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Luke and I pull ahead until we’re only two points away from winning the game. A ferocious backhand from Luke makes it game point. I refuse to glance at Elliot again, but I can feel his eyes on me. Or I’m hallucinating.
Johnny serves. I hit it back quickly, beginning a long volley that ends when I manage a hit that sails between Evans and Johnny. They both freeze, stunned.
“Man, what’s a hockey championship when you win at ping-pong?” Luke jokes with them. Neither seem to find it very funny. Evans stalks off with an eye roll, but Johnny stays to “congratulate” us—well, to congratulate me, on my hand-eye coordination. Is that code for something sexual with guys? I’d have asked Elliot back before our relationship turned into…what it has. Whatever it is. Friends who fake date and real kiss?
When I tell Johnny I play tennis, his eyes light up. In addition to hockey, he apparently plays both soccer and tennis as well. When I suggest we go play soccer outside, his eyes dim and dart behind me. I don’t need to turn around to know what—or who—he’s looking at.
“So?” I press.
Luke chuckles softly beside me, obviously figuring out Johnny’s dilemma as well.
“Um, yeah. Sure.” Far from an enthusiastic acceptance, but I fall prey to the Elliot allure just as much, if not more than anyone else. I get Johnny’s reluctance to piss him off, especially seeing as he thinks we’re dating.
I make a point not to look over at where he was last standing as we head outside. Luke disappears, but Johnny ropes a bunch of other partygoers into playing as well. It’s both guys and girls, and none of them appear to be on Canmore’s soccer team, because I’m definitely not the worst one on the small, open stretch of grass that serves as the field. Aside from the occasional side glance, no one makes me feel like the outsider I technically am.
That changes when Cassie and Annabel stroll over with their group. I can’t remember any of the other girls’ names. There’s one with red hair who looks familiar. Ava, maybe?
Unfortunately—and probably uncoincidentally—the game wraps up quickly after that. Some of the guys head to jump in the lake. Most of the girls go get drinks. I walk right up to Annabel.
“Hey.”
She says nothing. This is when most people would probably walk away, and I’m tempted to, for sure.
Instead, I take a deep breath. “You know, I was mad about having to come here last summer. I had plans for July. I was going to road-trip up to San Francisco with my best friend. Instead, my mom’s assistant sent me a plane ticket here. I was upset—annoyed—but my parents weren’t around to watch me throw a tantrum. They’re never around to watch me throw a tantrum. So, I thought,I’ll make the best of it.Canada’s cool. Bears and maple leaves and mountains.And I stupidly assumed I’d have an automatic friend here, an ally. Instead, I show up, and you don’t appear for days. When you finally do, you treat me like gum on the bottom of your shoe. Your choice. We’re cousins—family—but your choice. Last night? I went overboard. I’m sorry. But you’ve been nothing but nasty to me, and you’ve never apologized. And you keep it up…why? Because of Elliot? Because if you’re mad or jealous about my relationship with him, you have no one but yourself to blame. He showed me around town. He hung out with me. He kept in touch. All the things I thought—hoped—you would do.”
Dapples of orange and pink sunset play across Annabel’s face as she stares at me. She appears to be stunned silent. Not giving me the cold shoulder, not trying to make this more uncomfortable, just…stunned.
“Okay. Well—I’ll, uh, see you, I guess.”
She gives me a small, barely perceptible nod.
I’m tempted to head back down to the dock, either to swim or stare out at the water, but I decide against it. The rapidly disappearing sun is already taking care of any flush from playing soccer, and I’m exhausted—mentally, physically, and emotionally.
I walk back to the house instead. The mood is devolving from playful to promiscuous. I pass several couples cozying up on the deck as I head into the house, and I spot Elliot immediately. He’s leaning against the kitchen counter, talking to his friend Oliver and a brunette girl with a wide smile aimed right at him. His gaze locks on me and remains there.
I was considering just leaving and texting him goodbye, but I lose any motivation to do so as I stare at him.
Elliot says something to Oliver, then heads straight toward me. I tense as he approaches, trying to suss out from his expression exactly how upset he still is about earlier.
“Finally run out of sporting events?”
I scowl. “Just trying to take as many risks as possible. I hear a lot of ping-pong players suffer fatal accidents.”
Elliot smirks, then sobers. “I’m not going to apologize. I mean, I should have handled it differently, but it needed to be said. That was idiotic of Josh, and you should have known better.”
“Nothing happened, Elliot.”
“With the boat…or with Josh?”
I tilt my head to the side. “That’s what you’re worried about? That I cheated?”
Elliot glances around, confirms no one is in hearing distance, and then lowers his voice anyway. “We’re not actually dating.”
“Thanks for the reminder. I forgot, since you brought up this ridiculous idea justyesterday.”
He sighs.
“Look, I’m going to go. I’m exhausted, and the airline was supposed to finally drop off my suitcase. I just want to go back to Katherine’s and watch television in sweatpants, okay?”
