Page 72 of Hunter
“Yeah, bro,” he says and laughs when he checks how serious I am when it comes to her, “Does she let you?”
“Nah, I call her Ed,” I tell him, and hoist my bag higher up on my shoulder. “I’m not gonna call her what everyone else does.”
“You’re cooked, man. Welcome to the club,” Max adds and taps my nuts with his stick.Fucking dickhead.“Didn’t think you had it in you, to be honest.”
“Me either,” I admit out loud while scanning my student QR code to get into the arena.
“You kissed her, bro, you must really fucking like her,” C points out from behind me. He’s been quiet. Too quiet.
“I love her, she’s my girl,” I proudly tell them as we walk down the hall to our locker room.
“When did this all even happen?”
“Probably around the same time you and Red started getting your shit together,” I tell him and keep it at that while we file in through the door.
I need him to stay focused on making his own life better. If I tell him every fucking little thing that’s happened with Ed, he’ll just fixate on it. I want my brother to be healthy again, and he can’t do that if he’s all anxious about my shit. He’d run for fucking hours just to process all the crap that’s happened to us in the past few days.
“Wait, hold up a minute, so Edison’s not just like, one of your usual bun–,” Monroe asks, and I see fucking red. I’m breathing fucking fire as I stomp to his locker on the other side of the room to get in his fucking way.
“Show some respect, this is your only fucking warning,” I growl in his face and feel my brother bear hug me from behind as he pulls me back. “Now, swallow whatever fucking word that you have stuck in your throat, otherwise I’ll cut it out with my fucking skate if I hear you say it in the same sentence as her name,” I sneer as C pulls me away from beating the shit out of one of our closest friends.
“Damn, man, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Monroe says while holding his hands up. I take in a deep breath as Chase taps my chest, urging me to take it down a fucking notch.
“You fucking bastard, you really wanted to hurt me, didn’t you?” He asks and starts to laugh as he sits down to get himself ready for the game. “Tutor-girl’s got you thirsty, huh?” Typical fucking Monroe, he turns everything into a fucking joke.
“All I did was go to the fucking bathroom, and you guys are starting shit an hour before puckdrop? What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Jake shouts, and everyone separates.Dad’s mad.
“Three, hurry the fuck up and get dressed. Remind yourself why you’re fucking here. And Monroe, just shut the fuck up, I don’t give a shit what you said, I already know it was dumb.”
“I just can’t believe someone actually likes you back,” my shithead brother whispers before letting me go, and I stand still for a second to think about what just happened.
My reaction came from deep down, and the need to defend her was fucking burning in my core like it was coming from my solar plexus.Fucking hell.I don’t want any beef with my boy. I tip my chin at Monroe to let him know we’re all good.
“She loves me back,” I correct him, and he squeezes my shoulders before stepping away.
“Then she must be some fucking saint, because you’re not easy to love, A.”
“She’s actually the exact opposite of that.”Fucking demon.
“She’d have to be if she’s willingly dealing with you.”My sweet little savage.
“I wouldn’t be on your ass all the time if you did what you needed to do instead of doing dumb shit to yourself. Fucking be better, Chase, go to therapy and keep your room clean, you fucking gremlin. And feed yourself. You used to out-eat all of us.”
“And you never used to bet on games before,” he says in a low voice in my ear before we sit down at our lockers. He’s technically right, I didn’t collect any earnings, but I do my part to help make sure money ends up in Alvi’s hands. “That’s whyJake’s pissed. He feels fucking weird about it.” Too bad. He’ll live, and honestly, this shit is done all the time in the sports world.
“It’s just a stupid hundred-dollar bet. Don’t make a big deal out of it.” Multiply that hundred by three, but my sweet baby brother doesn’t need to know my business. My girl wants those fucking blackXtattoos covered up, and I’m gonna make sure it happens and soon. One winning game at a time.
“You know what could happen,” he warns, and I roll my eyes, already knowing where this is gonna go if I don’t shut this shit down. My brother will hyperfocus on this and make it into a big deal when it doesn’t need to be. The NCAA isn’t gonna find out, we’re still gonna get drafted, and everything will be fucking fine.
“Yeah, nothing. So stop looking for fucking problems. All I did was give my spread for tonight. I told Alv what I think is gonna happen out there on the ice, but really, who fucking knows. You guys agreeing is just you giving your fucking opinion, it’s really not a big thing.”
“Tell him that,” he chin points to Jake, who’s sitting down at his locker with his eyes narrowed in on me.Fucking hell. Whenever Jake’s mad at me, I feel so fucking guilty about it.I feel like I’m in fucking trouble, and hurry the fuck up to finish getting my shit on before walking over to him.
“We good?” I ask him, and he glares at me.
“What the fuck are you doing, Hunt? You blow off practice, then you fucking got into it with Coach, you didn’t come home for days, and didn’t fucking let anyone know, and now all of a sudden you're betting on our games? And about to kill Monroe over a fucking question? I gotta ask, man, does she know you’re pulling this kind of bullshit? Is she worth you losing all of this, if things go wrong? Because you’re fucking asking for it.”
“Nothing’s gonna go wrong, man. For once, things feel fucking alright for me, and that’s because of her, so yeah, she’sworth it. That’s why I wouldn’t let Monroe compare her to a fucking bunny. She’s not anything like them.”
