Page 33 of Offside for Christmas
He stared at it like it might explode.
"Who brought this?" he asked.
Ellie raised her hand sheepishly. "Me. I didn't know what to bring, and I figured everyone likes hot chocolate?"
"You brought a hot chocolate set to a team party."
"I like hot chocolate."
"Of course you do." But the way he said it wasn't mocking. It was almost... fond.
"Cole, you can steal someone else's gift if you want," Mac offered. "That's kind of the point—"
"No." Cole set the box carefully on the floor next to him. "I'm keeping this."
The entire room went silent for about three seconds.
Then Mac grinned. "Oh my god."
"Don't," Cole warned.
"You're keeping the hot chocolate set that Ellie brought because Ellie brought it—"
"I'm keeping it because it's useful," Cole said, but his ears were slightly red. "And because none of you degenerates brought anything this nice."
Jamie opened a bottle of expensive whiskey next and immediately started passing it around. Luke got a Bluetooth speaker that he immediately connected to play even more Christmas music.
Luke was already analyzing the speaker's specifications on his phone, pushing his wire-rimmed glasses up as he squinted at the screen. "Decent bass response. Could be better, though. I've been researching portable speakers for the bus rides—did you know the optimal frequency range for—"
"Luke," Mac groaned. "It's a party. Stop being nerdy for five minutes."
"I'm not being nerdy, I'm being thorough." But Luke was grinning as he said it, already making notes in the small black notebook he carried everywhere.
Mac stole Luke's gift and got the whiskey stolen from him in retaliation.
By the time the game ended, everyone was slightly tipsy, laughing, and wearing various pieces of their stolen gifts. Mac was in his ugly sweater. Ellie had her bell socks. Cole had his hot chocolate set sitting protectively beside him.
After dinner—pizza someone had ordered before the snow got too heavy, plus an alarming amount of Christmascookies that Coach's wife had sent—someone suggested Never Have I Ever with spiked eggnog.
"Absolutely not," Ellie said immediately.
"Absolutely yes," Mac countered. "It's tradition!"
"Since when?"
"Since right now. I'm making it tradition. Coach, back me up."
Coach Davies, who'd been nursing a beer in the corner and looking amused by all of it, shrugged. "Team bonding, Winters. Sometimes you gotta embrace the chaos."
So they ended up in a circle again, everyone with a mug of eggnog that was definitely more rum than eggnog, playing what was probably the worst idea anyone had ever had.
It started innocently enough:
"Never have I ever scored a hat trick in a game," Mac said. Cole, Jamie, and Luke all drank.
"Never have I ever lived outside Vermont," Jamie offered. Everyone drank except Ellie.
"Really?" Cole looked at her with genuine surprise. "Never?"
