Page 23 of Offside Attraction

You’d think Hayes would be sitting with his team.

Nope.

Turns out Ezra and Shane are also on the hockey team. Shane’s a loud, dumb jock who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. From what I’ve seen, the only reason girls sleep with him is proximity to Hayes.

They’ll do anything to get close to him—even if it means fucking the discount version.

“Hey, man.”

I look up.

Tripp Anderson, somebody who considers himself my friend—I really don’t know what to call him yet—sits opposite me and drops a chicken salad and a bottle of water on the table in front of him. Tripp and I met four days after I started school. He was cool, knows when not to cross boundaries and he has a great sense of humor. He’s African American, with chocolate skin, brown eyes, tall, and also on the slim and athletic side. He’s a good-looking guy, plays basketball for the school team, and he’s friendly. He reminds me a lot about Seth.

“You’re back,” I say, leaning back to stare at him.

I haven’t seen Tripp for almost a week now. His coach benched him because he was failing calculus and he was assigned a tutor, an Asian short but smart girl who’s also in our year. He’s been busy trying to do better and when I asked him two days ago through text messages, he told me he was making progress.

“Yup. How you been all these days without me? Shitty, I think?” Tripp asks, staring at me with a small smile on his lips.

I chuckle before replying. “Something like that.”

Tripp and I hung out every chance we get after we got acquainted. He’s easy to talk to. I could remember the few days I tried to push him away, but it didn’t work. Tripp was determined to be my friend. And when I got to know him, I realized he wasn’t that bad. We have a lot in common.

“Mm-hmm.”

I feel someone’s eyes on me from the far corner as I tilt my head to the side only to lock eyes with Hayes. He’s giving me one of his bored apathetic looks while his friends, oblivious to the tension between the two of us, talk about things that I’m sure don’t make sense. I glare at him, my stare cutting deep at his pretty face before looking away to lock eyes with Tripp who I guess had been staring at me.

“I’m sure you didn’t hear a word I said.”

“What? Sorry, what did you say?”

Tripp laughs softly, craning his head around to stare at Hayes whose focus is still fixed on me. Tripp turns to look at me, a small smirk on his lips as he takes a scoop from his chicken salad.

“You still keeping that one all to yourself, huh?” Tripp asks, with one eyebrow cocked upward and a big grin on his face.

He’s talking about Hayes. The minute Tripp and I started hanging out, he knew something was going on between Hayes and me from the frequent glares we keep throwing at each other. He had asked a week ago and I told him he was just seeing things that aren’t there.

“Okay, I’m not dumb, Dakota. Obviously, you two hate each other over something and there’s a long-lost connection between you two. You don’t want to talk about it, I get it. But do you think it’s wise to join the hockey team with Hayes as the team captain? You could always consider joining the basketball team. It would be fun.”

“I’m not good at basketball,” and that’s true. “But hockey, I’m pretty good at it. I’ve always loved the sport.”

“And Hayes? You two in one team? I mean just across the room from each other and it looks like you two wanna murder each other. Imagine you two in one team?”

Well, that’s a question I’ve asked myself too and the answer remains the same. Hayes Griffin is in for a long, disastrous trip.

And there’s no enjoying that.

CHAPTER 5

I’vealwayslovedhockey.

Baseball too—but hockey owns me.

There’s nothing like being on the ice. The glide of skates. Cold air biting at your skin. The rush of adrenaline flooding your veins. It’s the same high I get in a boxing ring—fists flying, rage pouring out of me until everything goes quiet.

When Mom and I first moved to Brooklyn, I joined the hockey team during my freshman year. I was good—better than most. After a few games against other public schools, I quickly became one of the best players on the roster.

Then I got kicked out.