Page 35 of The Puck Chase

“Drowning our sorrows?” he asks, looking between me and the bottle with a smirk, and I shake my head.

“Celebrating actually,” I muse, swirling the amber liquid in my glass, before taking another sip.

“Well, that’s a change,” he smiles, pouring himself a drink, and I can’t help but silently agree, as he holds his drink up to mine and asks, “What are we celebrating?”

I almost roll my eyes at his question, because as smart as he is, sometimes he can be really dumb. “You,” I confirm, clinking our glasses together. “This is your bachelor party,” I tell him, gesturing to our drinks and the bottle between us, and he barks a laugh.

“No strippers and just us two present, what kind of bachelor party is this?” he asks, and now I do roll my eyes.

“Please, you haven’t touched any woman in months, and you basically hate the rest of the team,” I scoff, and I see his defenses immediately rising.

“I do not hate the rest of the team,” he denies, and I don’t bother pointing out his lies, instead I just shrug my shoulders.

“Fine, thenIhate the rest of the team,” I reply with a smile, as I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, reminding me that as much as those words are true, there is someone very insistent on getting past my defenses.

I don’t have to pull it out to know who it is. Every time my phone has vibrated in the last week, it has been one person and one person only. From good morning texts, pictures of what he is eating, updates on his entire day, and my personal favorite, a shirtless picture of him in bed before he goes to sleep every night. Those are always sent as his final message, with the exact same words every night, without fail. Yes, Archer Gray has taken to not only stalking me at practice, but also blowing up my phone.

Doing my best to ignore him, Josh and I share a few more drinks with one another, talking back and forth as my phone continues to vibrate, and by the time I head up to my room, my phone must have gone off at least twenty times. I make quick work of getting undressed, changing into some shorts to sleep in, before forgoing my sketchbook for my phone and climbing into bed.

There are a few messages from Aurora, but it’s the multiple ones from her brother that capture my attention first, and I can’t help but rush to open them.

Gray - Cap just made me run 10 miles, he said I’m getting lazy

Gray - I just ate 5 tacos

Gray - Do you think that cancels out all those miles I ran

Gray - Here show this to Peters

Gray - **Image attached**

All of his messages are of the usual variety, including the last picture of Nova and Maddie kissing one another. He has been sending them for the last week, telling me to show them to Josh, and even though I don’t, I can tell Archer gets a kick out of sending them.

Gray - Did you know slugs have four noses?

Gray - Weird right?

Gray - Are you ignoring me?

Gray - Or maybe jerking off? ??

Gray - Would you tell me if you were jerking off?

I can’t help but smirk at his last message, as I type out my response.

Daemon - I was not jerking off

He reads and replies almost instantly.

Gray - Damn! Way to ruin my Friday night

Gray - So what were you doing?

I debate not telling him, but after discovering from Josh that Archer shares a class with Hallie, I am sure he is already well aware of their upcoming nuptials.

Daemon - I was throwing Josh a bachelor party

Gray - And you didn’t invite me? I’m outraged

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