Page 40 of Puck Shots
13
Cosmo
Ichanged three times before settling on jeans and a blue shirt that has the words, “I’m not yelling, this is just my hockey voice” printed on the back. Brent sent it to me last year for Christmas. It’s probably the most accurate saying, too, given I’m not exactly quiet when I’m watching a game. It’s not my fault, though, I just get so involved I forget sometimes that I’m not actually there and am screaming at the television instead of the actual ref or player on the ice.
I’ve never been the type of guy to be shy about anything either, so when I found myself mumbling over my words when I was trying to tell Eli that I like him, it was a totally new experience for me. Eli is nothing like the guys I’ve gone out with in the past, and not because he’s smart. I’ve hooked up with all kinds of guys, but the way Eli somehow makes it okay for me to just be me, makes me want more than just a hookup with him. It’s why I took forever to actually kiss him. Trust me, I wanted to. I thought about doing it a hundred times before last night. Butthen his perfect pink lips were just inches from mine, and I kept wondering how they would taste, and before I knew it, we were having our first kiss. It’s not how I would have planned it, if I had a chance to plan it. Eli deserves to be shown just how amazing he is. He deserves magic. A first kiss with me all sweaty after a game walking along a dimly lit path behind the Greek row was not the plan.
“Where are you going?” Luka asks as I pull on my shoes.
“The movie thing in the quad.”
“Cool, I was going to check it out, too. Mind if I join?”
“Ahh, sure, no worries,” I reply, then immediately regret it. Why didn’t I just tell him I am going with Eli?
“I’ll just get changed,” he says, grabbing pants from his drawer and heading into the shared bathroom. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute. This is going to be great. We haven’t hung out in ages,” he calls through the door.
“Yeah. It’ll be great,” I call back and jog down the stairs. Eli is waiting by the door, fidgeting with something between his fingers. It takes me a second to register it’s the label from a bottle that he’s folding.
“So, small hiccup,” I say, and he startles but smiles wide when he sees me.
“What’s that?”
“Luka is coming, too.”
His smile falls.
“Oh, ummm, okay.”
I rub the back of my neck with one hand, hoping it will ease the tension, but it does nothing.
“I told him where I was going, and he asked if he could come, and I sort of said yes before I realized what I was doing. It was a reflex. He’s my best friend, and it’s not like I plan to do anything without him, during the day anyway. If this was amidnight screening, he probably wouldn’t have even asked and just assumed I was going on a date.”
The small smile returns to his lips.
“So this is a date?”
My heart skips a beat.
“It was supposed to be.”
“Then it still can be.” He beams. “I like Luka, and like you said, he’s your best friend. I wouldn’t want to make him feel left out or anything.”
Luka bounds down the last three stairs in a single leap and lands beside me.
“We doing this?” he asks, and I nod.
“Yep, Eli is coming, too.”
“Nice, the more the merrier.”
We follow Luka out the door, and I manage to position myself between them on the path as we head toward the quad. The paths on campus are super wide and snake around the grounds. They reminded me of the whole Dorothy and the yellow brick road thing when I first arrived. Not because they’re yellow, but most are patterned just like the road in the old movie. They are as old as most of the buildings, and I always thought it was a shame they didn’t continue the pattern with the newer paths to keep the old-world charm. I guess they didn’t see the need for it. How many people really notice the paths, anyway?
My arm brushes against Eli’s, and when I hook my pinky through his, it’s like his whole body shivers beside me for a second before a warm rush radiates from where we touch. It’s simple and a quiet kind of desire that’s so far from anything I’ve felt before. Did I imagine ten different ways to bring him to his knees last night after I went to bed? Absolutely. But I’d be just as happy walking along the forest at the back of the house with him, too.
Luka glances back, mouth open about to speak when he clocks our hands and his eyes widen.
“I think I see some of the guys over there. You don’t mind if I bounce, do you?” he asks, already walking backward off the path.
