Page 142 of Brace and Chase

“What?” he mutters, voice hard.

Since I don’t want us to talk at the same time for the third time, I wait a moment to see if he’s gonna say something else. He doesn’t, so I take my turn and decide to be sensible.

“We’ll talk about it in a moment,” I murmur.

“What are they saying?” someone calls out obnoxiously from the back.

“None of your business,” I shout.

“If it’s none of our business then why are you telling us?” Jules asks, humor in his eyes.

“Because some stupid internet thing is posting a picture of us tonight,” I explain, and they get another smile out of me when they erupt in outrage.

“Are you naked in the pictures?” Benny asks, and I see the curiosity he’s trying to hide.

“No, we’re not,” Charlie says sharply. “We’re just holding hands in an elevator,” he explains.

“What internet thing?” Eagle asks, eyes narrowed.

I don’t remember the name so I just shrug, but Charlie tells him the name and Eagle’s scowl just gets deeper.

“All you fuckers think it’s so impressive that my dad is Hulk Jankowski.” He waves his hands around, clearly mocking our fanboying ways when it comes to his father. “Or that my mom is a supermodel. But you’ve never stopped to wonder who my stepdad is.” He shakes his head as he twists around to grab his phone from his cubby.

There’s complete silence in the locker room. I don’t think I’m the only one who’s confused as fuck.

“It’s Michael Ellsworth you bunch of dumb-dumbs. He owns fucking everything when it comes to media shit, so I’m gonna make sure that stupid fucking site goes out of business. Tonight.”

With that, he puts the phone to his ear and marches out of the locker room.

“That was weird,” I say, almost to myself, but I get agreeing murmurs in return.

Then Charlie rounds on me, and doesn’t give me a chance to have this conversation in private.

Oh well.

“What did you mean, yeah someday?” He mimics my voice.

I can tell that every man in the room is deadly silent, listening in... bunch of gossips, but I can’t blame them since I’d probably be doing the same.

“Exactly that,” I say patiently.

“You can’t be serious,” he says, and I realize then, he’s actually angry. And... hurt. I frown. I don’t want to hurt him. Ever.

“Sweetheart—”

“No,” he snaps at me. “You don’t get to be this level of asshole and then be all cute.” He takes a deep breath then speaks in a measured tone. “Just no.” His words are final, and I suspect I’m pouting like a kicked puppy—I feel like one. “Now, we need to get fucking ready for the game.” He walks through the crowd of players and my shoulders droop.

Bear walks over and pats me on the shoulder.

“What was that about?” he asks quietly. “And is Charlie the dude who kissed you back in January?”

I roll my eyes but nod. “Yeah, he is. And I guess he is mad because I have not been very open about... feelings,” I settle on.

“Dude,” he says, the pitying tone not helping. “You gotta use your words.”

Just then, Charlie passes by on his way out. He holds up his skates for us. “Need these sharpened,” he tells us, but he doesn’t look me in the eyes.

That’s it, I decide.

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