Page 25 of Puck Shots
His eyebrows pick up, and he smiles an unexpected smile.
“I could do waffles and whiskey.”
“You surprise me more everyday, Eli Mores.”
“That’s how we Mores guys do it,” he says, backing toward the door. “We wear you down slowly so you don’t see it coming.”
His back hits the frame, and his face goes bright red as he clutches the chess set to his chest so he doesn’t drop it.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I reply, and he turns to go, and as I watch him leave, all I keep thinking is how suddenly my room feels way too quiet.
8
Eli
Cosmo invited me to hang out with his hockey friends again and I didn’t hesitate this time. Partly because I know what to expect now, and partly because, after the last time, I looked up ice hockey online and now have a general understanding of the rules. More than that, though, after watching them on the ice, I can totally see how I could apply hockey to my final physics project of the year. If Cosmo and his friends don’t mind being my guinea pigs, I could video them doing their plays and tricks on the ice, then analyze the tapes, and make suggestions based on the physics of their movements to improve the trick or action in some way. It’s a lot of work and it rests entirely on getting them to agree to help me, but it could be mutually beneficial; they would basically have a free movement coach. I think that’s what they are called. I don’t really care what the job might be, it’s the first project I thought of that I’m actually excited about. Everything else was just more of the same stuff I already know. This is something new for me, too.
“So I would need to get some close-up video of you performing the moves, and then after analyzing the movements of what you are trying to do versus what you are doing, I can come back with the suggested adjustments to the moves you make so that you nail the play…or whatever.”
Luka, Micky, and Chang sit across from me, their gazes blinking between Cosmo and I and back. I turn to Cosmo.
“Did I use too much science talk. You know what I am suggesting, don’t you?” I ask as he leans back in the booth and crosses his arms over his chest with a satisfied grin.
“See, boys, I told you he’s going to make us the kings of the ice this year.”
“We’re in,” they each say, and I can hardly believe it.
“There is just one problem,” I say as my cheeks grow warm.
“What?” Luka asks.
“I don’t know how to skate.”
Cosmo puts his hand on my shoulder, sending electricity coursing through my body.
“You will soon.”
***
“I told you the guys would be up for it,” Cosmo says later as we’re walking back to the house. We’ve started taking the long way without even thinking. This way, the path wraps behind Greek row on our house side and follows along the edge of the woods. The woods I find myself taking walks in less and less the more time I spend with Cosmo.
“It’s a bit cold out tonight,” he says, and I wrap my arms around myself.
“Yeah, I should have worn a jacket like you,” I reply, and then he starts stripping off his jacket,
“Here, you can wear mine.”
“Then you’ll be cold.”
“Okay, we can share it then,” he says, stepping so close our sides touch as he wraps the coat around my back. The warmth of him fills me like a hug, and I reach up to hold it at the shoulder so he can lower his arm, but when he does, it rests against mine and it’s like the static in the air between our hands is teasing me to turn my palm out to take his hand in mine. I can’t, though, because this is not a date and he is not my boyfriend and this is a purely platonic walk by the woods. I can’t mess this friendship up. The only reason I have any chance of making it through pledge-a-palooza, as they call it in the Kappa Omicron Kappa house, is because of Cosmo. Being in this house, having a place I can belong, people I can call friends for the next four years, hell, maybe for life, is too important to go blowing my chances over what’s probably some silly crush. He’s the first and only guy who’s even remotely seemed interested, but he’s probably just being nice. I’m a favor for his brother after all.
That reminder helps to settle my nerves, and I shove the hand between us into my pocket.
“It was a clever idea of the university to install these solar lights through the tree line. It illuminates them so well, no one could be jumping out of the woods to kidnap us without us seeing them first.”
“You think about people trying to kidnap you often?” he asks with a chuckle, and I love the way it sounds, like the sound of wind chimes, light and happy and full of joy.
“Only when I’m walking by a wooded area, or along a deserted road, or sometimes when I’m walking along the beach, if it’s a cloudy day and I’m by the dunes, you know, not where all the people are swimming.”
