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SCARLETT

“ I s that a new jersey?” Summer, who’s sitting next to me as we watch the Black Bears take on Boston U, asks while there’s a lull in the action. “You bought a different one when we got here, didn’t you?”

“She sure did,” Olivia wastes no time answering. She wears a broad grin on her face and her eyes glimmer like this is some juicy topic of conversation.

My stomach feels like it tips sideways as I remember how Lane acted when I showed him the jersey. There was no stain on it. Not until he very intentionally put one there, at least.

Was it because it had Sebastian’s name on the back? It didn’t escape my attention that after he dragged me by the arm to get a new one, he rummaged through the pile for a good minute and a half before he found his jersey to replace it.

Or maybe I’m reading into what happened. Maybe I just wish Lane still had feelings for me so bad that I’m desperate to twist reality any way I can to make it seem possible.

“Huh?” Harper, who arrived at the arena later than the three of us, leans across me, like there’s gossip she wants to be privy to. “What’d I miss?”

“Lane turned into a caveman when he saw Scarlett with another man’s name on her back.”

Butterfly wings flap in my chest. “That’s not what happened.”

Summer makes a humming noise in her throat. “Not surprising the way he’s been glancing up at you all game.”

My cheeks burn. “He has not.”

This is the last thing I need, third parties fueling my own delusions about Lane possibly still caring about me as more than a friend, more than someone he’s just doing a favor for.

I got all those illusions dashed two summers ago, and I don’t need to build them back up only to feel the pain of them tumbling down again.

The first period of the game comes to an end with the score still 0-0.

I’m thankful that Olivia, Summer, and Maddie start to talk in more detail about how the team’s been playing. Having been surrounded by hockey longer I have, they have a better sense of what they’re watching. The game’s still a confusing blitz of speed for me.

Exciting, but confusing. Sometimes I’m not quite sure what I’m watching, and my eyes haven’t totally gotten used to tracking the tiny puck yet.

“What’s the deal with you and Sebastian, anyway?” I ask Harper. The pair’s obvious hostility is such that she didn’t even want to come to the game today, but I wore her down with my constant entreaties. “I don’t buy that it’s just over him getting salty at you criticizing one of his essays in class.”

That’s been her excuse for why they can’t stop throwing barbs whenever they’re in each other’s vicinity.

“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” is all Harper gives me.

I roll my eyes. Something tells me I don’t need to hurry up to discover the history between them. While the rest of the guys I live with are seniors, Sebastian is a junior, like Harper. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to get to the bottom of what’s between those two.

“How’s living with Hudson going?” Maddie asks Summer. Harper and I rejoin the three other girls’ conversation now that they’ve moved off hockey.

“Incredible,” Summer says, eyes gleaming in a way that makes me feel a tiny pang of envy. “Plus, Salsa’s really thriving now that she’s finally in a two-parent household.”

“Salsa?” Harper questions.

“Our cat!” Summer exclaims. She thrusts her phone toward us, displaying a picture of a majestically fluffy feline sitting on Hudson’s chest while he lies on a couch.

We aww and ohh as Summer scrolls through her pictures of Hudson and their cat. I haven’t spent a lot of time around Hudson, but I’ve never seen him look as happy in person as he does with that furball in his arms. Well, except for the one time I saw him and Summer together, when his smile was so bright it could’ve lit up a dark room every time he looked at her.

When the break between periods is over, and the team skates back out, I keep my gaze on Lane, wondering if I’ll notice him glance up at me like Summer insisted he’s been doing.

It only takes a second for our eyes to meet.