Page 54

Brooke

I push through the chaos and stand watching the team get photographed for the Valentine's Day Drop, finally feeling a bit calmer. With Savannah's help, we transformed sweatpants into shorts, crop t-shirts and jackets, thrifted some tees, and finished the scrunchies and headbands just last night.

"Where do you want me, Coach?" Cami asks, standing next to me in her shorts.

"Shh, don’t let Coach hear you call me that!" I hiss back. He still scares me, hovering over us while we take photos today, even though we aren’t using the ice. His presence makes my job easier because most of the team behaves well with him around.

Cami laughs as Savannah joins us. "Hey, girls! Cam, I love that you and Gunnar are matching," she smirks knowingly, as if we haven't discussed it beforehand.

"What?!" Cami screeches, noticing her and Gunnar’s matching colours. "B, you’re so dead, you know that."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," I reply, feigning innocence. "You use the same shampoo. How is this any different?"

She pouts and crosses her arms, mumbling, "Taught her too well," which makes me smile.

"Okay, ready for his and hers combos," Lucas, a team member who helps with The Drop, says as he leads the photo shoot.

Cami, Savannah, and I climb into the stands to position ourselves in our matching colours. Grant smiles up at me and nudges Bear with his foot to clear a spot for me to sit in front of him. Bear shoots him the finger, and I laugh.

"Nice shorts," Bear smirks. I roll my eyes and toss my hair over my shoulder, trying to ignore him. He leans forward and whispers in my ear, "Think if you straddle me, that’ll showcase them better?" His unexpected comment makes me choke, and I have a coughing fit while he laughs behind me.

"GRANT ANDERS!" Cami shouts from across the rink. She leans awkwardly against Gunnar while Savannah sits between Adam and Bear. "It's freezing in here, and you're prolonging this torture."

Half of the guys grunt in agreement, while the others stare at Cami's legs.

We all get serious and take our pictures.

We film some video content and then wrap up for the day.

The boys head onto the ice from the locker room after changing into their practice gear, while I pack up The Drop to take it home.

"I'm sorry I can't help you take it home," Grant says as I zip up some bags. I don’t want to risk leaving it at the rink again; this precious cargo comes home with me so I can keep an eye on it.

"Don't worry, I've got Savannah and Cam to help," I smile, tightening my ponytail and standing up straight with my hands on my hips.

"Yeah, don't be so sexist, Grant," Cami snaps at him. "We can carry a couple of bags." She huffs while picking one up. He pulls me toward him, replacing my hands with his, and I wind my arms around his neck.

"You know, Cami complains about having to move her comforter into the living room to watch movies the other night," he whispers, stealing a quick kiss before practice starts.

"Hey, Gunnar, can you carry this to the car for me, please?" she begs him, moving far enough away so she thinks we can’t hear her.

We both laugh as I release Grant and pull the last bag toward me.

"I'll see you after practice," he says, pulling me back toward him by the bottom of my t-shirt.

"Sure will, but no late night for you, mister," I reply, playing with the collar of his jersey. "You've got an important game tomorrow."

"We'll see," he says, pecking my lips quickly and winking as he heads to the locker room.

"Sickening," Savannah says, walking up next to me with a wide smile. "I love it."

"You know you and Cami are complete opposites, right?" I nudge her as we walk out of the rink.

"Oh yeah, that’s why this friendship is going to be epic," she replies.

I laugh at her, knowing she is right.

Brooke

We are back at the apartment with a bottle of wine sitting on the coffee table and have How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days on in the background while I edit The Drop and the girls help.

"You have to add that clip of Adam and Bear shaking their butts at each other," Cami cackles. "They'll never get girls to look at them the same again."

I play the clip again, but at a faster speed. All of us fall back, wheezing with laughter.

"That was so much fun today," Savannah sighs, sitting back against the sofa. "Please, tell me you'll do another girl drop?" "I've been thinking I might do the girls' sports teams next?" I throw it out there, and Cami nods.

“The skating girls would be into it," she confirms, filling up our wine glasses.

"Sounds like I need to get thrifting then." I take a sip and sigh as it hits the spot after a stressful few days.

"You like doing this, right?" Savannah asks, flicking through The Drop's Instagram page.

"Oh, totally," I reply without hesitation. "I love it. I'm so proud of how it's doing, but it feels like a full-time job instead of a college project."

"I can see that." She gestures to me, editing. "You've been at this a week straight."

"You'll try to take a break between this one and the next, right?" Cami asks.

"Sure, I'll just thrift a little." I shrug, and they both roll their eyes. I don't blame them; I have no intention of slowing down.

After the first two Drops, I finally felt everything click into place; it's so fun starting with second-hand clothes and then giving them a new lease of life with some college students who would never have bought them had the hockey team not modelled them.

There's a knock at the door.

"PIZZA!" Cami shouts, jumping up and running to open the door; she's acting like we've been waiting hours when it's only been forty minutes.

"No. No way, asshole, go away," I hear Cami say as soon as she opens the door, and I look over my shoulder towards her.

"I just need to talk to her for a minute," I hear Josh's voice come through the open door. What the hell? I put my laptop down and stood up, walking to the door.

"What do you want, Josh?" I asked tiredly; he had left me alone since Thanksgiving, so I thought after our talk, this was officially done.

"I need to tell you something before you find out from someone else." His eyes are wide and pleading with dark circles under them; he looks like he hasn't slept in days.

"Oh my god," I say, exasperated that we are doing this again. "What now? What else did you do? Sleep with my best friend."

I was so relieved that he had finally stopped trying to talk to me, and I'm so happy enjoying this new thing with Grant that I actually couldn't care less if he cheated on me when we were together.

Actually, no, that's a lie. I would kick him in the balls.

I'm tipsier than I thought I was. "I didn't do anything, I…" he explains, but Cami cuts him off.

"Seriously, B, if you have another best friend, tell me now. Because I would never." She narrows her eyes at Josh, and I snort a tipsy laugh.

"Brooke!" he shouts, and we turn our attention back and glare at him. "I came here to tell you that…"

"Here he is!" I hear Adam shout behind him. "He told you what he did?"

The entire hockey team is walking up our steps, and Josh looks like he's going to throw up.

"What did you do?" I whisper to Josh, my eyes darting back and forth between him and the team. Savannah joins Cami and me in the doorway as the team stands off with Josh.

"I didn't do anything," he blurts out, and Bear opens his mouth to interrupt again before I shush him.

"The baseball team vandalised the rink." My eyes can't get wider, but it's possible as I realise he doesn't just mean the rink but The Drop. "I did not know they were planning to do it."

"Why? Why would they do that?" I ask him, tears pricking my eyes as I think about how stressed I've been trying to fix it. "And why should I believe you weren't involved?"

"They said you weren't asking the baseball team to do The Drop because of me, because we had a bad breakup, and they wanted to get back at the hockey team for being featured multiple times."

"Really, selling you not being involved," Gunnar practically growls out. I've never seen him so mad before, not even when he argued with Sasha, and I swear I hear Cami sigh next to me.

"I swear to you I wasn't, Brooke. I've seen how well it's going. I don't want to ruin something else for you," he pleads at me again, back turned to the team.

I know we spoke on Thanksgiving about it, but after everything he's lied about to me, it's hard to just believe him out of nowhere.

"Hayle had nothing to do with it," Grant's voice comes through the team as he walks the guys up to our door. "I checked it all out with Coach, and some of them had no idea."

"Thanks, man," Josh says, nodding at him. Grant just gives him a hard stare back, clearly not wanting to give him any more of his time today.

"I didn't ask the baseball team to do The Drop because I was waiting for spring," I say to Josh, and he nods to me. "But thank you for coming and telling me."

He looks at me for a second longer before nodding and turning and heading down to his car.

"Assholes," Camis says, hugging me. "We should set fire to all their bats."

I laugh, patting her back as I watch the team file into the boy's apartment. "What happened to a quiet night in?" I raise my brow at Grant over Cami's shoulder.

"It is quiet. We aren't drinking." He smiles at me. "You coming over?"

"I would, but we've got pizza and wine over here." I shrug, lingering in the doorway after Cami has released me and heads back in.

"Okay," he says, hugging me and kissing my forehead, and I smile because nothing beats a forehead kiss.

"But Savannah is staying over, so I thought I might crash at yours." I bite my lip and look up at him nervously.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Great, let Bear know to leave his door unlocked," I smirk, slamming my door in his face.

"You're evil," he shouts through the door, and I let out a laugh as I skip back over to the girls.

I've got to keep him on his toes.