Page 35 of Daydream

“Two wins does not give you the right to use my office, Turner,” he says. “What’re you doing in here?”

“Sorry, Coach. I was trying to find somewhere quiet to make a phone call. Bye.”

I speed past him before he has a chance to probe further. The locker room has emptied out, and once I’ve grabbed my bag, I head out, too. The adrenaline hasn’t quite worn off yet, and I feel oversensitive to every sound and light. I’m relieved when I see Russ in the hallway waiting with only Aurora, but I haven’t even reached him when our phones simultaneous ding.

PRETTY BEST FRIENDS

MATTIE

Honeypot for a belated birthday celebration?

KRIS

Yessssss. I feel like spending my monthly food allowance on two drinks.

LOLA

Go off, Budget King!!

LOLA

Count me out, shit to do

Bobby

It’s your boyfriend’s birthday how can we count you out?

ROBBIE

Yeah count me out, too. I have work to do

ANASTASIA

Not for me. I have an early start tomorrow and I want to video call Nate tonight. But congrats on the wins, guys!

MATTIE

I can’t believe my eyes right now.

“What’s happening?” Aurora asks, watching us read the messages as they roll in. “You guys go to The Honeypot after your wins? Campus bar too good for the hockey team?”

“It’s Nate and Robbie’s favorite place to drink,” Russ explains. “Nate was friends with a girl who worked there and would get tables and stuff for really cheap. I don’t think I’ve ever been.”

The honest answer is I don’t really like The Honeypot. I don’t really like nightclubs, but Nate went through so much effort to make sure I could go with them last year even though I’m underage that I didn’t know how to say I was fine hanging out at home alone. I’ve been there so many times that now I don’t know how to tell the people who love it that I don’t have a great time.

“It’s fine I guess,” I say. I knew either way people would want to party tonight, and I’d need to be there, but I was secretly hoping that maybe this weekend would be the one where everyone collectively decided to go home. I don’t often give in to pressure, but I feel like I need to be there to celebrate with the team. “I was going to see if Halle wanted to hang out.”

“You could probably catch her,” Aurora says, nodding to the exit. “She was shuffling toward the parking lot in the crowd when I came in here. She was with Cami Walker and Ava Jones. I’d suspect they’re still outside somewhere.”

“Wait, she’s here?”

Aurora nods slowly. “Yeah. Did she not mention it?”

“No.”

“Did you ask?” she says, looking at me knowingly.

I was going to ask her yesterday if she would be coming, but she said she might be helping out at Enchanted while the owners were at an event, so I didn’t. I intended to text her back and ask if she could come today, but I was so stressed by the Lola/jersey situation that I got distracted by Russ putting on a brand-new pair of socks and forgot.

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