“Yeah…great. That makeseverythingbetter.”
Brodie flinched.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—I mean, it’s—”
Shit.
Brodie and Caleb’s mom had died in a car accident. This couldn’t be easy for him.
“You don’t have to say anything else.” Brodie held up his hand. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes.
I’d been discharged from the hospital on Saturday, and it was Monday, so I should be able to drive my own freaking car by now. It wasn’t like I was still passing out from my concussion or anything.
Plus, my car only had a couple small dents and was totally drivable. I still couldn’t believe Mom and Dad had talked to Grace’s parents and arranged for me to drive her around. She was responsible for putting my hockey career at Alabama in jeopardy.
“So…” Wind gave me a side glance.
“What?” I let out a breath. It had only been a few days since the accident, but I was already sick of everyone looking at me funny. With pity eyes. I hated pity eyes.
“You doing okay?”
“Fine.”
I wasn’t even close to doing fine, but it’d become my standard answer, considering my family and friends were asking me how I was doing every five minutes. I’d gotten more than twenty texts from my teammates posing that very question.
The subtle headache clawing at my brain pulsed to life. I clenched my jaw and let out a breath. Nice and slow.
I didn’t have time for a headache. Wait. Yes, I did. I had all the freaking time in the world with no hockey to play.
“Maybe you, me, and Willow could hit the movies tonight?”
“No. You guys go ahead.” He was just trying to be nice, but their happiness radiated off them in tangible waves, and I couldn’t be around that right now.
They both had full ride hockey scholarships. They were madly in love with each other and could hardly keep their hands off one another.
I wanted to play hockey.
To have a girl look at me the way Willow looked at Brodie.
But I didn’t have those things.
It wasn’t fair.
I’d done everything right. Serving at the homeless shelter, straight As, no drinking or breaking the rules… Why was I the one getting punished?
We made it to the end of my street, and Wind said, “Okay, pull her address up.”
I tapped maps and typed inDream Crusher. I’d inputted the address I’d gotten from Mom.
“Turn left at the next light,” Siri said.
“She lives south of the rink,” I said, so not ready to drive by that place.
There was a scrimmage this Friday with the town league, and it was the first time in three years I wasn’t going to be a part of it. What the heck was I going to do during that? There was no way I could sit in the stands and watch. Maybe they’d let me hang out in the players’ box with the team?
No, that’d be worse.