AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mom scoops some cocoa powder into a cup and mixes a drink for me, sliding the mug across the counter. “Sweet dreams, handsome.”
I take the mug up to my room, pop it on the nightstand, and throw myself onto the quilt my aunt made out of spare blankets and my high school jersey. Propping three pillows behind my back, I take a load off and wrap my hands around the warm ceramic. I wasn’t feeling so sure about my choices that led me back to this room.
I used to live in a mansion. This room isn’t even as big as my walk-in closet was. No matter how much money my brother and I offered our parents, they never took it. They said this house was saturated with memories they can’t pack up in boxes. Even though I’ve definitely outgrown some of the style choices, it still feels quintessentially me.Me. A person I lost in years of doing shit for other people. Having my head so far gone with winning and the next big game, I didn’t see the one my ex-wife was playing.
Tracing the walls with my gaze, I blow steam from the top of my mug and consider the room. Trophies. Plaques. Certificates pinned to a corkboard. And there’s a crumpled piece of paper there, too. Shockingly, my mom never put her hand on anything. It’s like I just walked inside a time capsule.
I squint.What is that piece of paper?
Placing my mug on the bedside table, I get up to inspect the corkboard, and there is my last handwritten note to self before leaving home for good. Senior year of college.
TO DO:
Frozen Tide Podcast
Gym key return
Thank you note to Mrs. Ikande
Wyatt to J
Wyatt to J. When I left Golden Sierra for the pros, Jolie entered her first year. I laugh at myself. Back then, a stuffed animal had significance. It was a great birthday gift or something to make a woman smile that little more on Valentine’s Day. That’s not the kind of relationship Joey and I have now or back then, but I still worried about her and thought a lot about her well-being. I left Golden Sierra only a month after she asked me to take her virginity so I guess I was thinking about her more than usual.
Before I left, I asked a second-year student to somehow make sure that Wyatt the Wolverine was left in her dorm, on her bed, to welcome her to her first year of college. I wonder about my motives… were they pure? Or did I want to leave that stuffed animal there to give an evil eye to whoever it was who did crawl in her bed instead of me?
I got busy after that. Fast. My first year in the pros with all the attention I got was manic, and I never followed up to see if she got Wyatt. She probably assumed it was from Logan. I think back on tonight and I know she said not to talk about the past, a welcome invitation, but I wonder…
Throwing myself back on my bed, I grab my cell to ask what’s now a burning question.
ME
HEY, STRANGE QUESTION, BUT DID YOU EVER GET WYATT…
Buzz.
I nearly jump out of my skin at the interruption of another text coming in. It’s Logan.
PUCK BOY
HEY, DID YOU SEE BRYANT IS INJURED? GOOD NEWS TO HAVE A KEEPER LIKE BRYANT OUT FOR OUR NEXT GAME
I stare at Logan’s text, a timely interruption. I shouldn’t be texting Joey like this—with wonder in my heart and curiosity on my mind. I abandon my text to her and write back to Logan. We talk about moves that would work with Bryant out of play and how we need to play a more offensive game, how maybe it’s time for our rookies, Mahmoud and Rosario, to step up into the second line.
When I finally settle into bed, though, I’m stillthinking about Wyatt. And as I drift off into that space between fantasy and reality, melatonin oozing into my brain, on the backs of my eyelids that stuffed animal is nestled comfortably right between Jolie Hunter’s insanely alluring breasts. I fall asleep and dream of being that goddamn wolverine and sinking my teeth right into her.
Chapter Six
Ashtonand I don’t see each other again, even though we said we should meet up. He’s been at away games. And when we crossed paths on the couple of days he was in town, it was in the darkness of the Danes’ Fright Night haunted house. The moment I smelled his signature cologne, I moved out of there as fast as I could. I’m glad he and Logan have been busy. It was nice seeing him, but the minute he swept away to Boston for games, my heart started doing that pining, obsession thing it did when I wasyounger.
Ashton saved his cell number for me.
Ashton could still see something was wrong before I told him.
Ashton said I could call him and talk anytime.
Ashton wanted to know I got home safe.
Every thought I had in the days that followed Sly’s started with his name. It’s too easy to fall into patterns where him being nice to me confuses me into thinking he has feelings bigger than friendship. He sees me as his little sister. I have to remember that. Anyway, I have no desire for a man at the moment. I really don’t. I have bigger problems than stupid twenty-year unrequited crushes.
