AllFreeNovel
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Dad leaves and I get bored of the TV show I’m watching, so I start to mindlessly scroll on my phone.
Pulling up Instagram, I decide to be a stalker and see if Lilly posted anything new. I smile when I see her newest post from yesterday. She’s got her hair up in space buns, her bangs down and curled. Her arm is around Bee, who is kissing her on the cheek while Lilly smiles wide. She looks happy. Good. She deserves to be happy. I’ve already taken so much of that away from her.
Closing my eyes, I try to block out all the negative thoughts that start to flood my mind. The ones that tell me I’m not good enough for her. That I’m broken and she hates me. My therapist is still working with me on it, but he tells me to try to distract my mind as soon as the thoughts start to flood in.
Opening my eyes again, I see that she’s been tagged in some photos, so I click on them. My brows furrow when I see that it’s time stamped from ten minutes ago. One is of her, Bee, and Jonas. It’s a selfie, and from the looks of the dark background with house lights and people, they look like they’re at a party.
Of course, they would be at the hockey house party. Bishop isn’t in the dog house with them, I am. And we would be playing tomorrow if it wasn’t for me.
I let that fucking asshole on the ice get the better of me, and I let my jealousy of Ryan put me in that mindset in the first place.
I can’t help but feel bummed. It’s not that I wanna go drink and dance, but I feel like I’m missing out.
My whole newsfeed is full of photos and videos of the party. I get a notification on my phone. Clicking on my inbox, I see that it’s from Katie. Why on earth is she still messaging me?
Rolling my eyes, I go to delete it when I see another message pop up.
Katie: Thought you might want to see this. Some best friend, huh?
My thumb hovers over it. Best friend? Fuck, curiosity gets the better of me, and open the message.
The text before says:
Katie: I’m so sorry to tell you this, but I think your best friends are hiding something big from you.
There’s a video and the thumbnail is of two grainy people. Nausea hits me as I press play.
The video starts up, the loud sounds of a party going on in the background. The video is zoomed in on two people dancing. It’s Lilly and Bishop. Normally I wouldn’t look twice at it. They’re best friends, they’ve been hanging out a lot. It’s no big deal.
But the way they’re dancing in this video, with his arm wrapped around her waist as he pulls her close to him, and her back pressed against his front. It looks a little too intimate for friends.
Then Katie starts to talk, the voice sounding like it’s coming from behind the camera. “No wonder he hasn’t been giving any of the puck bunnies attention. He’s been fucking the coaches' daughter. I feel so bad for Toby. What kind of best friends do that? He’s clearly dealing with a lot already.”
My chest starts to rise and fall at a rapid pace. I close my eyes, trying to breathe, to calm down before I let my anger get the better of me. I can’t be making rash decisions, I can’t jump to conclusions. It’s only ever gotten me into trouble.
No, what I need to do is go to this party and see for myself that Katie is lying. That it’s all just her being a crazy bitch like she normally is.
Standing up, I shove my phone in my pocket and head to my room. I change into a pair of jeans and a black hoodie, then grab the keys to my car.
“Where are you going?” Rain asks me as I head to the door.
“A party,” I tell her.
“You think that's a good idea? Are you going to drink? You know that drinking and taking your meds isn’t a good idea?”
I narrow my eyes at her. I don’t want to be parented right now. I’m twenty-one.
“I’m going to the hockey house party. It’s mostly just the team and some friends. I’ll be fine.”
I don’t give her a chance to question me more before I take off.
The whole car ride there I have to blast music and sing along with it to keep my mind off that video. They’re just friends. Only friends. Everything is fine.
Parking the car with all the others, I jog into the house. I expect my teammates to start telling me to fuck off and get out, but other than a few looks my way, people pay me no attention. Probably because they’re all shit-faced at this point.
The music is loud and the house is packed with bodies grinding against each other. But as I scan all the faces, none of them are Bishop and Lilly.
Going into the kitchen, I see Jonas and Bee looking pretty damn cozy.
