On Thin Ice: First to Fall Loses

Chapter 5

POV’s Tate

I nodded. Uptight is one way to put it. Once I finished the story, Riley chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds like him. I can still remember when I first met him. I thought he was a mute. Ethan and I were lab partners back in high school.” Riley criss-crossed her legs, pushing the blanket off her. “But once he warms up to you, it gets better. He’s just not the social type, you know? I mean, even now, he’s always trying to bail on Ethan and me. I swear, the only thing he thinks about is hockey.”

“Maybe now that his stick is broken, it finally comes out from up his ass,” Lena muttered, earning a crazed laugh from Riley.

“Oh, that was good. Can I please steal that line tomorrow at the hockey party? I can already imagine the look on his face.”

I froze. Right, the party. I tried not to move so that maybe, by some miracle, Riley would forget I was there. It didn’t work.

“Ooooh. I know what I’m going to do. Tomorrow, when we go to Ethan’s, I’ll introduce you to Philip, and you’ll have no choice but to become best friends.”

Fat chance. Now that I thought about it, I’d met Philip in passing before. If I’m not mistaken, he’s been rooming with Ethan for the last few years. Whenever I’ve seen him, we haven’t really spoken. I don’t even think he’s ever said hello to me. I gave Riley a pained look, but I already knew there was nothing I could say or do to change her mind.

“Speaking of,” Riley continued, “I need an actual going-out top. Ethan made fun of me for only wearing my meme shirts when I go out, so now I have to prove that I do clean up nice.”

I smirked. “Want me to punch Ethan for you?”

Riley shook her head rapidly. “Oh no, I can’t be the source of a cousin feud.” She winked, “Unless, of course, you really can’t help yourself.”

I cracked my knuckles. “We’ll see. Anyways, if you want, we can go to the Maria Mall tomorrow before you and Lena have class. I’m free all day, so it’s up to you.”

“Let’s do it,” Lena said, still primarily focused on the show in front of her.

Riley nodded eagerly. “Yes. 10 A.M. tomorrow, we go.”

“Perfect,” I said, standing up. “Alright, I have some papers to finish grading, and then I’m getting some beauty sleep.”

I opened the door to my room, slipping out of my clothes and chucking them into my laundry bin. I put on a pair of plaid PJ shorts before rifling through my sweatshirt drawer, looking for my favorite, dark green sweatshirt.

Not there.

I whipped my head towards my door, calling out towards the living room, “Hey, have any of you seen my green sweatshirt?”

I heard the sound of shuffling before Riley’s voice responded, “Oh, the ratty one? Sorry, I forgot to mention that I borrowed it. It’s in the wash right now.”

“Riley, stop stealing it,” Lena scolded, “you know it has sentimental value for her.”

Even though they couldn’t see me, I turned to hide my blush. “No, it’s fine. Just… It’s old, and I don’t want to lose it.”

“Sorry.” I heard Riley say again. “It really is so comfy. Where did you get it from again?”

“To be honest, I don’t even remember,” I lied, before turning to pick out a different sweatshirt.

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POV’s Philip

I slammed the door to my Mercedes SUV shut as I sat in the driver's seat of my car. My head was already starting to pound. Great, another headache. I glanced in the rearview mirror, watching that mindless girl walking over to her car. f*****g i***t. People need to learn to watch where they’re going.

To be honest, I didn’t really care too much about my broken stick. Those things are always breaking on the ice; it really makes no difference to me. My sticky sweatshirt, on the other hand, was another issue. I mean, I just f*****g showered.

I looked over, seeing Penny running into the building. I ran a hand roughly through my hair. God, I wanted to punch myself. I shouldn’t have let her off the hook so easily. But it’s hard not to when she looks like that, and when my heart still doesn’t know how to beat normally when I see her. She’s with Eld now, I need to get over it.

Still. Breakups are a b***h.

She should’ve known better than to be driving that fast in a parking lot. That other girl also should’ve known better than to have been walking with her face stuck to her phone.

Of course, when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.

I shook my head, turning on my car.

That could’ve been really bad. I don’t know how Penny didn’t see that girl; she didn’t even slow down until after she’d passed by us.

I rolled my window down as I pulled out of my parking spot. I heard my phone buzzing, and glanced at the screen of my car to see the caller ID: Kenny.

Fuck no.

I let it ring as I drove out of the parking lot. Not today. Not now. Preferably, not ever.

If I had to hear his voice, I might just drive myself off a bridge.

It’s a ten-minute drive to my house from the rink. It feels like hours before I finally make it there. I took my hockey gear out of my car, hung up my padding, and threw my gear in the wash before scrubbing the coffee stain out of my sweatshirt using cold water and stain remover. Once that was dealt with, I headed straight for the kitchen. I washed my water bottle in the sink, along with all of the other dishes that Ethan and Caleb had left in the sink earlier today. Caleb had some sort of club after practice, so he had driven separately. Ethan had come straight from class, so he’d also taken his own car.

I sat down at the counter, rubbing my temples with my hands. Soon enough, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the garage.

“You all right?” Ethan walked over, sitting down next to me. “You look more pissy than usual.”

I let out a long sigh. “You would not believe the s**t I just had to go through.”

A ghost of a smile showed up on Ethan’s face. “Enlighten me.”