An Ice-Cold Bet

Chapter 5: The Fifty-Dollar Mistake

By eight o'clock that night, Colt's dorm lounge had transformed into something like a party at the club. He had made a run to the campus convenience store an hour earlier, coming back with two cases of soda, a pack of drinks, and four boxes of pizza stacked in his arms. Then he texted the team group chat a single line: My place, tonight. Don't ask why, just come.

Theo showed up first, letting himself in without knocking, taking in the room at a glance. "Okay, this is either a celebration or a funeral, and I need you to tell me which before I take my jacket off."

"Somewhere in between," Colt said, dropping onto the couch with a drink he hadn't opened yet.

Marcus arrived next, trailed a few minutes later by Oliver, and within twenty minutes the small room was filled with the usual loud chaos of off-duty hockey players... The pizza boxes stacked on every flat surface, a random playlist competing with a TV nobody was actually watching, and Marcus and Oliver arguing cheerfully over the last slice of pepperoni.

"So," Theo said eventually, settling into the armchair across from Colt, "are you going to tell us why we're here, or are we supposed to guess?"

Colt turned the can over in his hands a few times before answering. "Bree and I broke up today."

The room didn't go completely silent. Marcus and Oliver were still mid-argument about pizza, but Theo's expression sharpened immediately, all the teasing dropping out of it. "Wait, seriously?"

"Seriously." Colt opened his drink, more for something to do with his hands than any real interest in drinking it. "She met someone else. A ski team graduate assistant named Wyatt."

That got Marcus and Oliver's attention fast enough that their pizza argument died mid-sentence.

"Wyatt," Oliver repeated, like he was testing the name for defects. "What kind of guy is named Wyatt?"

"The kind who drives a truck with a kayak strapped to the roof and talks about

"authentic living,'" Colt said. Even he could hear how flat and tired his voice sounded saying it out loud a second time. "That's apparently the whole appeal. Hiking. No schedule. Not organizing his whole life around a hockey season."

"That's rough, man," Marcus said, setting down his slice. "How'd it happen? Did she just tell you out of nowhere?"

So Colt told them. He explained the coffee shop meeting, the sudden invite that should have tipped him off, Bree's formal blazer, the oat milk latte he'd bought out of habit, and the slow realization that she'd been pulling away for a month. He kept the details straightforward, like a factual report, though by the time he got to the part about walking out and leaving both coffees untouched on the table, his voice grew lower and raspy.

Theo listened without interrupting, which was rare enough for him that Colt almost pointed it out. When Colt finished, there was a beat of real quiet in the room, broken only by the low hum of the TV in the background.

"Okay," Theo said finally. "That genuinely sucks. I'm sorry, man."

"Yeah," Marcus added. "That's brutal. A whole month, though? She was seeing this guy on the side for a month?"

"Nothing physical, apparently," Colt said with a short, bitter laugh. "Just feelings. Which somehow feels worse to hear, honestly."

For a minute or two, the sympathy in the room was genuine and supportive. But then, predictably, Theo's expression started to shift into a familiar, mischievous smirk.

"So," Theo said, entirely too casually, "are you doing okay, or are we about to watch you spiral for the next three weeks?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine. You seem like a guy hosting a pizza and beer wake for his own relationship."

"I bought pizza because I was hungry."

"Sure." Oliver grinned, picking up on Theo's teasing. "Very normal, unaffected behavior. Nothing says "I'm completely over it" like buying four boxes of pizza at eight p.m. on a Wednesday."

"I'm not broken up about this," Colt said, more sharply than he intended which did nothing to help his case. "I'm annoyed. There's a difference."

"Uh-huh," Marcus said, not remotely convinced. "You've been staring at that same unopened text thread on your phone for ten minutes."

Colt hadn't realized he was doing it until Marcus pointed it out, which made his face burn red. He placed the phone face down on the couch cushion, his jaw tight. "I'm not sitting here heartbroken over Bree Calloway. I'll be fine. Honestly, I could find somebody else by next week if I actually wanted to."

That earned a round of skeptical laughter from all three of them.

"Sure you could," Theo said, grinning outright now.

"I'm serious," Colt said. That old, stubborn pride flared up in his chest, the exact same competitive drive that pushed him through early morning practice sessions as a kid. "It's not hard. I could find somebody nobody's even paying attention to right now and turn her into the most talked-about person on this campus in just a few weeks. It's really not that complicated."

Theo went very still for a second. It was the specific stillness of a person watching a golden opportunity fall right into his lap. "Say that again."

"What?"

"That last part. Say it again."

"I said I could take someone completely off everyone's radar and make her popular. Genuinely popular and talked about. It's not that complicated if you put the effort in."

Theo set his drink down slowly on the coffee table, the grin spreading fully across his face. "Okay. I have an idea, and I need you to hear the whole thing before you say no."

"I don't like where this is going."

"You're going to like it even less in a second, but it's perfect," Theo said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "You just said you could make anybody popular... But you need to prove it. I'll pick the girl, and you have until the Winter Formal to turn her into the most talked-about person on campus."

"That's insane."

"That's a bet," Theo corrected. "Marcus, Oliver, you're in on this too. Fifty bucks each if he pulls it off. All in his pocket."

"A hundred and fifty dollars total," Marcus said, suddenly warming to the idea. "That's actually not bad."

"And if he doesn't pull it off?" Oliver asked, already grinning like he was planning ahead.

"A buzz cut," Theo said immediately. "A complete buzz cut. Right in the locker room, filmed on video, obviously."

"Absolutely not," Colt said.

"Scared?" Theo raised an eyebrow, aiming the challenge right at Colt's ego. "Five minutes ago you were talking a pretty big game about how easy this would be."

"I'm not scared, I just don't need to prove anything to you three."

"Sounds like something a scared person would say," Marcus added helpfully.

Colt looked around the room at the three of them... Theo's smirk, Marcus's delight, and Oliver, who is already checking his phone as if planning the buzz-cut video. His competitive nature got the better of him. The same pride that made him refuse to lose on the ice made it impossible for him to back down from a dare in front of his team, especially on a night when his pride had already taken a massive blow.

"Fine," Colt said. "Deal. Who's the girl?"

Theo's grin widened, delighted by how easily Colt had taken the bait. "Give me a day. I have someone in mind. I just want to make sure she's the right kind of challenge."

"Great," Colt muttered, already regretting it, though it was far too late to back out now. "Can't wait."

"You say that now," Theo laughed, raising his drink in a mock toast. Marcus and Oliver quickly joined in, all three of them grinning at Colt like he had just signed away his soul. "To Colt Marek. Undefeated on the ice, and about to find out if he's got any game off it."

Colt clinked his drink against theirs out of pure habit, already turning the reckless promise over in his mind...