His secret hockey boy

It’s not that expensive if they'd take one of my kidneys for it. With a sigh, I roll my back, propping my ancient laptop on my thighs. The overheated thing burns through my shorts, and I hiss, but when I snatch it away, I lose my Wi-Fi connection. The screen blinks once. Twice. Then the page reloads, taunting me with the set of paintbrushes and paints I’ve been staring at for the past twenty minutes. They’re ridiculously expensive. They’re also ridiculously beautiful. And, unfortunately, exactly what I need. I mean, Betty who must have sold a leg and and an arm to get it the second they were released writes; “The colors are insane.”– as if we didn’t already know that, Betty. A certain Yelena writes a review that actually makes me moan and bang my head against my bony knees. “The range of colors makes mixing almost unnecessary. The blues alone are gorgeous. I used the cobalt and ultramarine on an ice series and couldn’t believe how luminous they looked once dry.” Luminous. She said they looked luminous!! It went from a need to a dire need with just Yelena’s testimony alone. The only four star review from Nelly is the only one with financial sense. “Would give five stars if I hadn’t stared at the price for ten minutes before clicking Buy.” I’ve been staring for close to forty five minutes and I still haven’t clicked Buy. I know exactly what these brushes could do in my hands, and I cannot afford to find out. My alarm goes off, and what I mean by my alarm– my phone actually rings and I don’t have to look to know who it is. Nobody uses that call icon these days, Nina Hall doesn’t understand this concept though, because she keeps calling even after I let the first call go straight to voicemail. When the phone starts ringing again with her Nosy Nina on the screen, I groan like someone being forced to attend school. Shutting my laptop, I swipe accept before her car makes an appearance at my front door. She’s done it before. “Rhett. What did I say about picking up the phone??” Thank f**k I picked up when I did, she sounds like she’s hurrying somewhere, she could have been hurrying here if I didn’t pick up in time. “If I do as you ask every time you ask, how would I be the delinquent you’ve come to love?” I ask with a cheeky grin she has to hear over the phone as I pick myself up and head to the bathroom. With the length and width of the trailer I’ve called home for the past few years, I cross it easily. Propping my phone on the sink, I turn on the tap and splash water on my face, almost missing her dry response. “You wish you were funny, Rhett.” I smirk even if she can’t see me. She’s getting so much better at sarcasm, at this rate she might even start hiding her feelings behind them. At least I don’t have to say, ‘I’m kidding’ after every sentence now. “You know I’m hilarious actually.” I hear her leather seats squeak and open my mouth to ask where she’s heading but she beats me to it. “I’m out of town for a few days, and so I can’t bring you today.” “What the f**k, N-Square, it’s my first day in college, not pre-school.” I side eye the phone as if I were looking at her, as I squeeze tooth paste over my toothbrush only to end up with a sad pea size. With a sigh, I mentally update my ever growing grocery list. Do we really need to brush our teeth? “Really? I wouldn’t have noticed, seeing I have to call to make sure you’re there.” I chuckle, opting to leave the squeezed tube on top of the cabinet, there could still be something left for tomorrow. “I’m serious, Rhett. I have friends all over CSU, they’ll tell me if you don’t show, or even leave halfway.” Without seeing her, I’m certain she has her eyes narrowed. I’ve gone through a lot of social workers in my day, but none of them stuck or cared like Nina. She is the only reason I’d even think about waking up at the crack of dawn and leave for school when I could be out there making money for toothpaste. “Will they also tell you if I’m making out at the back of the class instead of listening?” “They’ll tell me how many breaths you take in class.” she threatens. I would drag this out, but another kid needs her right now, I can’t hog all her time. And so I let her go with the promise of turning myself into a great student. “You’ll make new friends, you’ll love it.” I would love it more if I could work more hours, but I don’t say anything to her, she’s done so much for me. And new friends isn’t a bad thing either. “I’ll come by this weekend with groceries.” I don’t have the chance to disagree with her, to tell her to save her money for something else, because she disconnects the call immediately. She’s getting too good, I have to up my game. I do my best to dress well, a baggy shirt I’d drawn on, and even baggier pants with pant splashes that won’t come off. There’s not much I can do for my hair I’d dyed white and black. Before I left high school, everyone was excited to know where I’d be going, nobody ever thought I’d be staying in Coldwater. Then again, nobody expected I didn’t want to go either. I’m only standing in front of the imposing school gate because Nina made it her life mission to bring me here. They have a great art program, and a scholarship that covers tuition and books, but that’s all. “Rhett Miller?” I turn to the shocked voice standing outside the gate as other students mill past us. My brows jump in surprise when I find Leslie Letterman, my f**k buddy from high school. I grin at him. He smiles back at me hesitantly. “What are you doing here?” he asks, then blushes when he hears the stupidity in his question. I like the pink on his cheeks, they remind me of our secret rendezvous in the storage closet. Maybe Nina was right and I’ll have more fun here in college, Leslie is very eager and has the nicest ass I’d ever seen. “I followed you out here for our closet shenanighans.” I joke with a gesture around us. His eyes jump as he looks around us, but nobody gives a damn because this is college. Holy s**t. This is college and nobody will give a damn if we start kissing right here, right now. I have an idea immediately that will make this day so much better. “When does your class start?” He eyes me suspiciously, playing with his bag strap. “Not for another thirty minutes, why?” I grin at him. We usually only used five minutes, but I wonder what thirty minutes can get us. I snatch his hand as I make way to the library. “Where are we going?!” Leslie hisses at me. But when we step into the library, tucked into the corner where nobody can see us, his eyes are hooded and he licks his lips. I grin, there he is. A yelp tears out of his mouth when I pick him up easily and plop him on a table. “Shhh, this is a library, remember?” He pulls his pants off silently, I can see his pulse beating in his throat. I want to drag my teeth across it but he stops me. “Can you.. you do that thing you did with the cigarettes that one time?” he whispers, not meeting my eyes. I grin at him, sweet, innocent Leslie must have touched himself to that one time. I don’t have to search my pockets too hard to find a pack of cigs, Nina would hate this. Lighting it, he undresses his lower half, and spreads his cheeks for me. Letting out a stream of smoke against his puckered hole, Leslie hisses, and at the end of the smoke stream, my mouth meets his hole. Just then, I lift my eyes. A stranger is staring directly at me. Not casually. Not accidentally. Like he’d been watching for a while.