Page 11 of Chase
“The Higgins twins are together again.”
Chapter Four
MY ALARM IS SCREAMINGat me to wake the hell up and I reach for my phone to silence the obnoxious sound. I peel my dry eyes open and I curse myself when I realize I’m shutting down my morning skate alarm and not my early morning run alarm. I must have slept through my 3:45 AM wake-up call.
“Today already fucking sucks,” I mumble to myself while stretching my arms out.
“Saturday skate boys, let’s go! I’m leaving in ten,” Jake yells throughout the house to make sure we’re all up.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself and the piles of dirty clothes strewn across my carpeted floor. I haven’t done laundry in weeks and just wear what I ran in last night and slept in. Whatever. I push my feet into my sneakers, pocket my phone, and go down the hall to the bathroom to take a piss and brush my teeth.
“You're scowling more than usual this morning, you okay?” Jake says to me when I walk through the front door and out onto our porch. He locks it behind us and hands me a water bottle. “Here you forgot to grab this,” he offers but holds onto it when he asks to keep my attention.
“I’m fine,” I tell him but it’s bullshit. I’m not fine. I’m still just as keyed up as I was when I finally collapsed into bed way after midnight.
My body burned for her when I jogged in the opposite direction of the caf last night. I couldn’t get her out of my goddamn head while I did my usual loop.She looked so fucking pretty.
When I wasn’t thinking about how gorgeous she looked, I was thinking about how embarrassed she was when Monroe ran his fucking mouth.
I knew he pissed her off when she moved to get away from the situation. I fucking hated that I was apart of something that made her uncomfortable.
When I ran back to campus, I already knew I was going to see her. The damn devil all out insisted that I go straight up to her apartment instead of my usual spot but I couldn’t cross that line. No matter how badly I wanted her. I had to stay on this side of it all. I needed to see her.
The apartment building that she and my sister live in is on the edge of campus and sits in front of a large wooded area. There’s a big ass tree and some hedges that make a sweet spot toslip into when I need to be near her. It’s hidden away and gives me a clear view up to her side of the building.It’s been fucking perfect for staring up into her bedroom window.I usually hang around until her light goes out and then run my ass home.
But last night it took her an extra hour or so. With every passing moment that her bedroom light was on, I had convinced myself that she was upset. I couldn’t let it go. I tossed and turned all fucking night when I finally landed in my bed.
I knew morning skate was gonna be a shit show as soon as my skates hit the fresh ice and I saw Monroe. He must have slept out last night because he didn’t grab a ride with us to the rink earlier.
I can’t focus on playing when all I want to do is slam him up against the fucking boards. I’m pissed off and need to cash in on some payback. I sure as hell don’t want him getting away with what he pulled at dinner with Sloane last night.
I can’t stop thinking about her and how upset she looked and keep missing the fucking puck because of it. Coach’s last fucking straw with me snaps when I mess up on the same drills I’ve been doing for the past three seasons. It should all be ingrained in my brain at this point but it doesn’t matter. Not when every cavern and crevice of my goddamn brain is filled with thoughts of her.Hockey doesn’t stand a fucking chance against Sloane Higgins.
“Number five, you forget you play college hockey? You're skating like shit out there!” Coach yells across the ice after I miss my third pass from my brother.
I can’t find the puck, not that I’ve been trying that hard. All eyes are on me as we get ready to scrimmage. “You gonna show me that you deserve to be here, Wilton?” He shouts but I don’t react. The only thing I plan on doing is showing Monroe that he can’t say shit like that to her again.
“What the fuck is going on with you?” A asks when he skates past me. I clamp down on my mouth guard before lining up fora face-off. Sweat falls into my eyes and I blink it away and try to concentrate, my last effort to get my head in the game but it’s fucking useless.
I let my eyes drift to Monroe on defense and plan out my next move. I lose the drop but manage to steal the puck back. I get a shot off and it goes fucking wide. Even our goalie tilts his head in surprise. I’m making his job easy.
I’m playing like crap when I see my opening. I don’t think twice. I dump the puck to Max and skate across the ice to take my shot. Not a shot on goal but a shot to set shit straight.
The goal buzzer goes off but I don’t change my direction to celebrate the assist on Max’s goal. Instead, I slam his ass up against the boards and hold him there. I push up against him and sneer into his ear,
“You pull that shit again with her, I’ll fucking kick your ass. I don’t give a shit who you are, bro.” I don’t threaten my friends, Monroe is family to me, but I’ve been pissed the fuck off all damn night. He had it coming.
“Glad to see I lit a fire under your ass, I was starting to wonder if you were still in there,” he says and shakes me off.
“What the hell does that mean?” I grit out chewing on my mouth guard.
“It means you’ve been a zombie for months and I was trying to get you to react to something. To do something. I know how you feel about her, I was trying to remind you.” He says and holds out a gloved hand for me to bump which I don’t even hesitate to do.
“I don’t need you interfering. Nothing has changed,” I remind him.
“Of course it has, new year, new semester, new chances,” he says so easily as if there’s nothing else in the way of me getting my girl.
“You sound like my sister,” I point out and he throws his head back and laughs as we take a cool-down lap around the ice with the rest of the team. She was going on and on about New Year's resolutions at Christmas. She’s got a whole list going.
