Duke looked at me in shock and mouthed ‘what are youdoing?’
“It’s okay. I think,” I whispered to him. “We can’t let them follow us home anyway.”
He nodded and turned his gaze back on the two of them.
“I’m Nick Johns,” brown eyes pointed to himself. “This here is Benny Griffiths, future hockey star. He goes by Griff though.”
Duke’s temper got the best of him.
“You threw me in the box, you dumbass zebras!”
I shot him a stern look for swearing, and for calling refs zebras.
Nick laughed in front of us and stuck his hands in his sweatpants pockets. “Yeah, little dude, I’m sorry about that. I would’ve done the same thing you did, but we’re kinda on short leashes currently.”
“He really would’ve,” the guy called Griff confirmed, crossing his arms in front of him. “That’s why we are stuck reffing. It’s punishment because this dumbass won’t stop fighting in our league.”
“Want some company on your walk?” Nick asked. He grimaced looking down at his snow-covered feet. “Or ride with us in Griff’s truck?”
A warm car ride did sound amazing. Duke’s bag was starting to cut into my shoulder… and it’s not like it wasn’t 20 degrees and snowing… and we did have about five or six more blocks before we made it to our house, let alone 7-11 which was even further.
I looked at Duke and he shrugged, seemingly put at ease knowing they were hockey fighters as well.
“Uh… sure,” I said, sounding anything but sure.
Nick threw me a thumbs up and scampered back to the truck.
Griff moved toward me and grabbed Duke’s bag from my shoulder and effortlessly hoisted it up onto his.
When we made it to his truck, I took a deep breath, wondering if I was being completely stupid for allowing Duke and myself to get in. I mean, I was in charge of Duke. I was more worried for him than for myself… and my parents would absolutely kill me if we ended up deadsomewhere.
I grabbed Duke’s arm before he opened the back door.
“I need some insurances first,” I told Nick through the shotgun window.
“Insurances? Are you a 60-year-old accountant?” he cracked a smile at me.
“Shut up,” Griff said, shoving Nick. “She’s smart, unlike you, doofus.”
“Alright, how about we give you our phones to hold?” Nick asked.
“No,” I rubbed my hands up together to heat them up. “That’s not enough.”
“How about we tell you a secret?” Nick’s eyes glinted at me.
Duke looked aghast over that idea. “No way! Then you’d want to kill us! You really think we haven’t heard that trick before?” he asked.
“How about you hold one of each of our skates,” Griff cut in, leaning forward to make eye contact with me. “Those are the most important things to us.”
I felt myselfnod.
As I opened the back truck door, Griff hopped out and went to his trunk.
Climbing into the truck was a bit of a task- there wasn’t any extra step that hung down and it was pretty high-up. Duke tried to get in first and I had to push his butt up a little. I was next, and ended up having to grab onto Duke’s hand and hold the side of the truck to hoist myself up to get in.
As soon as I sat down on the lumpy seat, I was hit with the overwhelming smell of pine trees mixed with cologne and a bit of hockey bag stink… But the stink could’ve been coming from the skates Griff handed me with a small smile. I held them at an arm’s length away, hoping the smell wouldn’t transfer onto me.
“So, what are we gettin at 7-11?” Nickasked.
