Fake Skating(23)

Then she lowered her eyes back to her book, brushing me off.

Like she was finished with me.

Like she’d been finished with me back in the day.

And just like that, I wanted to get under her skin.

To mess with this unfamiliar quiet composure that I found to be irrationally irritating.

“Have you met Kyle yet?” I asked. “This is Kyle. Kyle, this is my old buddy Dani. Say hi, Dani.”

She raised her eyes again, and annoyance was all over her face. “Hi,” she said to Kyle.

“Hey,” Kyle replied, smiling but looking confused.

Which made sense because the vibe between Dani and me was awkward as shit.

“So how do you like Southview so far?” I asked, setting my chin on my fist like I was dying to hear her answer.

“It’s fine,” she said, a crinkle forming in between her eyebrows as her eyes dropped down to my mouth, cataloging what I was sure appeared to be an asshole grin.

Good.

“What’s this about?” I asked for no good reason, reaching out to flick the front cover of her book. “The Blind Assassinisn’t actually about a visually impaired killer, is it?”

“No.” She cleared her throat and closed the book, her eyes narrowing a little. “Is there something I can help you with? I’m trying to get some reading done before my next class, but I can totally move to a different table if you guys want to chat.”

“But we want to chat with you, Dan,” I said, unable to stop myself from being a tool.

“I don’t think you do, though, Al,” she snapped, but quickly covered it with a fake smile, seeming like the old Dani for a second. “It feels a little bit like you just want to interrupt me.”

“You look fun to interrupt,” I said, wondering as I looked at her frosted pink fingernails if she still insisted that her toes always match. “What can I say?”

“You could say nothing,” she replied, so quiet I almost couldn’t hear it.

“Jesus, you guys are old friends,” Kyle said with a laugh. “You sound like siblings.”

“There you are!”

All three of us turned as Cassie breezed through the library doors and ran over to the table. “I was looking for you everywhere, Dani, because I thought maybe you’d want to sit with me and my friends at lunch.”

She was friends with Cassie already? Shit.The last thing I needed was Dani showing up everywhere I went with my friends.

“Actually, I think I’m just going to read through lunch, because this is a really good book,” she said, her cheeks getting red as we all looked at her. “But thank you.”

“Sure,” Cassie said, looking at me and adding, “I see you ran into your old buddy.”

Dani looked embarrassed, glancing my way as she said, “Oh, um—”

“You already told her about us, eh?” I couldn’t help myself. “Your Zeus connection?”

That made her nose wrinkle like she smelled something bad. “It definitely wasn’t like that.”

“Yeah, she didn’t even know you at first,” Cassie said, then grabbed a chair and pulled it so she was sitting beside Dani. “By the way, I was thinking about your Harvard problem.”

“Ooh, what’s your Harvard problem?” I asked, grabbing Dani’s book and picking it up.

Dani shot me a butt out look. “It’s nothing—”

“Dani’s been deferred by Harvard, the only school she’s ever wanted to go to,” Cassie explained. “So she needs to get in a couple of extracurriculars here at Southview so she can lock it down, but it’s too late to join most of the clubs.”

The only school she’s ever wanted to go to.

I cleared my throat, forcing away the memory of how for the entire summer after fifth grade, Dani wore a bright red Harvard T-shirt almost every day.

I started to open the book I’d snagged, but Dani snatched it out of my hand.

“Hrznski didn’t even help, she just told her to play a spring sport, which is ridiculous, right?” Cassie made a face and said, “Like someone can just start a new sport their senior year.”

It pissed me off as I listened to Cassie talk about poor Dani, because I had zero choices regarding my education. It didn’t matter where I wanted to go to college, because unless something changed, it wasn’t the plan for next year. It was just assumed I’d play juniors or train over in Michigan.

And yes, it was a dream come true that I had these insane hockey opportunities, but no one had ever even asked what Iwanted. If I was being honest, I wanted to go to college next year like everyone else, so fucking badly. I wanted to study history, to get lost in old libraries and sleep in university dorms, but I felt like shit even thinking that, because how many guys would kill to be in my shoes?

Still, Dani complaining because she might not get to attend the Ivy League school of her dreams didn’t exactly have me bleeding sympathy.

“Regretting the unathleticism, Collins?” I asked. “Maybe you should’ve practiced skating instead of reading all the time.”

“And risk ending up an egomaniac with a stupid nickname? I’d rather go to community college, but thank you.”

Holy shitballs, there she is—the girl who used to play with me every summer.