Page 40 of Lucky Hit

Fed up, I turn and give her the finger. She scowls.

"Your mouth is going to get stuck in a permanent scowl if you don't sometimes smile, Beth," I sing. I can practically see clouds of dark grey smoke shooting from her ears.

"I'd rather have a permanent scowl on my face than have to look like you, Octavia," she shoots back.

I bite my cheek when Adam snickers, trying desperately to hold back his laughter.

"Are you sure about that? Cause if you looked like me, it would be you sitting here with Adam. We both know how badly you want that."

Adam's loud laughter cuts through the tension like a knife.

I watch as her anger is quickly replaced by fake glee as she turns her attention to him. "Oh! Hi, Adam," she gushes. "I didn't see you there. You know there's an empty seat beside me, right? You don't have to sit beside her."

His laughter stops immediately at her sneering tone, and his eyes narrow. "You do know I got here before you, right? I didn't see you making any move to sit beside me. Lay off of Ava," he snaps, then raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you ready to go? I don't want to be here anymore."

"Yeah, sure. Let's go." I stand up from the table and throw my empty coffee cup in the trash bin on our way out.

Once we get into his shiny Mustang, he sighs. He turns to face me and takes a deep breath, fiddling with the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you the other night. You were upset and I was a total douche bag."

"It's okay. I just don't understand what the big deal was with me telling Oakley," I confess. His attitude has been bothering me since, in all honesty. "I hadn't even told him the whole story when he decided to come back."

Adam can be the most confusing guy, sometimes. I swear he PMS's more than I do. Ever since David and I broke up, he's been keeping a constant watchful eye on me. And as much as I appreciate it, it gets incredibly annoying sometimes.

"We know nothing about the guy other than he's a fantastic hockey player and moved from Penticton. Do you even know anything else about him? Or does he just know all about you? I don't want you to get hurt again, O."

Adam's words hurt because as much as I don't want to believe them, I know that they're right.

How can Oakley expect me to show him every skeleton in my closet when I haven't seen a single one in his? I know they're there. I've seen the sadness in his eyes and how bad his knuckles looked last night.

"I just want you to be careful, Ava," he whispers and squeezes my hand.

"I know. Thank you. Can you drive me home? I have a lot of homework to finish before your game." It's not a total lie. I do have homework to do, just not tonight.

"Yeah, sure. I love you, O." He gives my hand one final squeeze before starting the car.

"I love you too, A."

???

"I'm home, Morgan!" I shout, closing the door behind me.

"Hey, girlie! How was class?" she calls from the kitchen. I join her next to the stove as she stirs something in that looks kind of like macaroni?

"Don't wanna talk about it. What are you cooking? It looks...interesting." I scrunch up my nose and turn to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. I twist off the cap and take a sip.

"That good? And Hamburger-Helper, are you hungry?"

"Obviously. And no thanks. As much as I would love some of that, Adam and I already ate."

"Oh, okay. More for me!" Morgan exclaims, grinning.

I sneak away and speed walk to my room. I pull out my phone and send Oakley a quick text about Morgan poisoning me with her cooking.

I set my phone down on my dresser, swap yesterday's leggings with clean ones and leave Oakley's sweater underneath Adam's jersey. My phone buzzes while I'm throwing my hair up into a ponytail. I can't help but giggle at Oakley's reply.

"The horror. Can I drop by on my way to the rink? I have something for you."

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