Cleo: It just looks like my mom was right, having a life outside of school work seems to be adversely affecting my grades.
Lincoln: And by life outside school you mean me.
Cleo: And work.
Lincoln: But mostly me.
Russ cleared his throat. “It’s a big deal, isn’t it?”
Linc raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah. It’s a big deal.”
***
“Knock, knock. You wanted to see me, Cap?” Despite saying the words out loud, Linc knocked on the wooden doorframe of Will’s dorm room. He left his door open during the day as an invitation for the team to drop in if and when they needed him.
“Yeah, Linc. Come in. Pull up a seat.” Will gestured to the end of his bed and rotated his chair to face him.
Closing the door behind him, Linc dropped onto the edge of the mattress. “Sup?”
“We both know I’m not the flowery, softly, softly, type. But I’m worried about you, man. You’re distracted, on and off the ice. It was none of my business until you smashed JW’s face with your fist, and now you made it my problem. What can the team do to help? What can I do?”
Linc hissed out a low breath and rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. “Damn, Will. It’s not like that.”
“You laid into one of your own during a period break, Linc. Whatisit like, then?” He held up his hands. “Look, you know I love Cleo. Girl’s like my own sister and I wanted to rearrange Johnny’s face for what he said about her too, but you snapped, and we can’t afford to have a loose cannon on the bench, man.”
“It wasn’t just—”
“I know. He gets under your skin. Hell, he gets undereveryone’sskin, dude’s an asshole and he has his own consequences to face, but you can’t just go around hitting people.You gotta find a way to swallow it down and, y’know, not assault your teammates.”
Linc nodded, covering his face with his palms.
“I know there’s other stuff going on. I dunno what, but I know there is. You’ve been off for a while now. I’m not prying – I’m here if you need to talk about it – but the team needs you to get your shit together. At least for practices and games. Can you do that?”
Could he? He had no real choice. Whatever rage monster had been let out needed wrangling back into the cage in his chest. He could do that, right? He nodded at an expectant Will.
“Cool. Is there anything else you wanna talk about?”
Linc shook his head. “Thanks, but I need to work through this myself.”
Will frowned. “Molly mentioned—”
Linc groaned.
“I know, I know, but she means well. Anyway she mentioned you had some kind of – and I’m quoting here – ‘incident’ with your parents. I don’t know what it was, and I don’t need to unless you say otherwise, but try as they might, and with all the best intentions, our parents aren’t always right about everything.”
His eyes widened and he tipped his head to the side.
“I know, they mean well too, and they think they know you better than everyone. But truth is, they don’t. No one knows you the way you do. One thing Idoknow though? They love you, and while they might be pissed at first, I believe they’ll come around.”
Linc’s voice was a ragged whisper when he spoke. “And if they don’t?”
“If they don’t, we’ve got you.”
***
Linc left Will’s dorm room, stopped at his own to get changed into sweats and sneakers, and made his way back out into the frigid air. He was going through his pre-run stretches when Melissa crossed the street toward him.
“Linc!” She waved and flashed her million dollar smile. “Linc! It’s been a while. How are you?” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger, giggled for no reason, and threw her head back as she touched his chest.
