“Sorry about that, Jere,” Marley tells him, completely ignoring me. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t need Marley to like me. I hang with Jere and Marley, listening to their conversation and inputting here and there. Being the third wheel is a little awkward, but I don’t pay too much attention to it. Then I notice my favorite redhead stomping over to me. She snatches me by the arm and pulls me away from the throng of people.
“Sneaking me away to make out already?”
Her nails dig into my skin at my comment and she stops in a nearly empty hallway. She has me standing between the wall and herself. “What the hell are you doing here anyway, Levi?”
“You’re not happy to see me?” I jut my bottom lip forward in a pout. Her eyes drop for just a second before she’s scolding me again.
“Is it your life mission to mess with my brother and pursue me as a means to do that? Are you that pathetic that you have nothing better to do with your time? Do you actually think I would fall for that? What is yourproblem?” She shoves me backwards, but all it makes me do is rock on my heels. “Are you so affected by losing your captaincy inhigh school that you let it run your life? Are you that frivolous -”
“You don’t know a damn thing about me, Presley, and I’m sick of you and your brother acting like you do. What part of ‘I’m not here to cause trouble’ did you not understand? Jere asked me to come and I did. Get overyourself,” I say as I hold my finger just an inch from her nose to point with accusation, “for thinking that I came all the way to this damn campus to pursueyou or annoy your brother.”
I walk past her and out of the house, shoving people in my way. Presley can jump off her high horse anytime now. She pushed, and I reacted. Not as calmly as I wish, but whatever. The only thing running through my mind right now is what led me to behave exactly as Presley described and yeah, I am pissed that she called me out on it.
I might be on the other side of town, and it might be dark, but I grew up in NY. It doesn’t bother me to walk all the way home. The thought of getting into a cab and being idle is annoying. I rather walk off my steam and hopefully, by the time I get home, Presley will be out of my head. Where does she get off thinking that everything I do is only because he took my captaincy? She doesn’t know what happened after that. No one here knows. If it bothers her that much that I can’t stand her brother, well, she can get over that.
My fists clench and it seems like the more I walk, the angrier I get. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to follow through with my original plan. I don’t want to touch her with a ten foot pole, much less sleep with her. God, all she does is bitch and make snide comments. All. The. Time. I don’t think I’ve even seen her be nice. Okay, she did thank me for giving her a ride the other night, but that doesn’t count.
Harper and Nichols aren’t home yet so I slam all the doors I walk through. To distract myself, I take an extra hot shower. Hot enough that my skin turns from tan to pink while I wash. The pellets of water beat against me, gliding through my thick blonde hair, down my neck, and dividing into two halves. One half routing down my collarbone and chest and the other falling easily down my broad shoulders further down my back. It’s soothing for a bit until I turn off the water and step out of the stall to dry off.
I slip on a pair of gym shorts and fall into bed. Maybe I will cancel the practices for tomorrow because I surely don’t feel like going and possibly dealing with a smartass Nichols. I get comfortable by rolling onto my stomach after setting my alarm and deciding that I should follow through with my word. Surprisingly, within minutes, I fall asleep.
~ ~ ~
We’re running through simple drills. Simple drills, okay? Nichols was loud as fuck when he got home last nightand he had a girl with him. That was strike one. He earned another strike when during a drill, he, for no good reason, knocked me into the glass barrier causing me to lose my balance because he effectively kicked a foot under me.
I’m standing off to the side as they run through a play and Nichols keeps missing the passes, allowing the other team I divided us into to steal it away. Not once or twice or even three times. He turns the puck over five times.
“Nichols,” I yell. “What the hell are you doing?”
“It’s 5:30 in the morning, Levi. Cool it,” he snickers, looking to his left at one of the guys.
There he goes again. Challenging me with his little comments. “Jere,” I call over my shoulders to the few guys that aren’t currently playing. “Take over for Nichols, will ya?”
“Sure thing, Captain,” he says, skating onto the ice.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Carr?” Andrew asks, skating towards me. “He can’t take my place,” he points at Jere with his stick.
“Last I checked, this ismyteam, Nichols. You can have a seat on the bench until you get your shit straight because you aren’t playing onmy team. Have a problem with it? Quit.” I’m fed up with him. Yes, we have been friends since we started here at Roxboro, but that doesn’t mean he gets any leniency when we’re on the ice. Here, I’m in charge and I will have respect. I look around at the guys, lingering on the one who was going to laugh with Andrew before I finish my sweep. “If any of you have a problem with my decisions on this team, feel free to join him on the bench. Otherwise, get back to work.”
It takes everything within me not to smirk when they quickly get back to the play at hand. At the end of practice, I do call off the other two scheduled for today. I’m sure they got the point after this morning. Nichols stays scarce for the rest of the day and Harper comments.
“Don’t worry too much about it, Levi,” he says as we chow down on a couple of subs. “He’s still pissed about Jere’s playing the other night.”
“It was his fault Jere played to start with,” I start.
“I know, but you know how he is. He gets pissed and goes with it.”
“Yeah, but he’s pushing the buttons of the wrong person.”
Gavin shrugs and asks how my adventure with Presley went.
“Don’t get me started, Harper. That plan has sailed and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic. She’s so much worse than McCarthy.” I shake my head at the thought of her.
Gavin chuckles and sips his drink, causing that annoying sound to rise from the bottom of the cup alerting that it’s empty. We gather our trash and return to the apartment. Gavin has to study for a test tomorrow and so do I. The last thing I want right now is to fail a test, and I have four between Monday and Tuesday. I won’t have much studying time after today.
Nichols comes home late and makes a ruckus again. I hear Harper yelling at him to be quiet and decide that he can handle Andrew. Monday and Tuesday drags between schoolwork, tests, and hockey. It’s no wonder that I’m ready to get away for a bit. It’s almost six, and I call my favorite Bunny. Sunny and I have an understanding of sorts. Any time I need someone on my arm for an event, or if I just wanted to take someone out, I call her. I take her out for a good time, and thank her back at her place. She’s fun, has no expectations about us, and we always enjoy ourselves when we’re together, in and out of the bedroom.
“It’s about time you called, Levi. I was beginning to think