Page 73 of College Hockey Bully

“Then how come you knew I wasn’t okay—you know what, don’t answer that.” I already know what the answer will be.

“Let me give you a ride home,” she offers.

“In case you forgot, I own a bike,” I remind her. “Thanks anyway.”

There’s a slight pause on her end. “Scarlett, I don’t want to scare you, but I saw you covered in blood last night. You were being dragged by a tree trunk or something.”

“A tree trunk?”I scoff-chuckle. “Tabitha, what have you been smoking?”

“I wish you’d take me seriously for once,” she replies stiffly.

“And I wish you’d stop being the bearer of bad news for once,” I throw back. “You’ve never gotten a premonition about me winning the lotto, for instance.”

“You know what? I’m done talking to you. Just turn in your half of the assignment before you die,” Tabitha snaps. A click goes off in my ear and she’s gone.

Shaking my head, I tuck the phone in my pocket and hasten my steps. Four days to prove that I didn’t take Noah’s money and I don’t know where to start.

My phone starts ringing again. Pulling it out, I stare at his name on the screen.

You could ask Aiden for help.

A derisive scoff escapes as I cut the call. How can Aiden not be behind all this? He’s the captain of the team. From what I’ve witnessed when I first got here, they don’t act without his say-so. And I definitely know this was a set-up. Noah deliberately left his locker open so the blame could easily fall on me. No one would believe that I knew his combination.

But Aiden… I’m struggling with that suspicion. We’ve shared so much together that it’s hard to believe it meant nothing to him—

“Watch out!” someone screams behind me.

I turn, just as a motorcycle comes sailing toward me.

Chapter 28

Aiden

Fuck it. That data science lecture can wait. I’m never going to concentrate anyway, not with knowing Scarlett’s in trouble.

As I yank on my polo shirt, Coach comes into the locker room, looking as worried as I feel. He throws his hands up. “Okay, I’m going to be the first to admit something’s crazy going on here. The intern kept swearing she didn’t do it, so I had them check the security cameras. Guess what?” He looks directly at Noah, but the answer comes from me.

“They’re not working.”

He points at me. “That’s right! Such a wild, co-incidental déjà vu, don’t you think?” His attention goes back to Noah. “I find it odd that you left your locker open, knowing you had so much money in your bag.”

Noah’s expression blazes, but Coach’s hand flies up before he responds. He looks around at the rest of us. “If I find out that you are all behind this, I’ll take the L and lose out on the championships. I seriously thought you learned your lesson after what happened last season, but clearly not.”

“Oh come on, Coach,” Odean speaks up. “Why the hell would we do that to her?”

“Don’t look at me all innocent, Wright,” Coach barks. “Especially when you’ve been pulling pranks on the intern the entire time—yes, Melissa just told me, which clearly means whoever had sent that email to the scout was telling the truth.”

The room falls silent.

“What the fuck is wrong with you guys? Grow the fuck up!” he thunders.

I step forward. “Coach, if you’re going to blame anyone for those pranks, blame me. I put the guys up to it, but I swear, this wasn’t my doing—”

“Nah, dude. We’re all taking responsibility,” Odean speaks up, and the other guys nod. “Sure, you’re the captain but you’ve never forced us into anything.”

“True,” several voices murmur.

“Yeah, we’re all taking that L,” Michael chimes in.

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