Page 16 of Puck Shots
“You weren’t kidding. I honestly don’t think I have to do anything. I mean, I can wipe down the mirror and shower screen if you like?” he says, and I call out.
“No, it’s all good.”
“Well, I can’t just do nothing while I’m up here. Got any other jobs for me?”
His gaze moves around the room.
“I can make your bed. I’m assuming it’s yours if Luka keeps the bathroom that clean, that has to be his bed,” Eli says, dropping the bucket and moving over to my bed.
“You don’t have to.”
“I do, actually. You can’t sign off unless I’ve completed a task.”
“At least let me help,” I say, grabbing the other side of the sheet and pulling it up to the head of the bed.
It isn’t a big job, but it satisfies the task card duty, and I sign the back of his card and hand it back.
“Did you give Toby the bathroom job on purpose?” he asks, slipping the card into his back pocket.
“Maybe.”
“Did you expect anyone to offer to help him?”
“Truth?”
He nods with a small smile, like he already knows the answer. I had the rest of the guys fooled, but not Eli.
“I didn’t think he’d get a single volunteer, let alone have the whole pledge group dividing it up.”
“I figured there was a good chance I’d start a chain reaction.”
“You did?” I ask, sitting on the end of my perfectly made bed.
He nods. “I mean, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but if anyone was going to kick it off, it had to be me. I’m the odd one out, and don’t say I’m not, because I know I am.”
“You’re not odd.”
“Thanks, but I don’t pretend to be one of the jocks, and that helped today. Because in our world, no jock wants to be shown up by a nerd.”
It’s like I’m seeing Eli in a whole new light. This guy isn’t just any old nerd; he’s a freaking mastermind.
“You are so right. Oh my god, I don’t know why I didn’t see it. They didn’t join to help Toby; they put their hands up because they didn’t want to look like you were one upping them.”
“Exactly. Well, I should probably be going.”
“See you tomorrow morning. I’ll try to mess the bed up good for you,” I say, and it comes out way flirtier than I intended, but he just smiles, pushes his glasses up his nose with one finger, my gaze focused on the deep dimple in his right cheek again before he turns and leaves.
***
I walk into the house after a shit practice the next day, downing my second iced coffee for the day, hoping the caffeine and sweet vanilla and mint mix will help silence my brain as it screams, “You’ll never make it into the NHL playing like that.” Luka and I worked on a speed play for an hour, but the single time I got my stick to the puck, I missed the fucking net by a mile. When I turned back, the coach was so unimpressed he’d already walked out, leaving us to cool down on our own and then hit the showers.
I walk through the door of the KOK frat house and nod to Reginald Ducksworth, the old portrait hanging just inside the doorway. Rumor has it that it was originally a painting of a rival college’s dean and was stolen during a blackout raid decades ago. To conceal the theft, one of the art majors painted over the original head with a snooty-looking duck face whose eyes seem to follow you when you walk by.
Tipping your head or your hat to him on your way through the door became a sort of ritual or good luck charm. With the majority of guys in the house into sports, we’re no strangers to superstitions.
The house is always a bustle of noise and energy, and today it’s even louder with everyone getting ready for tonight’s joint midnight party with the Beta Omega Nu sorority. Their house and ours have been starting off the year together since as far back as the college goes, and this year, it’s our turn to host, and we have to kill it. Last year, the pledges, me included, were tasked with serving through the event, which would have been a totally normal thing to be doing, if we were wearing more than underwear made of leaves. They had the whole Garden of Eden theme happening, but I’m not sure where they’re going with this year’s theme, judging by the goat horns Eli is trying to balance on the mantle where the lacrosse stick normally rests.
“I thought we were going for Midnights?” I say, crossing the room to help him.
