Page 22 of Neo

I look at Vikki’s friend and she stares back at me skeptically, as we both try to figure out which one of us he’s actually talking to.

“I’m talking to you, Violet.”

Both Vikki and the mean girl whip their heads around to give me another hard stare as if they’ve just caught me committing some sort of crime, which works because I actually feel guilty.

I can’t walk away fast enough.

“Hey,” he calls after me.

“Let her go,” I hear Vikki say behind me and a small part of me feels a sense of relief. If Neo has a girlfriend, especially one he’s willing to fight for, then that’s a good thing.

It means he’s off limits.

I spend the next hour in the university’s commons building, exploring each floor, and committing certain rooms to memory. I notice that there are very few places where you can go on campus where you don’t see large black and gold posters promoting the hockey team and most of them feature the big three: Neo, Shane and Bass. I’m starting to truly understand just how important the hockey program is to this school. It seems to be all they care about.

After a ten-minute walk east of the commons, I coincidentally find myself at the ice rink and I’m drawn to the open entrance of it like a moth to a flame. Neo’s probably still somewhere with his girlfriend, so I think a small peek inside won’t hurt. He isn’t here.

There’s a cool bite in the rink's air and it has a distinct chemical smell I remember from the last time I was inside the rink. From a distance, I watch members of the hockey team, all dressed in their black practice jerseys and protective gear, work on drills across the ice.

At first glance, in all of their clunky apparatus they seem to awkwardly move across the ice at breakneck speed, but the more I watch, the more I realize there really is an art to stay upright and hit a small piece of rubber into a net with pinpoint accuracy. They are in total control of their bodies and their movements. It’s impressive.

My goal is to remain hidden from view but I find that I don’t do a very good job of it once the tallest man out there skates gracefully toward me with that arrogant, stiff jaw of his, wisps of blond hair peeking from beneath his helmet.

“This is a surprise,” Neo says as he pulls off his helmet.

My breath catches.

Under the lights and the ice, this man practically glows.

“Looking good, seventeen!” I hear from above me and she’s one hundred percent right.

He raises his arm to greet whichever girl said it, but I can tell by the sincere tone of the person’s compliment that it wasn’t either of the girls from earlier. Instead, she just must be another one of his many fans who constantly showers him with all of this adoration.

“I was finishing my campus self tour and thought I’d just pop my head in,” I explain, albeit rather badly.

“Hoping to find me?”

His cocky response takes me by surprise considering who he was just with an hour or so ago.

“I wasn’t hoping for anything.” My eyes dart away. “It was just a walk. In fact, I didn’t think you’d even be here.”

“Have you been staying alone inside your place since the kickback?”

I try casually staring at the other players practice while we talk so I don’t have to look directly at Neo’s face, probably because I’m afraid he’ll see exactly what he does when every other girl on this campus looks at him.

“I don’t mind having a little alone time.”

“Yeah, I bet living with Prez has got to be challenging.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Are you always like this?”

“Like what?

“In a mood.”

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