Page 17 of For Crosby

He scoffed.

“And whether or not you did tie him up, those knots were freaking tight.”

Jeremy laughed. “Oh, that’s right. I think I heard you were the one who found him.”

“Lucky me.”

“He didn’t say who did it?” he asked, his eyes hyper-focused on mine.

I took my last bite of pasta before shaking my head.

“I hear the dean’s looking to punish whoever did it,” he said.

I shrugged. If I didn’t rat out the hockey team to the dean, I wasn’t about to say anything to Jeremy. What good would it do? He clearly had something to do with it. He wouldn’t have been so eager to hear my side if he hadn’t.

“Did the dean call you in?” he persisted.

“Yeah.”

“Geez.” I could see in his jumpy eyes that he wasn’t finished with his questions. “So, what’d you tell him?”

I lifted one shoulder, hoping he took the hint I didn’t like being interrogated. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“I know nothing, so I told him nothing.”

His face softened, as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders. “That’s good.”

I lifted my chin at his black leather wristband, changing the subject as quickly as I could. “I like that.”

He lifted his wrist to give me a better view. “My mom gave it to me after I scored the game winning goal last year.”

“What’s on it?” I asked, inspecting its small silver plate.

“She had it engraved. ‘Potters Never Give Up.’”

“Were you thinking of quitting hockey?”

He shook his head. “Just an inside thing, I guess.”

I smiled. “So, you guys gonna win this year, or what?”

Jeremy smiled, and just like that, our night was salvaged and Crosby’s name never came up again.

Crosby

My hands pressed into the shower tiles in front of me. The spray rained over my head and the back of my neck, releasing all the tension in my body. Practice had been a killer. It sucked having to be civil with the pricks on my team, especially since I didn’t know who tied me up. I closed my eyes as the water continued washing over me. Images from that night flooded my brain.

The air was so fucking cold on my bare skin, but I wouldn’t let them see it affected me. I held my chin in the air and took it like the man I was. After, of course, I’d fought like an animal to resist the ropes. But four on one wasn’t easy, no matter how strong I was. Figuring it was part of my initiation to the hockey team, I relented, hoping they were just trying to scare me and would eventually release me.

I’d only been on campus a day, so I knew no one. And because the cowards wore masks, I could only hear their voices and the orders barked out by their leader. I tried to commit them to memory so I could put the voices with faces once I began practicing with the team. But when you’re naked, cold, and fucking pissed, it’s easier said than done.

“Tie the knots tighter,” the leader barked again, as the three others worked from behind the tree. If this was all a big show, they were spending a whole lot of time securing me in place.

Their leader, who was about my height and build, paced in front of me, directing none of his comments to me.

“What do you get out of this?” I asked him.

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