Page 37 of Penalty Shots

Jenny scrunches her face for a split second before turning to her roommate. When she sees her, she pushes away from me to gush all over her.

“Rina! This outfit was made for you. You were made to be… “ Jenny hesitates a moment and reads the label on the costume. “Queen Amygdala.”

Rina bursts into a laugh. “Amidala, Jen. It’s Queen Am-i-dala.”

I rise up from my place on Jenny’s bed and perform a respectable bow. “Your Majesty.”

I look up at Rina and she’s shaking her head. “You’re both ridiculous.”

“Whatever. Just let me help you style your hair,” Jenny says, already moving toward her endless supply of hair care items.

“Don’t you have to get dressed too?” Rina asks.

“My outfit’s easy. It's basically a bra and some fabric with a high braid." Jenny says it's no big deal. "Now, sit down.”

I watch as Rina takes her seat at Jenny’s desk. Both girls look at me in the mirror she has propped up against the wall on top of it.

I can take a hint.

“I’ll meet you guys downstairs. Ryker, Turner, and I will come get you.”

“Who’s Turner?” Rina asks.

“Oh, he’s a hot law student that reluctantly joined their hockey team after Keelan begged him to an inch of his life.”

Rina raises a brow. “A hot law student?”

“I didn’t beg him. He wanted to join us. And I guess he’s okay looking,” I say, running a hand through my too-shaggy hair.

Jenny waves me off. “We’ll meet you down there in thirty minutes.”

Thirty minutes to Jenny means an hour, so I won’t hold my breath. I salute them both and open the door to the dorm room. Before it shuts, I hear Rina asking her about Turner McEvoy.

And I really shouldn’t feel some kind of way about her line of questioning. But it ticks me off for some reason. I like Turner.He’s a solid dude. But Turner and Rina? They’re way too much alike. They’d bore each other to death.

I shut the door and make it halfway down the stairs when I realize I’m obsessing over something that isn’t any of my business. If Rina likes Turner, then cool. No skin off my nose.

I’m with Jenny. Not Rina, after all.

“The party has arrived!” Jenny announces, her boobs practically falling out of her golden top. Rina follows close behind her, looking uncomfortable even with her boobs perfectly tucked away. They make it out of the dorms and toward the back door of Ryker’s Tercel.

“Probably gonna have to squeeze in back there,” Ryker says to Turner, sitting in the back seat. “This is my brother’s car. He gifted it to me.”

The same year Ryker’s brother went to prison–I lost my parents. We met at a hockey camp that summer and have been inseparable since.

Turner eyes the two girls and smiles. “I don’t mind,” he says, grinning.

Oh I’m sure he doesn’t.

My blood instantly heats. “You know what,” I say, already getting out of the car. “Why don’t you sit up front, bud? I wanna sit with my girlfriend.” I throw a protective arm over Jenny’s shoulders and give her a wink.

“So territorial,” she whispers playfully through the side of her mouth.

Turner hesitates a beat but opens his door and moves aside to let the girls in. “Hi,” he says to them on his way out.

“Hey, McEvoy,” Jenny says, brushing past him to slide into the car. “This is my roommate, Rina Lopez. Daughter of the Literary Tyrant,” she attempts to whisper that last part.

Turner stretches out a hand to Rina. “Does that make you a princess?”

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