Page 26 of My Brother's Best Friend

At seven p.m., I walked into the hockey arena and pressed my lips together in a tight line. I gazed at Coach and my teammates huddled on our side of the ice, talking gameplay, then scanned the crowd.

Maddie sat with Piper in the stands, immediately pulling her gaze away when we locked eyes. She clenched her jaw, brow furrowed in an angry glare, probably talking shit about all the pain I had caused her this morning.

When my teammates skated out onto the ice, I picked up my heavy feet and walked over to the rest of the guys who had to sit out today. Part of me felt fucking weird because Ineversat on the bench. I was always pushing, always starting, barely ever hurt.

Until now.

“Wolfe,” Coach shouted when I shuffled into the stadium three minutes before the game, dressed in my clothes from school. With his clipboard by his side, he arched a brow at me. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Busy,” I mumbled and collapsed down onto the bench next to him as the team warmed up on the ice for another preseason game. My shoulders slumped forward, my gaze focused on the ground. I hadn’t even wanted to come tonight.

“Too busy to message me before practice yesterday to tell me you weren’t coming?”

“Sorry, sir.”

He paused for a moment, then sat down beside me. “You could’ve played today if you had shown up for a half hour yesterday. But due to school policy, you’re going to have to sit the entire game.”

I peered over my shoulder at Maddie again. “I know.”

God, I wanted to talk to her so badly, but I didn’t want to fucking ruin my relationship with her more than I already had. I was no good for her, had ignored her here and there, barely said anything nice to her, especially lately.

After running a hand through my hair, I placed both forearms on my knees and leaned forward, staring down at the gray piece of gum stuck to the bottom of the bleachers.

Why did my fucking anxiety possess me to be such an asshole to her this morning?

She would never understand it even if I tried to apologize.

“The hell were you at lunch?” Oliver asked, skating up to the sidelines.

“In the library.”

All my answers today were so forced, so monotone, so fucking automatic. I didn’t have the energy to keep up the facade of being the school flirt, toying with Sandra to piss off Maddie. Especially not after I had made her cry before first period.

“Spending time with that chick?” Frazer nudged me, squeezing a bottle of water through his helmet to rehydrate.

I wrapped a hand over the front of my throat, the heat crawling up my neck.Fuck.

Coach glanced over at me as the guys skated back on the ice.

While I didn’t want to tell my parents or Maddie, I had known Coach Leo since I was six years old. He had gone through all the ups and downs with me, had given me extra training sessions when I asked for them, and was preparing me for college hockey.

Plus, he felt more like a father than Dad did at some points.

If I kept this up and didn’t show up for practice again, I would have wasted all of his time.

“What’s going on?” he asked between plays. “The guys mentioned a party on Friday.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, rubbing my hands together until they were raw. “A party … and a girl.”

“A girl?” Coach Leo said with one brow raised. “You’re letting a girl get into your head?”

“She …” I started, a lump forming in my throat. “She … slept with me.”

“Pussy that good?” Jose, an assistant coach in his fifth year of college, asked.

I opened my mouth, then shut it, unsure about what to say. Honestly, I didn’t want to say shit in front of Jose, but I had already opened my big mouth. If I didn’t tell Coach the entire story, he would think I was throwing my life away for her.

“I didn’t want it,” I admitted.

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