Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Decision made, I spend the next twenty minutes changing into every outfit I own and decide my jeans and black hoodie with a Middle-Earth icon on the back is the best I can do. I attempt cat eyes via my sister’s video tutorial, but I fail three times and give up. I go with two swipes of mascara and some gloss, shove my feet into my shoes, forget my ramen and have to go back to my room, then head to the common room.
As predicted, there’s a line at the kettle, three deep. This is perfect. Especially since Chase and all his hockey buddies are exactly where I expected them to be: sitting on the couch in front of the TV watching the Terror game.
The girls who always look through me are perched on the arms of the couch, one next to Chase, the other next to Gage, one of Chase and Brody’s other teammates. Brody is sitting on the floor in a gaming chair.
I join the line for the kettle.
And while I wait, I observe.
Chase is wearing faded denim and a Terror T-shirt. His dark hair is damp, like he’s fresh from the shower. I bet he smells incredible. His thickly muscled bicep flexes as he high-fives Brody when 44, Brody’s brother, scores a goal.
Brody wears jeans, black boots, and a black hoodie with the phrase “I’d rather be on the ice” in tiny letters across his heart. Gage is dressed in red workout gear. There is a decent chance he came here directly from the gym and smells like sweat and sneakers. It’s fairly common, and his friends often razz him about it.
The guy in front of me moves closer to the kettle and I close the gap. Two more people making cheap food for dinner and then it’s my turn.
Chase stands and spins to face the back, an unmade cup of KD in his hand.
The guy beside me yells, “Send it my way. I got you covered, Lovett!”
Chase tosses the KD cup in my direction.
For a fraction of a second, my eyes lock with Chase’s. My heart skips two beats. My entire body tingles from head to toe. My breath catches in my lungs.
I’m holding my ramen cup, my soya sauce, and a pair of chopsticks. And the KD cup is coming straight for me. A hand shoots out from my right and catches the KD before it hits me in the face, covering up Chase’s flared eyes.
And then one of the girls who always looks through me comes shrieking into the room, yelling about a party tonight at some fraternity house after the game.
I tell myself I’m glad I’ve never been invited to a party.
It sounds like way too many people and too many bad decisions.
I make my ramen and steal one last glance at Chase before I head back to my room, leaving the guy behind me to make Chase’s dinner.
I should definitely work on the creative writing submission. It would be the smart thing to do. The right thing.
But I have this great party scene in my head for my fanfic. I flip open my laptop. It shouldn’t take me long to get it down. Then I’ll focus on my submission.
CHAPTER 2
CHASE
“If you could get picked up by any team, what team would it be?” Gage asks.
“That’s easy, Toronto,” I reply. “Brodes, what team would you want to play for?” Brody has already been drafted and so have I. But Ottawa has their eye on him, and Vancouver wants me.
“Anywhere but Toronto.” Brody tosses a stress ball into the air with one hand and catches it with the other.
“But playing for the same team as your brother would be so cool,” Gage says. “You’ve got those good Stiles genetics.”
“Yeah, but the pressure would be stupid. And he would want to mentor me, or challenge me, and then it would just be me trying to mirror his career and that would suck. I’ll already always be compared to him.” Brody bounces the ball on his elbow, catches it, then repeats the move on the other side.
Tristan is one of the top players in the league, so I can see how much of a double-edged sword this is for Brody. I have an older sister and a younger brother, neither of which are into sports, so there’s no one to compete with.
We leave the locker room and are immediately rushed by a group of girls hanging out in the arena foyer. I don’t know them, but two of them seem to know Gage. Brody tucks his hands in his pockets and plasters on a smile, but this shit always makes him uncomfortable. His brother had a reputation last year, until Tristan started dating his teammate’s sister. Now he’s in a committed relationship. But the rumors still follow him around. And because Brody plays hockey and looks like a younger version, people expect him to be the same way.