Page 35 of Catch Me

Sean pauses and the suspicion is so thick I could cut it with a spoon. “No…she’s taken Lily over to your dorm to see Molly.”

“Oh, okay, cool, I’ll just go home and see her then.” Lois says cheerily, clearly relieved that she’s able to run away from this painfully awkward conversation. But Sean stops her again before she can escape down the stairs.

“Hold on, surely you just came from the dorm, so you’d know she was there.” His tone is dripping in curiosity and I can imagine his face right now. Eyebrows tied tightly together and hazel eyes assessing my girl, as she squirms uncomfortably under his suspicious stare.

“No,” Lois answers quickly, “I was at the library all morning before I came here.”

Sean exhales sharply and I hear the smile and relief in his voice. “Oh, okay, see you later then munch.”

Lois grumbles something derogatory under her breath as Sean’s heavy footsteps make their way down the hallway to his bedroom. Lois follows suit a moment later, the sound of her feet moving down the stairs and out of the front door.

It feels like a lifetime has passed when Friday finally rolls around. All day I'm waiting for her call. To decide whether I need to head over to her dorm with condolence gifts of ice cream and her favourite lavender scented bath bomb. Or instead to head over there with a bunch of congratulatory flowers and the intention of fucking her into the night. Luckily for me, my phone rings loudly in my pocket at exactly 5:05pm, five minutes after I know her competition should have ended. I pull off my helmet and gloves frantically, trying not to miss the call.

“Hey baby,” I whisper, glancing over one shoulder at Sean and Kyle who play fight on the other side of the rink, throwing soft punches at each other. “How did it go?”

I hear the relief filled smile in her breathing before she even speaks. “I got gold Nick! Fucking gold! Can you believe it?” She shrieks so loud I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

My eyes sparkle with delight at her joy, my mouth twisting into a prideful smile. “I’m so proud of you Lo, so fucking proud. Let’s go out tonight, to a club or something to celebrate.”

“We’re going to a club?” A voice right behind me makes my phone slip through my fingers like a bar of wet soap. I juggle it, trying not to let it crash down onto the ice and shatter into a million pieces.

“Shit Taylor, don’t sneak up on people like that!” I raise my voice enough, purposefully making sure Lois can hear who I'm talking to. She does, because she hangs up immediately and I pocket my phone as smoothly as possible to avoid suspicion.

“Yeah, I thought maybe we could celebrate tonight. Molly said that your sister and her team did really well at their competition and they’re thinking of going out tonight, we should join them.” I say casually, leaning against the plexiglass.

Sean’s expression holds no suspicion when he responds with a shrug. “Yeah, sure, sounds like a good idea to me. I’ll ask Callie to try and find a sitter for Lily, I'm sure coach will be more than happy to have her.” He leans closer to me, cupping a hand to his mouth in a whisper. “He’d never admit this out loud, but he loves being a Grandad to her, he’s such a softie.”

The two of us grin like naughty schoolboys with a secret about the headmaster before Sean heads off back across the rink, yelling over his shoulder, “I’ll call you in an hour once I’ve spoken to Cal!”

I flick him a thumbs up and head off the rink myself towards the locker rooms. My skin is already itching with anticipation about tonight, the crawling of nerves ruining my excitement when I realise I'm going to be in a club with Loisandher brother. I won’t be able to touch her, kiss her, hold her hand, dance with her. There’s no way I'm going the whole night without at least one sneaky kiss from her.

The moment I get into my bedroom, freshly showered, hair still damp from the icy air outside, Sean taps on my door. His dimpled grin appears around the wood as he peers inside at me.

“Coach is looking after Lily tonight so we’re on for 8pm if that’s good with you?”

I nod once, dropping my bag to the floor. “Yeah, fine by me.”

“Molly and Ky are coming, Lewis too I think.” He says, starting to pull the door closed, but I stop him.

“Who else is coming?” I say, too wobbly for my liking, as if I'm tempting him to suspect something is going on. I'd never normally ask who is coming, I’d never normally give a shit. But I haven’t been able to get hold of Lois since the interrupted phone call at the rink and I'm worried she’s going to chicken out of coming tonight because of Sean.

He ponders for a beat. “Erm, I think Anais is coming, maybe Sophia…and my sister of course.” His face lights up with a flash of pride. “She got gold today you know, she smashed it out the park.”

“Did she? Good for her,” my voice is gruff, laced with annoyance that I have to pretend to be unbothered by my girl’s achievements.

“You alright?” Sean says, looking at me through squinted, confused eyes.

I nod once. “Yeah, all good, I’ll be ready at 8pm.” I close my bedroom door, leaving Sean in the hallway probably bewildered as to why I'm acting so weird, but I can’t help it. The sloshing in my stomach can’t be ignored when I have to act like that in front of him, pretending like I don't give a shit about Lois. I can’t do it forever, so I fucking hope she’s ready to tell him soon and deal with the consequences. This is all going to blow up in our faces at some point, may as well not prolong the torture.

The club is pumping with a heavy beat when we arrive. Sean, Kyle, Lewis and I clamber out of the taxi and pile into the building. The bouncer with a face like a slapped arse gruntssomething unintelligible as we pass him, but he doesn’t stop us from entering. The girls are already here, the four of them squished into a leather seated booth, laughs on their voices as we approach. They look like a gaggle of teenagers who have had one too many lollipops after school and are now on a sugar high. They spot us approaching and Molly leans into Lois’ ear, whispering something that makes her blush pink.

“Hello ladies, well done today you two,” Sean gestures towards Lois and Anais. “What are you girls drinking? I’ll go to the bar.”

Lois spares one fleeting glance at me and of course my eyes are fixed on her anyway, which makes her cheeks flush an even darker shade of fuchsia.

Then she looks back to Sean. “We’ve all been drinking mojitos,”

Molly snorts next to her. “Yeah and some of us,” she flicks an eye roll at Callie, “have already had too many of those.”

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