Page 9

violet

It’s been several days since Kennedy left hastily for the airport, muttering under her breath something about someone’s “whore of a mother”. Although we’re roommates, and had a gym class together once in high school, I don’t know her well enough yet to dig into her personal business. If and when she’s ready to tell me what’s going on and what Shane has to do with it, she will.

Elijah and I spoke earlier in the week, but the conversation felt very stilted. It almost felt as if he wanted to tell me something but was holding back. Since then, I’ve been holed up in the apartment catching up on my Econ reading but need a break. I’ve avoided as much Christmas fanfare as I can by staying inside, but I need to see other human life before I go completely bonkers.

I decide a good thing for me to do is to visit campus and use the time to learn my way around while there aren’t as many people in town. Walking across the picturesque campus, I take particular notice of the Mediterranean-styled buildings and the name on each one. Most of them seem to be named after people I’ve never heard of—probably alumni since I know very little about this school.

“You lost?”

The small hairs on the back of my neck rise. I’d recognize that sexy, self-important voice anywhere. What are the chances that I’d run into him today?

“Just exploring campus,” I say, hesitantly raising my eyes to meet his.

“I’ve never seen someone so eager to rush getting back to school,” he says with a serious face that’s totally unreadable.

“You guys have a shorter break than most schools on the East Coast and the semester is creeping up on me.”

“Most schools on the East Coast? Careful, that almost sounds very elitist of you.”

“I think you’re projecting your own insecurities.”

Two girls, a few feet away from us, walk by and are gawking at the two of us. Once Neo notices them, he rubs the back of his neck with his hand as if he’s suddenly uncomfortable.

When one girl raises an arm and waves at him, Neo doesn’t respond right away, so the two girls decide to approach us.

“Hey, Neo.”

“Vikki.”

“Oh, so you can see me?” she mocks. “I wasn’t sure you knew it was me since you didn’t return my wave.”

Suddenly, I remember that name. The girl he was fighting over at the kickback.

Vikki and her friend now focus their attention toward me. “Hi, I’m Vikki and you are?”

“Let me speak to you for a minute,” Neo cuts her quickly off, pulling her to the side.

“Why?” Her tone suddenly shifts and I wonder if she’s just embarrassed or totally frightened. “I’m just trying to get to know your new friend. Is she a freshman?”

Vikki’s friend sucks her teeth as she stares me down in a very Mean Girls movie sidekick kind of way. I re-adjust my handbag over my shoulder to get ready to go. I want no parts of whatever this drama is particularly because the last time that girl’s name came up, he almost killed a guy in front of a house full of people.

“You, don’t move,” Neo asserts the moment I try to take a step forward.

I look at Vikki’s friend and she stares back at me skeptically, as we both try to figure out which one of us he’s actually talking to.

“I’m talking to you, Violet.”

Both Vikki and the mean girl whip their heads around to give me another hard stare as if they’ve just caught me committing some sort of crime, which works because I actually feel guilty.

I can’t walk away fast enough.

“Hey,” he calls after me.

“Let her go,” I hear Vikki say behind me and a small part of me feels a sense of relief. If Neo has a girlfriend, especially one he’s willing to fight for, then that’s a good thing.

It means he’s off limits.

I spend the next hour in the university’s commons building, exploring each floor, and committing certain rooms to memory. I notice that there are very few places where you can go on campus where you don’t see large black and gold posters promoting the hockey team and most of them feature the big three: Neo, Shane and Bass. I’m starting to truly understand just how important the hockey program is to this school. It seems to be all they care about.

After a ten-minute walk east of the commons, I coincidentally find myself at the ice rink and I’m drawn to the open entrance of it like a moth to a flame. Neo’s probably still somewhere with his girlfriend, so I think a small peek inside won’t hurt. He isn’t here.

There’s a cool bite in the rink's air and it has a distinct chemical smell I remember from the last time I was inside the rink. From a distance, I watch members of the hockey team, all dressed in their black practice jerseys and protective gear, work on drills across the ice.

At first glance, in all of their clunky apparatus they seem to awkwardly move across the ice at breakneck speed, but the more I watch, the more I realize there really is an art to stay upright and hit a small piece of rubber into a net with pinpoint accuracy. They are in total control of their bodies and their movements. It’s impressive.

My goal is to remain hidden from view but I find that I don’t do a very good job of it once the tallest man out there skates gracefully toward me with that arrogant, stiff jaw of his, wisps of blond hair peeking from beneath his helmet.

“This is a surprise,” Neo says as he pulls off his helmet.

My breath catches.

Under the lights and the ice, this man practically glows.

“Looking good, seventeen!” I hear from above me and she’s one hundred percent right.

He raises his arm to greet whichever girl said it, but I can tell by the sincere tone of the person’s compliment that it wasn’t either of the girls from earlier. Instead, she just must be another one of his many fans who constantly showers him with all of this adoration.

“I was finishing my campus self tour and thought I’d just pop my head in,” I explain, albeit rather badly.

“Hoping to find me?”

His cocky response takes me by surprise considering who he was just with an hour or so ago.

“I wasn’t hoping for anything.” My eyes dart away. “It was just a walk. In fact, I didn’t think you’d even be here.”

“Have you been staying alone inside your place since the kickback?”

I try casually staring at the other players practice while we talk so I don’t have to look directly at Neo’s face, probably because I’m afraid he’ll see exactly what he does when every other girl on this campus looks at him.

“I don’t mind having a little alone time.”

“Yeah, I bet living with Prez has got to be challenging.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Are you always like this?”

“Like what?

“In a mood.”

“Is that some passive aggressive way of saying I’m unlikable?”

This conversation is going sideways. I try to course correct.

“Are you always here…at the rink?”

“Hockey never stops.”

“So where’s Shane?”

“Why are you looking for him?” he asks, his body significantly stiffer than it was a few moments ago.

“It’s hockey practice, right?” I shrug my shoulders. “Shouldn’t he be here too?”

I’m only curious about Shane’s whereabouts because I’m almost 99% sure it has something to do with the reason why Kennedy isn’t in town, either.

“He’s out of town,” he answers flatly.

Bingo!

Something is definitely up with those two.

“I guess you like them pretty, huh?” Neo sneers.

I notice a small group of female students standing close to the glass, blatantly fawning over the players, including Neo. No wonder this so-called ice mafia is full of themselves. This must be a daily occurrence for them. Don’t these girls have better things to do?

Neo snaps his fingers in front of my face in an attempt to gain my attention, irritation clouding his pupils.

“I’m sorry. What did you say?” I respond.

“I said I guess you like your men pretty,” he repeats. “Am I boring you?”

“You think I’m interested in Shane because I asked you a question about him?”

“You asked where he is. That sounds like a question expressing particular interest in someone.”

“A question is just a question.”

One of his teammates skates towards us to ask Neo something. I recognize him from the posters, so this must be Bass. “Hey, Cap, we’re about to head out. You cool?”

“Yep.”

“Hey,” the guy casually says hello. “Nice to meet you. I’m Bass.”

“Hi.” I smile. “I’m Violet.”

Neo quietly observes me the entire time the other guy is speaking and continues to after his friend leaves. It makes me feel gloriously uncomfortable in all the places it shouldn’t.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask, my stomach fluttering.

He doesn’t respond, and I can’t read his facial expressions for shit. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Good thing he can’t read minds, either, because I’m embarrassed about what’s on mine.

“Let’s eat,” he suddenly suggests.

“Eat?” I echo the word as if I don’t know what it means.

“Eat lunch.”

“With you?”

He can’t mean with him.

“Yeah, with me.”

“Why?”

He leans his massive body into his hockey stick, which is planted into the ice.

“Because that’s what people do at lunchtime. They eat lunch. And I’m hungry.”

I take a long breath and remind myself that I can only blame myself for being in this position. I had zero business coming into the hockey rink, especially after bumping into him on campus. All I was supposed to do today was listen to my advisor’s recommendation and identify buildings, learn pathways, figure out where the cafeteria was and then go back home, but no, I had to step inside of the goddamn ice rink.

“Um, so, I really need to head back to the apartment.”

“To do what? Read?”

He says the word read like it’s some sort of crime and I can’t lie — I’m actually tired of studying Econ and wish I could just relax and read one of my shifter novels. Sometimes the key to retaining new information is to know when to walk away and allow it to marinate.

“I guess I could eat as long as it isn’t at some restaurant littered with Christmas decorations.”

Wait, what are you saying, idiot?

“That might be hard,” he says, offering me a rare crooked grin. “Christmas is in a week.”

“Then maybe I should–”

“Wait, Grinch,” he interrupts swiftly. “You’ve been on campus all day and I can’t have you going home hungry. I know just the spot. It’s Santa Claus free.”

“Will Vikki be okay with this?”

There, I’ve said it.

“I didn’t invite Vikki,” he says plainly, but I see some sort of playful light in his eyes as if he’s actually happy I asked about her.

“While this would be a perfectly innocent lunch between acquaintances, I just don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”

“I promise that there’s nothing innocent about me asking you to lunch. I’m asking you for all the wrong reasons.”

His cerulean blue eyes dance playfully as if this is all a game for him, almost as if he’s wishing for some sort of reaction from me. I try not to give him one. In fact, I don’t say anything in response at all because I’m trying to think of a polite way to get out of this.

“Subtlety is not one of my strengths,” he explains, reading my uncomfortable expression like an open book. “And there’s no one in my life that would have the right to have a problem with us eating a meal together.”

Neo’s explanation is obscure and isn’t exactly a firm no on whether Vikki would try to slit my throat if she discovers the two of us had lunch, but a girl’s got to eat, right?

Fifteen minutes later I find myself back in a familiar place, back at the freaking ice house where the kickback was the other night.

I cut my eyes at Neo like he’s grown two heads.

“You can’t be serious.”