. “I think he deserves a whole huge ass party, but I can’t afford that. So, you know what you should give him?” he asked her with raised eyebrows.
“Oh, me?” she questioned, leaning over the bar and looking amused that she was now being roped into this.
“Yes, you, Paige,” Nick said authoritatively and pointed at her. “You, Paige, should give my best friend and I a beer.”
She looked at him exasperated and rolled her eyes. “Oh my God. Try again, sweetheart. You guys are underaged.”
He slumped on a barstool. “Two pops, please,” he said dejectedly.
We sipped on our cokes while watching the U.S. National Women’s hockey team on tv, but when Paige walked down the hall for something in the back office, Nick hopped off his stool, ducked behind the counter, and stole two beers.
I just shook my head at him but accepted the can. We popped the tops and took a swig, then immediately almost spit it back out.
