Page 19 of Cheap Shot

They called out their goodbyes, but in my haste to get as far away as possible, I didn’t turn around. Why? Why did the first group of people I thought I might actually be friends with have to care more about getting to my brother than getting to know me?

I turned a corner, heading back toward the dorms, and kept my head down. I immediately slammed into something and nearly fell back.

“Oh, sorry!” I didn’t have a chance to look up before hands wrapped around my upper arms. “Haley?”

His voice.

I blinked up at the face that haunted my dreams. “Reid?”

Did the universe really hate me this much? Why did it have to be him? Why did he have to be everything I wanted to stay away from?

“Are you okay?” His deep, rich brown eyes narrowed as he examined my face.

I shook my head. “Not really.”

He hesitated, then dropped his hands as if just remembering he was touching me and I realized I hadn’t even noticed. The panic didn’t come. I only felt that same electricity from when we kissed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

This was a bad idea. I needed to forget about him, not use his shoulder to cry on, but the longer I stared back at him, the harder it was to form words.

Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.

Chapter 8

Reid

I had class, and hanging around Haley was the last thing I should be doing, but there was no way I could leave her alone when she looked on the verge of tears. What kind of person would that make me?

There were plenty of people I could ask for the notes I missed. If my professor had any issues with my absence, I could blame it on something team-related. I didn’t pull the athlete card unless absolutely necessary; it was a privilege I didn’t want to abuse for times when I really did need an extension for an assignment or extra time to make up a test, and now here I was, breaking all my own rules for a girl.

But Haley’s chin quivered, and it was over. I’d worry about making up an excuse later; right now, she needed me.

“Come this way.” I turned and led her to a small courtyard off the back of one of the nearby buildings. There were three shaded tables, all unoccupied, that were out of view from any of the walkways, so I took her to the farthest one and waited for her to sit before taking the bench next to her. “What happened?”

A million possibilities ran through my mind. Was she hurt? Sick? Did someone say or do something to her? Was she in trouble? How could I help?

She sighed, her shoulders falling until she was hunched into herself. “It’s stupid.”

“If it has you this upset, I sincerely doubt that.” I didn’t know her, but if she was anything like her brother, she had a thick skin. She didn’t strike me as the type to get worked up over every little thing, otherwise, she would have said something about our kiss by now.

“I thought I was finally making some friends, but it turned out they were just interested in talking to me to get close to Ethan.” She glanced up at me for a split second before looking away.

There were layers to her statement that I needed to sort through before responding. Finally making friends? Did that mean that for the past two weeks, she hadn’t? She was at the party, so I assumed she’d met someone who brought her. Maybe that hadn’t worked out. She’d been alone, so maybe that person ditched her.

Did Ethan know? Why hadn’t he invited her to hang out with us? He’d made it clear she was off-limits to date, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be friends with us. She might get along with some of the other guys’ girlfriends or something.

Then again, she was upset because they only wanted to get close to Ethan. Was he the problem? Did she not to hang out with him?

“You think they wanted to use you?” I needed to make sure I understood and didn’t make assumptions.

She nodded, staring at the table with her hands in her lap.

I rubbed the back of my neck. I really wasn’t good at this stuff. I didn’t have sisters, and I didn’t date enough to know how girls’ minds worked. The majority of my knowledge came from the guys on the team. Either they were complaining about their girlfriends being upset and them not knowing why, or trying to figure out why a girl wasn’t interested in them. Neither of those were particularly helpful at the moment.

I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but my instinct was to fix the problem. First, cheer her up. Second, find out who these people were and make it clear using people wasn’t okay. Finally, help her make friends.

Two of the three were actually realistic. I wasn’t sure how to intimidate anyone off the ice, and I hadn’t needed to make friends since I was a child. Teammates were built-in friends, like it or not.

“Well, they’re idiots for not wanting to get to know you for you.” I waited to see if my words had the desired effect.