Page 50 of Ski You Later
“I don’t know where they went! They were in the ignition, and next thing I know, poof. They're gone!” Landon sounds baffled as he says this, but I can detect the slightest hint of humour in his tone.
“That doesn’t make any sense, Huxley! You can’t park a truck and then have the keys disappear! Move this car right now!” Rachel screams in his face, and I don’t know how he hasn’t broken character yet.
“I told you, I can’t. No keys,” he says with a straight face as he shrugs his shoulders.
Rachel looks like a kettle that’s about to boil over, and I make sure to intercept before she explodes.
“Hey, Landon. These were on the floor by the van door. Are they yours?” Rachel turns to me with fury lighting up her eyes, and I try my best not to wince away.
His eyes widen in surprise as he dons the most convincing face of relief. “Rhodes. You are an absolute gem. Those are exactly what I lost. Rach, I’ll move this car right now.”
I pass them to him, but Rachel plucks them from my fingers before I can stop her.She inspects the pom-pom and then raises her brow at the R key-chain.Looking back up at Landon, she gives him the most unimpressed look I’ve ever seen on her face. “These are your truck keys, Huxley?”
A wince takes over my expression as Landon stares at her with confusion. ‘Yes? Can I have them back now?”
“There is a giant pink thing on these keys,” she states.
“I love pink. It’s my favourite colour,” Landon responds immediately.
“What about the sparkly R keychain?” Rachel questions with annoyance in her tone as she holds it up for all of us to see.
“Yeah?” He questions as if it’s Rachel who’s not making any sense. “R for Landon,” he says immediately as he snatches the keys from her hand. As she processes the sudden loss of keys, Landon lets out a triumphant cackle and starts the truck.
Ripping away to park in one of the athlete spots, Rachel yells and runs after him. If the coaches didn’t have a special love for Xander and Landon’s antics, I would feel really guilty about what they did for me.
Instead, I let out a full-bellied laugh as I watch our coach start smacking Landon as he exits his truck. I hear tires on gravel and see a similar situation unfold atthe back of the van, with Calvin driving away and an angry Liane on his tail.
The entire team is laughing at this point, big smiles on their face as they slowly start loading into the van. An exasperated Rachel storms past me as she beelines it for the driver’s seat, and a firm weight lands on my shoulders.
“That was hilarious. If I weren’t an actor, I wouldn’t have been able to keep it together,” Landon says plainly and pulls me close to him. My eyes widen at the actor comment, but he said it so casually that I’m just going to pretend I knew about it this whole time.
“The coaches are going to be furious with you,” I say with worry since this whole event was to make sure I wasn’t late for departure. “Thank you so much, Landon.” Wrapping my arm around his waist, I give him a quick squeeze as we both release each other.
His expression is sheepish as he brushes me off. “I would take angry coaches over an angry Roman any day,” he states easily.
Turning back to face him, I make sure the curiosity is visible. “Why would Roman be angry?”
Landon looks at me as though I’m being ridiculous. “If the coaches left you behind, he would probably do something much more drastic than just blocking in the vans.”
CHAPTER 18
It’s just my luck that out of two vans, I picked the wrong one.
Landon runs off to find Xander as I walk towards the van in a daze. This entire spectacle was all to help me, and I could not be more grateful for these guys I’ve been growing closer to. Rachel’s fuming in the front seat, rolling her window down and barking at everyone to load up.
Doing my best to go unnoticed from the grumbling coach, I quietly enter the van and quickly occupy one of the empty rows.
Plopping down and resting against the headrest, I look out the window to my right. Roman, Landon, and Xander are laughing hysterically and patting Landon on the back. Putting my hand over my mouth, I stifle my own giggle and wait for them to join me.
I watch with dread as the three of them head for the van that Liane’s driving. Ignoring thedisappointment that floods me at the thought of not sitting next to Roman, I look up to try and get Aurora’s attention.
Leaning forward, I spot Calvin and all his friends already occupying the rows directly in front of me, and Jasmine’s sitting right at the front. As I survey the occupants of this car, I silently scream into the void.
Sometimes, I am a grade A moron, and this is one of those situations. I was so scared about the coaches yelling at me, I didn’t even look to see who I’d be on the road with for the next seven hours.
As I carefully pick up my jacket to slip into the other van, the tell-tale sound of tires spinning confirms my nightmare. Rachel starts to pull out of the parking spot, and our journey has officially begun.
Flopping back into the seat in a huff, I’m thankful that everyone looks like they’re preparing to head back to sleep. That doesn’t stop the panic from forming a weight on my chest. Even though I have known Calvin and the others for years, they’re not my friends. If Jasmine decides today is the day to really interrogate me about my ‘relationship’, I’m going to completely freeze.
