Page 41 of Fresh Ice
Levy mumbled some faint apologies as Alonso cleared his throat. By some miracle, the phone’s screen was still on, and Alonso barely had to scroll down to get to Levy’s section tucked neatly under Alonso’s.
“The other half of the Hounds’ wonder duo is Emmett Levine…” he started.
It talked about Levy’s playmaking skills, pointing out that although Alonso had scored more goals, Levy had more points due to the number of assists he managed to get.
Ultimately, the section ended by asserting that both Alonso and Levy were better together than they were apart.
**********
Alonso was surprised by how much he was looking forward to playing the Denver Leopards.
Alonso had always found it difficult to make friends, especially on whatever team he was on at the time. In the past, he’d had his dad directly over his shoulder criticising him for being too soft—too Omega.
Letting other people in, according to his dad, would be his downfall. They’d be a distraction at best, and his career’s demise at worst.
It had barely been half a season, but already the stupidity of that philosophy was apparent to Alonso. There was no way Levy was making him worse. Even when Alonso wanted to be better than him, it just pushed him forward.
Alonso had never been as close to another person as he was to Levy, but there had been one person on Alonso’s junior team that he would call a friend—Zane Monroe, better known as Zee.
They hadn’t hung out that much, what with Zee being attached at the hip to one of the other players, but Zee had always been nice to him, even when Alonso was being a recluse.
They had only texted a few times, but Alonso was excited about going to supper with him and catching up.
Levy nudged him from where he was sitting beside him on the bus. “Who’re you texting so much?”
“I’m not texting that much.”
“Uh, yeah you are. You keep smiling at your phone too. It’s kind of freaky, not gonna lie.”
Alonso snorted. As if he didn’t smile around Levy all the time.
“No, but seriously, who are you texting?” Levy insisted.
Alonso raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised at Levy’s insistence. “What’s with all the questions?”
“I’m just curious,” Levy grumbled. “But if it’s a big secret…”
“It’s not a secret, you’re just being super nosy. It’s a friend from Juniors who’s playing on the Leopards now. We were talking about meeting up for supper.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you had a friend in Denver. Who is it?”
“Monroe.”
Levy was still frowning. “How come you’ve never mentioned him?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t relevant?”
Levy full-on pouted. “Well, if he’s such a good friend, I would have thought you’d say something about him.”
Alonso stared at him for a moment. “Dude…you’re being super weird about this.”
“No, I’m not. I was just wondering.”
“Do you want to meet him or something? You wanna come out with us?”
Levy’s face did something complicated, but Alonso couldn’t figure it out. “You sure that’d be okay?”
“Yeah, duh. Why wouldn’t it be?”
