“Awesome!” Olli pumps his fist. “I’ll call him right after dinner to set up a meeting. You guys will love him! Oh, and I’ll also call Johnson and remind him about the AC.” He winks at me when saying that last part. I give him a small nod, my lips pressed together in a thin line. I seriously hope that won’t give Johnson a reason to squeeze a few extra dollars out of me.
“It’s just for another year, and then this big guy will move into a gigantic mansion anyway,” Sasha jokes, elbowing me in the side again, but with a lot more care this time.
“Right. Maybe Johnson can sell house tours then, turn it into a museum.” I put an arm around her, my stomach in knots.
“God, it’s hot today,” Nicko complains over dinner. We sit outside in the crappy lawn chairs Marisol once brought back from a yard sale, plates balanced on our thighs, hunching over our food. I’m extremely conscious of every creak that thing makes under me whenever I move. At the same time, it’s niceto feel the grass tickle my bare feet. The sensation conjures memories of chasing my mom through an open field until she’d let herself get caught, and my arms would wrap around her soft middle.
“It’s not supposed to be that hot in Vermont. Humans are not built for this heat.Iam not built for this heat!” Nicko continues miserably as he dunks a fry into a large puddle of mayonnaise. I sneak a glance at his burger, my mouth watering as I watch the juice run over his fingers. Biting the inside of my cheek, I pop the cap on my protein shake. It’s a basic vanilla blend with a fancy name—Seb spent exactly one Instagram post on it before handing it off to me. I mixed some leftover fruit and oats in it, and it turned out fine.
But the burgers smell fucking delicious.
Somewhere to my right, Linden snorts at Nicko’s whining, redirecting my focus. “Didn’t you spend your whole day at the rink? Imagine this: the AC still hasn’t been fixed at the dog pound!”
I grimace. The temperature is more bearable than it was during training, but the heat’s gone sticky now—trapped between houses and cars, pressing down on the city—those poor animals.
“That’s sort of a you problem, man. You could’ve chosen a superior career path, like hockey! The poor pups, though.” Nicko shrugs, and Linden kicks his leg in response.
With my roommates bickering around me, my mind drifts to Mia and Mike. I’ll have to answer eventually, or she’ll reach out again. Mia doesn’t let you get away with ignoring her demands. But ever since my talk with Seb, I’m torn. There’s Mia’s subtle promise luring me in, and then there’s Seb in the car, scratching up his arms.
People are talking already.
“Micah? Hey, Micah!”
I jump when a hand waves in front of my face, the chair creaking beneath my weight again. These things weren’t made with people like me in mind.
“Huh?” I blink when everyone just stares at me.
“Dude, what’s up with you today? That’s the second time you’re zoning out on us,” Olli huffs.
“Sorry,” I mumble quickly, rubbing a hand over my eyes. “There’s just a lot of stuff on my mind lately.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Uhm…” The offer catches me by surprise, but my roommates look back at me with genuine interest. I’ve been living with them for almost a year now, and we get along fine, but we also don’t interact on a deeper level. Sure, we regularly make an effort to sit down for dinner together or host movie nights. Sasha and I have a standing gym date since our hours match, but I rarely discuss personal issues with them. I’ve always felt like the pet jock they adopted because no one was desperate enough to rent the attic space our landlord turned into a crappy room as a money grab.
“Don’t want to drag you down with my shit,” I hedge, although I know this isn’t something I could talk about with Seb or my other teammates. Contrary to what people assume, the football team is pretty accepting. Coach Wagner has made it crystal clear he doesn’t tolerate any “bullshit” in his locker room and has run a tight program since he took over last year. But Seb’s warning isn’t just paranoia. This is probably my only chance to get all of this off my chest without being judged, especially since Nicko is harboring his own—six-foot-two, two-hundred-pound, black-haired, and blue-eyed—secret.
“You don’t have to, but the offer stands,” Sasha chimes in, and I nod, holding my breath like I’m about to take a plunge in Lake Champlain.
“So, you guys know Mia, right?” I try to ease them into this conversation.
Next to me, Linden groans and hides his face in his hand. Sasha bursts into laughter.
“She’s kind of hard to forget,” she snorts while I gently nudge my knee against Linden’s in an apologetic gesture. Only Olli and Nicko look truly confused.
“The cheer captain? Kind of gorgeous?” I try to jog Nicko’s memory, but he just shrugs and slurps on his drink.
“Never heard of her.”
“You can show us a picture later,” Olli decides, impatiently tapping his foot. “But what kind of story is this going to be? Are we trying to get this Mia girl to go out with you? Are we taking revenge on her for crushing your tiny footballer heart? I need to put myself into the right mindset.”
“Neither. Mia asked me for a favor.” I sigh and drag a hand through my hair, knocking the cap off my head. It’s the obnoxious orange one my teammates gave me when they named me captain. The badger on its front was once meant to look aggressive, but the fabric is frayed from all the captains who wore it before me.
Linden reaches for it the same second I bend down. Our fingers knock together, and he draws his hand back with a soft laugh.
“She, uhm…she put together this list of things she’d like to do before graduating. One of them is a threesome.” My fingers trace the loose stitching on the cap. I wonder what happened to all the people who wore it before me. Some of them—like Leo Davenport—I know from TV.
Across from me, Nicko whistles. “Kinky.”
