Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(42)

“Aren’t you playing in Florida tonight?” Nate asks him. “Sensed something was happening, my ass. You saw it on my close friends.”

“Why do you have a Canadian accent?” JJ says, screwing up his nose.

“Thank you!” Robbie shouts, making me jump, and Nate mutters something under his breath. “I said that when he got here and he said I was making it up.”

JJ’s smile is huge. I suspect it’s the success of annoying Nate from the other side of the country. “There is definitely something distinctly moosey about you these days, Nathan. Very off-putting. So what are we gossiping about? What’s the 411? Or the tea as the youth say.”

“When you say ‘as the youth say,’ are you talking about when you said that, like, two months ago?” Robbie asks. “Nate was asking Hen how being captain is when you called.”

JJ makes the same groan Russ and Robbie did a few minutes ago, and I feel like my friends have conveyed my feelings without me even needing to say a word. “Why the fuck does everyone keep groaning at me?” Nate says, looking confused.

I should step in and explain how I feel, but in all honesty, I’m too tired. Me talking about my feelings leads to my friends offering mountains of advice to make me feel different, but it doesn’t work. I can’t escape the constant worry that everything is going to go wrong and it’s going to be my fault.

“I’m just tired of Faulkner’s incessant need to talk to me about hockey,” I say, opting to go with my easiest annoyance. “I don’t want to see him as much as I do.”

“Henry takes everything too personally,” Robbie says to Nate. “He’s internalizing every mistake and holding himself responsible for them, even though we’ve all told him it doesn’t work like that.”

This starts a conversation I can largely sit back from while everyone, as predicted, weighs in. Robbie explains how he’s trying to mediate between me and Faulkner, Russ talks positively about how the season is going, and Nate gives a speech about teamwork.

JJ clears his throat. “Is no one going to point out how our faithful leader fucked off to play in tights for several months last year? Hen, as long as you actually play in games you’re gonna be better than Nate. Don’t even sweat it.”

I can hardly tell what anyone else is saying over the sound of JJ laughing at his own joke, while Nate lists every single thing he covered JJ’s ass for in the four years they lived and played together. By the time they’re done, I feel like my head might explode from all the advice they’ve given me. I successfully zone out, only mentally rejoining them when Nate starts giving Russ’s phone the finger. “Friends are allowed to have different opinions on how to handle things, Jaiden. I don’t have to agree with you because I know you’re wrong.”

JJ immediately fires back, but I’ve already stopped listening again.

“Are you coming to the gig tonight?” Russ asks Nate when it quiets down again.

Russ’s brother’s band, Take Back December, is in town tonight, and Russ got everyone tickets. I said I didn’t want to go because I don’t like their music, and more relevantly, I think Russ’s brother is a jackass.

“No. I’m only here for twenty-four hours—I don’t even think it’s that. I need to leave soon to watch Stas at the rink and then I’m taking her to a bookstore. She’s really stressed out at the moment. Well, I guess you guys will have noticed. Plus she’s struggling with the distance.” Nobody says anything. “Shit, we both are. It fucking sucks, but I’m going to give her my full attention while I’m here. She’s in a meeting with her professor right now so I had time to stop by.”

I didn’t know Anastasia was stressed out because I haven’t checked. She’s always busy, and since I started studying with Halle and didn’t need her study group, I’ve barely seen her. It was easy when she lived here because I saw her every day. It’s easy to make sure the other guys are okay because they turn up at my house almost daily. It’s made me realize that I’m not good at maintaining friendships that don’t appear in front of me, and that I need to add checking in on her to my priority list.

When Nathan says goodbye and leaves, Robbie is the first person to say something. “We need to keep a closer eye on Stassie. I’ll speak to Lola. I don’t know why she hasn’t mentioned it. She’s pretty busy, too; maybe she hasn’t noticed.”

“I feel really bad,” Russ admits. “I knew she missed Nate, but I thought she was okay otherwise.”

“I didn’t know,” I say. “I haven’t asked her how she is.”

“Well, I knew,” JJ says, and I had kind of forgotten he was there. “Guess I’m just better than you all.”

“Goodbye, Jaiden,” Robbie drawls. “Go and do your job.”

“Bye, friends. It’s been a pleasure as always.”

When it’s just the three of us again, I lie down on the couch. “I might go to bed.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come tonight? Aurora asked me to put Halle’s name on the list.”

I was supposed to see Halle last night, but I had to go to the studio to finish up a project, so came home instead. “Why didn’t she ask me to put her name on the list?”