Page 2 of Cold as Ice

Elliott shivered and refocused, more determined than ever to make this happen.

“I’m Elliott, I’m—”

“You’re the new freshman. Right winger.”

“Yeah. That’s me.” Elliott nodded. Knowing that Malcolm played left wing. If he earned the spot, he might even end up on the same line as Malcolm. Working closely together.Veryclosely together if Elliott had anything to say about it.

Mal didn’t say anything. In fact, he looked away, like he hoped Elliott might go back to wherever he came from.

Usually Elliott didn’t have this much trouble getting someone—anyone, really—to talk to him. But it was like pulling teeth to get Malcolm to even engage.

Frustrating. But Elliott wasn’t ready to give up. That easily, or at all, frankly.

“This party seems pretty great,” Elliott said. His first college party. With his first college hookup.

“You like this sort of thing?”

If Elliott wasn’t so focused on Malcolm he’d have given the party a once-over glance, but instead he kept his gaze on Malcolm.

“Yeah. But more like . . .I was wondering if this party would be like every college party they show on TVs and in movies, and you know what?”

Elliott paused. Waiting for him to answer.

“What?” Malcolm finally replied, the acknowledgment dragged out of him way more reluctantly than Elliott would’ve liked, especially when he was doing half-decent work here.

“It actually kind of is? You know, the sort of trashy hedonism of it all? I only had to wander in the kitchen for someone to hand me a bottle of tequila. And then there’s all that out there . . .” Elliott gestured towards the makeshift dancefloor, where a dozen or so students were gyrating together to some old-school 90’s R&B. “And don’t forget the beer pong in the garage. I’m sure if I wandered out the back door, I’d see a couple inching their way towards hooking up.”

Malcolm gave him a blank stare. “Why would you see that?”

“It’s like every episode of bad teen TV ever. LikeThe OCorOne Tree Hillor evenThe Vampire Diaries. I guess we can’t really countGossip Girl,because they weren’t in college, yet, but they did get there, I guess? But they wouldn’t know what to do with a trashy college party, honestly.”

Malcolm was still staring at him, a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows.

“What’sGossip Girl?” he asked.

Not what Elliott had expected, but that was okay. He wasn’t telling Elliott to fuck off and for a second, he’d been afraid that might have been the next thing out of Malcolm’s mouth.

“You’ve never seenGossip Girl?”Oh, Elliott was already planning some watch parties in his head. A few nice longevenings, Netflix playing, and anything but chilling happening on the couch.

“No.”

“It’s a . . .uh . . .kind of trashy teen drama about a bunch of rich kids in NYC who go to this private school—”

“That sounds terrible.”

“Well, yeah, terrible, butalsogreat,” Elliott said. “And this party is right out of that playbook, honestly, which is kind of cool when you think about it?”

“It is?”

“Well,yeah. It means they got something right? And if they gotall thisright, that means I’m going to end up making a very bad choice—maybe even more than one—with an inappropriate hookup, but they end up being so good, so fucking memorable, I won’t be able to forget them.” It was a lot to pile on, butfuck it, Elliott did it anyway, fluttering his eyelashes in Malcolm’s direction.

Hoping he got the memo: that his possibly bad, but very memorable choice was going to be Malcolm.

“I don’t understand,” Malcolm said bluntly. “Is there something in your eye? Do you have a medical condition?”

“No,” Elliott said. He sighed. Maybe his subtle approach was not working. Hadn’t he just thought it earlier? Better to keep things simple. Straightforward. “Here’s the thing. I’m hot. You’re hot. We’re at a party. We should go out there—”

“What?” Malcolm looked floored now. “What?”

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