So, I’m back to wanting to give him the world, to keep him happy, so I might get to stay happy too.
I’m effervescent with excitement at the prospect of seeing him on the ice.Effervescent. Me. And my brothers fucking know it, too because they keep elbowing each other and looking over at me as we prepare to skate out to play against the Wolves.
I’d like to talk to a manager, because whoever thought playing my boyfriend’s team only twice a season was a good call was so very wrong. I’m itching to see him, like someone whose partner has been gone formonths, not a fucking week. A week.
Scott and I haven’t talked about it. We’ve seen each other, but we’ve been surrounded by a sibling buffer. And from the way he keeps looking at me, a hundred bucks says my big-mouthed big sister has dropped me in it with my best friend.
A best friend I’ve been seeing less and less of lately. A best friend I’m certain to have a confrontation with any time now. Oh, goodie. That time’s right now. His name lights up my phone.
Scottie: Rumor has it you didn’t take my advice, and you’ve fallen ass-over-tit for a dirty Wolf.
Artemis: Rumor has a really big fucking mouth.
Scottie: I’m a little butt hurt you didn’t think you could talk to me about it, but I get it. I was kind of a dick.
Scottie: You’re supposed to say ‘no Scott, you’re not a dick’
Scottie: Fine. But only because I was a dick. If this is where your heart is, you have my support. Not that you need it. But you have it all the same.
Scottie: You know why?
He’s not going to shut the fuck up until I engage him.
Artemis: Why’s that?
Scottie: Because you were so fucking cool about it when I started seeing your sister.
Scottie: You only punched me that one time, and you didn’t even put all your feels behind it.
Scottie: It was like… a punch just for show.
Scottie: You can have Martinez. And I won’t even punch you. I’m nice like that.
Scottie: It’s game time,Arte-Farty.
Scottie: Don’t let him win just cause you want to bone him *winky emoji*
“Awwww, you kissed and made up with Scott?” Ares sits next to me on the bench, grinning at me with amusement painted on all his features that look almost exactly like mine and my twin brother’s.
“He’s been shipping you for a while. He’s team ArteVier.” He pauses, shakes his head, then purses his lips. “Xavimis?” Another pause.
“Please stop talking before you end my relationship before it even really starts.” Oh, it’s well past started, and I can finally admit that to myself. And Ares’s eye roll tells me he knows it too.
“Either way, he’s on the team. He was just trying to be the responsible ‘do your homework’ parent, instead of the ‘follow your heart’ grown up.”
I don’t like that my brother knows more about where my best friend is at than I do, but something about the fact Scott is on my side calms the choppy seas in my chest.
“Let’s go destroy them.” Ares keeps his voice low. “But not like,destroy, destroy. Just a little. Because you’re all loved up, and it’s adorable, and we don’t need you in the doghouse with your boo-thang because you threw him into the boards one too many times.”
The game starts with a bang, like we’ve all had time off over the holidays, filled ourselves with too many carbs and are ready to feel the spray on our skin and the chill in the air as we skate. The energy is tangible, like an extra man on both teams.
Xavier hits the ice like he owns the fucking place. He’s fast tonight, too. Too fast, cutting through the neutral zone with that low, coiled posture that makes it look like he’s skating downhill while everyone else is slogging through wet mud.And they’re really not, we’re all supercharged on turkey and extra sleep.
I should be watching the flow of play, the tactics, the structure of the game—anything excepthim,my boyfriend—but the second he touches the puck my brain short-circuits and goes to mush.
He toe-drags around one of our defensemen like he’s bored, as if this is child’s play, not college hockey, as if he isn’t goading me into jumping out there and showing him who’s boss.
I can’t, because I’m not actually sure who is the boss. It sure as hell feels like he’s the boss of me, but he can’t be, not here, not in our barn.
