Page 19

“Ooh, yeah,” Ali’s face split into a bright grin, making her look like a kid in a candy shop. “How good does a hot pretzel and cheese sound? ”

“I’m too nervous to eat anything,” Mer said, making a face that told me she was nauseous.

“C’mon, let’s go, we can walk around the stadium, stretch our legs for a minute.”

Making our way to the aisle, Ali lost her balance and practically fell onto an older gentleman’s lap, then apologized profusely.

“Oh my God.” She giggled as soon as we were skipping down the steps. “Mark would’ve been so mad at me.”

Mad? I frowned. I never liked Mark in the first place, but I was starting to get really bad vibes from their relationship. The way Mer was frowning, I think she was thinking the same thing.

As soon as we walked up to the concession stand, we came to a realization.

“We’re in Canada.” Mer rolled her lips together and popped her eyebrows up, as if asking, you wanna?

“I mean…it is legal,” I said, biting my lip. “I’ve never really drank before.”

“Me neither,” Ali said. “Mark warned me not to drink…” She eyed us with a secret little smile. “Should we?”

Her mention of Mark threw me over the edge. “Ya know what? Hell yeah, let’s do it. We deserve a weekend off. We’re always so worried about everything that enters our body, we can be normal for one night.”

Mer’s face lit up with delight, and I realized she was craving this just as much as I was. “Yeah, let’s be normal,” she said with a laugh.

________

The three of us didn’t pay too much attention to the rest of the game.

We chatted the whole time, probably annoying people around us, but it was better this way.

For one, as soon as they boys joined us, we wouldn’t be able to talk as freely about girl stuff, and two, Mer really needed a distraction.

Her nerves were pretty much shot from skating, so she needed this time to chill.

We stayed in the stands, giggling like crazy until pretty much the entire stands cleared out.

“Oh, shit!” Mer looked down at her phone. “We were supposed to meet the boys by the locker room hallway. Colt’s gonna be mad. ”

Ali stiffened. “He is?”

“There you are!” Colt said, storming up the stairs wearing a black peacoat and beanie. His eye and lip were swollen from his fight. “Been looking all over for you three. I called you about five times, baby,” he said, his eyebrows pinching together in concern.

Mer tried her best to keep a straight face, but it was like when a teacher reprimanded best friends in class, and as soon as we all made eye-contact, we busted up laughing.

Colt’s features were etched with concern. “Baby? Are you okay?”

“They’re wasted.”

My neck snapped toward that voice, and it’s like something clicked in my brain, something that whispered, You, I’ve been missing you.

His eyes danced with the familiar mixture of happiness and boyish mischief, and it suddenly felt like it was just the two of us here, smiling stupidly at each other.

A happy bubble grew inside of me, expanding and taking up all the space in my chest. Richard grinned, like he knew exactly how I was feeling.

Ali elbowed me, jostling me out of…whatever that was… and shot me a look as if asking, you good?

I stuck my chin up, trying to control my grin. “We’re not wasted, Richard, we were simply over-served.”

“Ha!” He threw his head back laughing, and I felt a triumphant little thrill race through me.

JP came up the other side of the aisle, closer to Ali. He scrubbed a hand over his damp dirty-blonde hair, making it stick up at odd angles, and his eyes floated directly to Ali. “Looks like you girls got into the alcohol, eh?”

“I’m eighteen, I’m allowed,” Ali said, but her voice slightly wavered, and she was suddenly wringing her hands in her lap.

JP’s face broke into a bright grin. “Course you are. It’s good to see you, Ali Cat.

C’mere.” He strode forward to give her a hug.

She popped out of her seat to greet him, but then tripped on a stair.

He had to lunge to catch her around the waist. “There’s my clumsy girl,” he said with a deep chuckle while setting her back on her feet.

Her face fully relaxed after that, which was curious. She was a year younger than us, but she was usually so sure of herself. Something was going on with her, I just didn’t know what.

“Well boys, I think it’s time to play a little catch up,” Kappy said with a wicked grin. He shook out his dark wet hair before smoothing it back.

JP groaned while pulling a beanie over his damp hair. “Let’s get food first. That new place, Trivoli’s, looked good.”

“We have food at home, guys,” Colt argued.

“Ooh, Trivoli’s sounds like a fun place,” Mer pipped up.

“Yeah?” Colt’s neck spun around. “Yeah, let’s go to Trivoli’s.”

I had to stifle a laugh. He was so whipped that it was cute.

“All right, I’m on liability duty,” JP announced. He grabbed Ali around the waist, making her giggle as he carried her the rest of the way down the stairs.

________

Later that night, we ended up at a bar with a dance floor, strobe lights, and an amazing playlist, but I had to sit out on the fun.

My legs were starting to ache from not resting enough through the day, and I couldn’t sacrifice all the work I’d put into rehab just to fall back because of one night out. So, I sat at the bar by myself, drowning in my own self-pity and vodka-sprites.

While Colt and JP kind of bopped up and down next to Ali and Mer like typical hockey guys, Kappy was actually a really good dancer.

He moved his hips to the beat and had excellent rhythm.

All the girls wanted to dance with him, but he kept a respectable distance from them, not grinding on anyone, but instead, grabbing their hand and spinning them out.

That was for the best, if a girl started dancing up on him and smoothing her hands all over his body while this alcohol skated through my system, I’d probably lose it.

Every once in a while, his eyes bounced over to me, almost like he was checking to make sure I was having fun.

I forced a smile on my face each time, even though my chest felt like it was caving in with bitter jealousy.

“How you doing, baby doll?” a deep voice asked me.

“Oh.” I turned to the side and jumped a little at the man’s closeness. He was much older than me, very sweaty, and reeked of beer.

He chuckled. “Looks like you’re empty,” he said, gesturing to my drink. “What’re you drinking? I’ll get you another.”

I rolled my lips together. “No, thank you.” I turned away from him and tipped my chin up, trying to look mean so he’d leave me alone.

“What’s wrong, honey? You need a dance partner?” He smoothed closer to me, doing a weird move where he jutted his junk toward me.

“No, thank you.” I cleared my throat to speak over the music. “Please back up.”

“Please? Please what, honey?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Back up,” I snapped louder, jutting my lower jaw out.

He laughed like what I said was hilarious. “It’s a packed bar, baby doll. Nothing wrong with getting a little cozy.” His beefy hand wandered to my hip, making panic flare to life inside me.

“Stop touching me,” I said, trying to wrangle away, but he just laughed again.

“Calm down, we’re just having some fun.” He gave me a smarmy smile.

Dread filled my stomach. I dropped down to my feet, planning on high-tailing it to the group on the dance floor, but his hand caught my elbow. I suddenly regretted drinking so much because my head swam. Was this really happening? Right in front of all these people?

“C’mon, babe. You know you wanna dance with me,” he growled. And then it all happened in an instant: First he was trailing his large hand down my body, then his hand was under my skirt, gripping my butt.

A shriek ripped from my throat as I tried to push away from him, but he was still laughing.

“C’mon, baby. You know you wanna dance with me.” He jerked me closer to him with a shocking amount of strength.

His BO filled my nostrils, and panic overcame my body, making me freeze up. A ringing filled my ears and my vision went a little shaky, like I was starting to black out.

And then the hand was gone.

There was some kind of commotion to the right of me, but I couldn’t really grasp it because I was blinking, trying to clear my senses.

The room suddenly slammed back into focus.

Kappy was gripping his shirt. “Touch her again and I’ll cut your fucking hand off,” he threatened with a voice full of venom.

“We’re just dancing,” he said with a laugh.

“She doesn’t want to,” Kappy spat. He dropped his shirt and turned to me, but the man swung his fist at Kappy so fast that I couldn’t even comprehend it.

Kappy’s face snapped to the side. But then he was spitting blood out of his mouth and smiling like a maniac. In a split second, he swung back harder and faster, absolutely pummeling the guy.

Bouncers dressed in black were pulling them apart in seconds and leading them to separate exits.

I immediately chased after Kappy, too worried about him to care about the rest of the group.

But as soon as I burst into the frigid snowy night, my head swam, letting me know I had way too much to drink.

“Richard?” I called out, but the sidewalks were completely empty.

Panic ratcheted up in my chest. Where the hell did he go?

“Richard!” I called out desperately and started to run, but the snow-covered sidewalk was going all wonky on me.

I hugged myself against the cold and screamed out, “Richard!” I was a few seconds away from a full mental breakdown.

“Please wait for me!” I called out to seemingly no one.

I did not like drunk me, she was way too winey.

A set of strong arms scooped me up from behind, hooking under my knees and back. Thinking it was that awful man, I started screaming and thrashing around violently.

“It’s me! It’s me!” Richard yelled, and his voice was like water to flames, making me immediately deflate.