Practice is over and a blanket, a book, and my conservatory sound like the perfect way to end the evening. The hellhounds usually stay for another thirty minutes to an hour in the weight room conditioning, but I almost never stick around for that.
They aren’t undefeated thus far from luck.
“Leaving so soon?”
I shrug. He knows this isn’t abnormal.
Eli somehow senses something is off. His voice lowers in concern, stepping forward. “You feeling okay?”
I explain that I feel fine, just sluggish. Nothing out of the ordinary as of recent. Today is just one of those meh days.
I’d made the mistake earlier this morning of letting my mind wander in class instead of focusing on what was being taught. Usually, that helps, and it had some, but then it was game over when I saw him.
A tremor of something bloomed. Shooting its way down to my toes the moment my silvers connected with his sharp blues in our one shared class.
I’m not sure why I did it, but I gave him a small smile before finding my seat instead of ignoring his presence in the back like usual. That night in the locker room rushed through my mind like a film strip a second before I’d made the decision.
I don’t like when you ignore me.
Not much surprises Cole Kellet but that one little gesture had. I know because one of his dark eyebrows lifted a fraction of a centimeter before I turned back around. Finding my seat at the front and refusing to turn the rest of the class.
After that, it’s been game over, my thoughts running wild ever since.
“You sure you’re alright?”
Eli’s words drag me out of my mind. That yearning pull for Cole spirals in my stomach like a knot. Untangling itself as soon as Eli opened his mouth.
The misery of it all would be humorous if it wasn’t my life.
One boy putting the tangled coils there, the other undoing them.
I push, you pull. You run; I chase. You hurt; I bleed. That’s what we do, who we are.
My chest does that thing again where it misses its beat because I believed Cole when he’d said that. How can I not when he breathed them into me like air to my lungs?
At one time, we could have been beautiful, now, I’m unsure. Overfilled as I am starved in the same gasp. I’m like a breeze; I have no real direction and yet I find a way to keep moving.
“I got you something.”
I’m doing it again, letting Iceman distract me. I need to focus.
Blinking away Cole, I do just that, giving Eli my full attention.
He holds up a pointed finger on either hand. “Don’t move. Let me grab it from my bag real quick.” Grinning before he scurries away.
I nibble on my bottom lip, but he doesn’t make me wait long, coming back with a small rectangular white box under his arm.
His smile as impish as it is demure when he hands it over.
My stomach plummets. “You got me a phone?”
He knows I have one…
“Before you get upset.” He taps at the lid. I haven’t looked inside. “It’s completely new. The upgraded model, new number, the works. It’s like a complete restart.”
He folds his hands into his pockets, tucking in his shoulders, assessing my reaction.
A fresh start?