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I mean, I do well in school, for the most part. I’ve never considered myself super brainy or anything, though.
“Sure, you are,” Shane says, strangely confident even though he barely knows me. “Hunter says you are all the time.”
I turn to look at Hunter, an eyebrow arched. “He does?” I ask, my eyes still fixed on him.
Hunter’s cheeks become a tone warmer in color.
Does he talk about me? With his teammates? How often? What does he say?
“Anyway,” Shane pulls me back to the present, “Lars and I had a disagreement that a smart person might be able to help us resolve.”
“She’ll agree with me,” Lars says, flatly.
“What?” I ask, already feeling a laugh bubbling in my chest.
“Bigfoot.”
My mouth twists in an amused smile. “Uh, what?”
“Is he real?” Shane asks, leaning in, his eyes eager to know my answer.
My eyes ricochet between Shane and Lars. “This is what you had a disagreement over? The question you need a ‘smart person’ to help you decide?”
“Well?” Share urges.
“No?” I answer. I’ve never even given it any thought. Of course, Bigfoot isn’t real.
Right?
Shane’s expression falls, disappointment written in his face.
“What?” I ask, laughing at his reaction. “The video was just a hoax. Right? I mean, it’s like UFO’s, isn’t it?”
Shane balks. “You don’t believe in UFOs, either?”
I turn to Lars. “This is the kind of stuff you two have disagreements over?”
Lars folds his very thick, tattooed arms over his very, very thick chest—which I imagined is tattooed as well, the way the intricate designs dip underneath the short sleeves of his shirt. “He doesn’t listen to reason.”
“Reason? Let’s talkreason, buddy,” Shane says to Lars, getting fired up. “The short video of Bigfoot walking that everyone’s seen.No one’sbeen able to replicate it. The greatest costume designers in the world haven’t been able to create something that looks like that. Biologists say that it’s impossible for a human being to even pretend to walk with the gait you see in that video, no matter what they’re wearing.”
Lars rolls his eyes. “Yeah, and no one’s seen another one since. Not even now that every single person walking around has a camera on their phone. People take a video when they see a cute cat on the street, but no one’s got a single second of footage of this so-called Bigfoot since the fifties.”
Shane groans, as if this is a point they’ve discussed over and over again. “They’re super intelligent, bro. Way smarter than humans. Once they realized one of them was spotted, they, like, restructured their whole society to never be seen again.”
“They’re so smart that they don’t have buildings? Cities? Cars? Airplanes?” Lars fires back.
“It’s because they don’t have thumbs. They’re way smarter than us, but they just don’t have the right anatomy to build things like we do.”
Their argument keeps going, and Casey and I crack up laughing. Hunter pulls me more snugly next to him and says, “They’ll literally keep going like this all night.”
After Shane and Lars stop arguing, Shane turns his attention back to Casey. His eyes are hungry as they talk. She seems like she’s trying to resist his playboy charms, but I can see she’s softening to him.
Hunter and I talk with some of the other guys, as I get to know them better.
I open my mouth as the pressure of a yawn forces itself out. I arch my back to stretch, and instinctively I nestle myself close to Hunter, seeking more warmth.
It’s been a long day. Classes, a session teaching at the rink, my first college hockey game, and now this night out.
