Page 63 of Twisted Minds

Sighing, I shake my head. “Nothing.” I just want to get out of here. We’ve been practicing for a couple of hours now and everyone looks beat . . . and cold. “Game day, Monday. For fuck’s sake, go get your hoodies back from,”Noah’s room. “Wherever they are.”

I clean up the pucks, ready to get out of here. “Hey, Hunter?” I look up, seeing Ivan skate toward me. “Uh, can we talk for a sec?”

“Yeah, of course.” I look around us. “I know where your hoodie is by the way.” I eye him hard. A hot blush spreads across his tan skin. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” I assure him.

He visibly relaxes. “Uh, thanks. I just, well, you know.” I do, and I also don’t enjoy the little twist of envy in my stomach. I have no issue being out, and I make it very clear I won’t deal with bullshit from anyone, although with Coach being openly gay—and terrifying—I don’t get much shit anyway.

Still.

Sometimes I wonder whether things would be easier if I was more like Ivan, or Benson, or hell, if the missing hoodies mean what I think they do, at least four other people on my team. I wonder if I wouldn’t instantly feel my gut clench when I see unkind looks from people in our stands or have to listen to some people say I don’t deserve this position. Fuck, I need to get it together. This is not about me right now. “What is it? Sorry.”

“Uh, you’re dating that guy, right? With the blond hair?”

That makes my brows pinch. “Mark. Uh, yeah, why?”

“Well, Derrick . . . Benson told me what he did to Liu’s sister. Is that true?”

“Yes,” I say firmly. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Well, I don’t know. I was walking, like a week ago, and I saw them talking between two of the buildings. I didn’t think anything of it, but then I saw you around him and I know how much you hate Derrick. Hell, me too, but Sawyer’s your best friend. I just thought it was weird. They were pretty close, talking angrily, like they knew each other and were having an argument.”

What? What is he talking about? “Are you sure it was Mark?”

“Yeah, it was definitely Mark.”

“Maybe Derrick was being a dick to him.” I mean, Derrick isn’t exactly shy and he’s a dick to a lot of people. “Maybe he was like, yelling at him or something.

“Hunter, Derrick wasn’t the one who was mad, it was Mark. It looked like Mark was angry at him.”

My mind hasn’t stopped spinning since I left the arena and picked Mark up from his dorm. We’re nearly at my house. I don’t really want to fight, but I need to say something. My gut’s churning. None of this makes sense. The only person I’ve seen around him is Noah. Are Derrick and him friends? If they are why hasn’t he come up at all in conversations. Maybe I’m over thinking this.

Old insecurities come back to bite me, and I hate it. I’m a pretty trusting guy and always give people the benefit of the doubt, but that’s what’s landed me with more heartbreak than I’ve wanted in the past. I didn’t think my father would actually kick me out, but I was slapped with the surprise of finding my shit out on our lawn just a week after my mother died. I knew he didn’t like me, that I disgusted him, but I could never have imagined he’d do that to me.

My ex in my senior year of high school broke up with me after I found out he’d slept with someone during his first semester of college. I was devastated. I’d been planning to go to school with him, and he broke me. Three years down the drain.

Mark, though . . . Mark feels different, but still, that churn in my gut is telling me something. “Hey?” I see the ranch house coming into view. “I need to talk to you.”

Alarm shines on Mark’s pretty face. He looks like a model you’d see on one of those fashion shows. He’s pretty, but edged with delicate masculinity. When I saw him that first night by the vending machine, he quieted my racing thoughts with those blue eyes. “What is it?” His frown deepens, and I don’t like it. I love when those red lips are upturned toward me.

The driver pulls into the driveway, and I go to pay but Mark beats me to it, overpaying the fee. We haven’t really talked about it, but I assume that Mark, and especially Noah, come frommoney. We get out, and I want to drop this, but I know if I don’t say anything I’ll just keep thinking about it. I hate it. “I have a question.”

“What?” He shoves his hands in the pocket of my hoodie and I almost smile. I love the way it looks on him.

“Do you know that Noah has slept with at least four players on my team?”

Mark looks confused . . . Then he laughs. “I think four is generous.”

“It’s only been like two weeks since the game. How does he . . . You know what, I don’t want to know.”

“Look, I know Noah seems silly and outrageous, but you have to understand. Underneath all that insanity is just a guy with an emotionally and sometimes physically abusive dickhead for a father. When Noah is here, it’s freedom, and I don’t know if you know this, but he doesn’t exactly know how to pace himself. I think he’s honestly jamming as much . . . You know what? Bad choice of words. Noah is trying to fit a lifetime of freedom and bad decisions into four years. After that, his life is pretty much over. He’s going to go work for his father and be so far removed from the man you know, and the man he actually is . . . It’s really sad.”

Wow, I didn’t realize. “That seems impossible to grasp.” Noah’s unhinged. I can’t imagine anyone telling him what to do.

“I actually went home with him for a week over the summer. He told his father he met a friend at college and his father asked if he wanted to bring him home. A friend. I’ll make that clear. Noah warned me when we got there not to mention his or my sexuality.”

“Why did you go?”

Mark shrugs. “I was curious. Here, Noah’s loud and impulsive and a lot of fun. I can’t even explain the absolute one-eighty he did.” He shakes his head. “He walked different, his voice wasunnaturally lower, he chose his words so carefully. It was like watching an alien try to fit in human skin. It was unnerving. Then it made me sad for him, because putting that much effort into being anyone other than yourself—all day, every day, mind you—has to be the most exhausting thing on earth.”

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