Picks & Pucks (7 page)

Danny frowned and ran his hand through his blond hair again. “I asked him, but he’s got something. I know you hate everything about me, but help a guy out. I’ll send you a text when I’m ready to leave.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. The demons must have invaded my brain and taken over my speech center. I didn’t mean to agree to be his taxi. He slapped me on the ass, before racing down the stairs, taking three at a time.

“Later,” Danny shouted.

The demons circled my head and wolf-whistled.

“Shut up,” I said through clenched teeth. The demons stuck their tongues out and laughed. I flipped them off and went into my room to pout.

I enjoyed the quiet of an empty house. Janae had lessons tonight and planned to go out for drinks with friends. My dad wouldn’t show up unannounced because he was eating dinner with his assistant coaches, where they would lay out the schedule and finalize plans for workouts. I wasn’t sure what Eli was doing since he was a little miffed I wouldn’t go out with him. He had been secretive and withdrawn since I asked him when he’d gotten so chummy with my dad. He told me if I was going to act like a jerk and not tell him what was going on in my life, he wasn’t going to talk to me about his issues. We settled into an uneasy stalemate, with neither of us wanting to spill our guts first. My demons did some freaky jig. In some ways, it felt like things were getting worse, not better.

My door banged open, and Eli burst into my room. I almost fell off my bed.

“Justin, Justin!”

“Jesus Christ! Is the house on fire? I’m right here, Eli,” I said holding my hands over my ears. “What do you want?”

“Nothing, just wondering what you were doing?” He bounced on the balls of his feet with his arms tucked behind his back.

“Fuck, Eli, what does it look like I’m doing? I’m getting ready for bed. It’s been a long week.”

“Oh, you really want to go to bed? I thought you were just trying to ditch me because you had a better offer,” he said and sat down on my bed. “I brought food.” He dropped a bag of cookies on my bed. “And drinks.” He pulled a cheap bottle of wine out from under his coat.

“I’m exhausted. Could we do this tomorrow?”

“Uh, no, I really need to talk to you before I explode or something. I don’t like fighting with you, even though I don’t think we’re really fighting. Everything just feels off, and I don’t like it.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Maybe,” he mumbled. “Just a teeny tiny bit.”

“How did you get here?”

“My psycho roomie dropped me,” he said, toeing his shoes off. “Come on, Justin. I’m here to bare my soul.”

“Fine,” I muttered and pulled on my pajama pants. “Move over and don’t get mad if I nod off in the middle of a sentence. Workouts have been kicking my ass this week.”

“I have a feeling you’re soon going to be wide awake.”

I squinted at him, studying his face. Something was going on, and it made my stomach fill with squirmy things.

“Please don’t tell me you’re dating my sister.”

Eli loved to flirt with Janae. She had always avoided his advances by telling him he was jailbait, but he was twenty-one now, an acceptable age by her standards. I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

“No—maybe if she had said yes all the times I asked her out, none of this would be happening.” He frowned and stuffed a cookie in his mouth, followed by a quick swig of wine. He held the bottle under my nose, and against my better judgment, I took a drink.

“This is really gross,” I said, forcing myself to swallow the swill.

“It was the only thing I could find.” He took another drink, grimacing as the liquid slid down his throat.

“Okay, Eli, what’s so awful that has us sitting in my room, drinking shitty wine?”

“It’s not really awful, well, some of it is, because certain people reacted like jackasses. I’ve learned I can’t control what other people think. It still hurts, but I can live with it. I should have told you earlier, but you were so busy, and when you told me you were thinking about coming home, I decided to wait and tell you face to face. I don’t really know why this happened or how things just changed. I mean, I don’t think I changed. Fuck.” He sighed and took another drink of wine. “Why does your pillow keep vibrating?”

“Oh shit,” I grumbled and fished my phone out. “It’s Danny. He begged me to come pick him up from the freshmen foray.”

“Oh, those poor newbies.”

“It’s a stupid tradition,” I said. “I don’t want to go pick the fuckhead up.”

Eli clicked his lip ring against his teeth. “Something happened between you and Danny, didn’t it?”

I snorted and stammered and felt my ears go bright red. I was saved from an interrogation when Eli’s phone buzzed and his face lit up. It dawned on me that he was probably going to tell me he was in love with some fantastic woman. I’d have to listen to him moon and sigh about her for a few weeks, and then suddenly she would disappear, only to be replaced with a new flavor of the week. In high school, the girls swarmed around him. They loved the bad-boy image he projected.

“I have to go,” Eli said.

“But what about our talk?”

“Rain check,” he said. “Besides you must go pick up your hockey boy.”

“He’s not
my
hockey boy. I hate all hockey boys.”

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Eli said. “I promise. And you will talk too.”

“Okay,” I said, waving him out of my room. “Go, have your fun. I’ll suffer in silence and pick up the jerk. Maybe I’ll leave him naked on the side of the road as a gift for some unsuspecting female. I’m told he has quite the following of puck bunnies trying to get in his pants.”

“You’re an evil man. I like that.” Eli tossed me a jacket and zipped his up to his nose. “It’s fucking cold out tonight.”

“Great.”

We walked out together and he hugged me. “I do really need to talk to you. It’s important.”

With Eli it was always important, but something in his voice made me think this was going to be a life-changing conversation. A horn honked, and Eli sprinted across the yard, waving at me as he climbed in the car. I tried to see who was driving, but it was too dark and all I saw was a silhouette.

“Call me tomorrow. We’ll figure out a place and time we can talk,” I shouted at him.

“Deal!” he yelled back and slammed the door. I watched the taillights disappear before I got into my car, shivering because the wind breezed right through my pajama pants, sending icicles up and down my legs. I started the car and turned the heater on full blast.

“Stupid cold. I should have stayed in California and become a beach bum.”

Another text from Danny came through. I banged on my phone, telling him I was just leaving the house. He sent me back a smiley face, which meant he was probably incredibly drunk.

It took me twenty minutes to find the address Danny had texted me. He had added an extra number one to the house address. When I pulled into the driveway, two guys came out of the house, carrying a third person. I held my breath and hoped they would continue to another vehicle, but they knocked on my window. I rolled it down and Danny gave me a goofy grin.

“Ah, fuck,” I groaned.

“Good evening, wonderful figure skater and closet hockey player. Are you here to transport our fearless leader to his quarters?” Spock asked.

“Uh, yeah, whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes. He leaned into the window, and the smell of alcohol filled my car. If I lit a match, the car would probably burst into flames. “What the fuck were you guys drinking?”

“Not really sure. We just opened a bunch of bottles and poured them into a bowl,” he said.

“Nice,” I said, shaking my head. If my dad found out how drunk these guys were, he’d make Danny call a captain’s practice and have them skating until they sweated and puked out every last drop of booze from their bodies. Right now, I doubted Danny could even tie the laces on his skates.

“Hi, Justina,” Danny said, smiling brightly at me.

“Quit being a moron,” I said and leaned across to open the passenger door. Apparently his companions didn’t know he wasn’t going to sit on my lap. “You need to take him to the other side of the car.”

“Oh yeah.” They laughed and dragged Danny around the car, where they proceeded to stuff him into the front seat.

“Hi, Justin,” the guy said, leaning over Danny and waving. I squinted at him and figured out it was Kris, a freshman who had been on my makeshift hockey team. “You good?” he asked Danny.

“Yep, I’m swell. I have commissioned Ensign Justin Corrin to make sure I get home in one piece,” Danny replied. “May the force be with… no, no, that’s not what I meant to say. Wrong fucking movie. I meant, live long and prosper.” He tried to make the Vulcan symbol with his fingers, but it didn’t work. “See you tomorrow, Spock, and new kid who I can’t remember your name,” Danny shouted.

Spock turned around and saluted him. I watched as they wove their way back to the house. Kris fell up the stairs, which made Spock stumble and topple on top of him. They laughed and climbed over each other until they made it to the door. Someone opened the door and dragged them back inside.

“The tall guy was Spock,” Danny said. “Bones is sleeping by the toilet and Captain Kirk is teaching a fledgling how to properly drink Captain Morgan.”

“Good to know,” I said, even though I knew who they were. “I had no idea my dad was running Starfleet Academy.”

“You’re funny,” Danny said.

He struggled to get his seat belt latched. He missed several times, making my annoyance level shoot off the chart.

“Let me,” I said and grabbed the belt and pressed it until it clicked. He ran his hand through my hair, and I jerked away from him, giving him a funny look. He tried to wink, I think, but both eyes closed, and his head fell against the window.

He sighed, and the sound drew my gaze to his flushed cheeks and plump red lips. Blond strands of hair curled around his ear, and I stopped myself from reaching out to touch him.

Demons crawled over the car, clinging to the windows and sneering at me. I jammed the car in reverse and concentrated on driving. The faster I got him home, the quicker I could dump him in his bed and get the fuck away from him and the memories I had no desire to face.

When I pulled into the driveway, I thanked the stars above that the house was dark. It would have been impossible to sneak Danny inside without getting busted. I had no idea how Janae would react to a drunk hockey player. I poked Danny in the arm.

“We’re home. Wake up.”

He groaned, rubbed his eyes, and smacked his lips. “You got anything to drink?”

“There’s water in the house,” I said.

“I’d rather have a beer.”

“Fine. There’s a gigantic vat of it up in your room and if you get upstairs quick enough, you can swim in the shit. Now get out of the car, or I’m going to leave your sorry ass out here.”

“You’ve really turned into a miserable prick,” Danny said. He tried to get out of the car, but the seat belt held him in place. “Can you fucking help me?”

I shook my head and walked to the passenger side, grumbling and muttering about stupid hockey players as the wind tried to turn me into a fucking Popsicle.

The car door squeaked when I pulled it open. Danny managed to get his seat belt undone, fell out of the car, and landed on the ground with a loud thud. He burst out laughing and grabbed my leg.

“Let go of me,” I said.

“You need to lighten up,” Danny muttered as he pulled himself up, using my leg for leverage. When he was upright, he wobbled and leaned against me. I had no choice but to put my arm around his waist to steady him.

“If you fall again, I’m leaving you outside.”

“You smell good,” he mumbled against my neck. “It’s nice. Not so girly.”

“I’m not a fucking girl, you idiot.”

“Oh, I know what you are, Justin,” he said loudly. We managed to stumble up the front steps and get the door open. I shoved him into the house. He tripped over the throw rug and landed flat on his face. He started laughing again and rolled onto his back.

“Did you do that on purpose?” he asked.

“Yes, now go upstairs. You need to sleep this off before I call my dad and tell on you.”

“Would you really do that to me?” he asked. “Coach probably wouldn’t be happy with me.”

He didn’t move. “Please, Danny, go upstairs and sleep it off.”

“Help me.” He held out his hand, wiggling his fingers, so I grabbed and tried to hoist him to his feet. Instead of getting up, Danny yanked on my arm and pulled me to the ground. I landed on top of him. Before I could scramble away, he rolled over and pinned me.

His blue eyes were dark as the midnight sky and focused on me. He tipped forward, sweeping his tongue over my lips before pressing down. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, but I suddenly realized what was happening and came to my senses. I bit down on his bottom lip and he groaned.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I snarled, bucking up against him.

“Do you remember?” He breathed across my face, and I didn’t smell liquor on his breath.

“No,” I snapped. “There’s nothing to remember. Now get the fuck off me!”

“Are you sure, Justin? I think your body remembers me. I can feel you hard against my thigh.”

I twisted and turned until he finally let go. I rolled out from under him and raced up the stairs, then slammed my bedroom door. The demons laughed and danced around my room, surrounding me and forcing me to look at images of Danny and me.

“No!” I shrieked. I covered my eyes and slowly went through the steps of my long program. A loud thud echoed through the house, but I ignored it. Maybe Janae had come home and found the stupid shit spread out on the floor. She could put him to bed.

The demons cackled and brought memories to the forefront of my brain. “Go away,” I grunted. “I don’t want to remember. Nothing happened.” I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped to my knees, but it wasn’t enough to shut out the memories.

He was my first time, my first real love. The sort of love where the feelings grab hold of your heart and squeeze so hard you think you absolutely cannot exist in a world without his touch.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he whispered, nuzzling against my neck. “I fucking want to, but I can’t. I have a girlfriend, an image.”