Fake Skating(39)

Talk about landing on everyone’s radar in the very worst way.

The new girl is dating Zeus? Ew.

And eventually, when he didn’t need the alliance anymore and fake dumped me, I’d be left alone to deal with whatever my undeserved tattered reputation might look like.

“Don’t shut it down without considering it first,” he said with narrowed eyes, like he found my reaction to be ridiculous.

He was ridiculous.

And then he said, “Keep in mind that regardless of what we do, people are going to hear about what the coaches thought they saw earlier. So do you want the rumor to be about two people who barely know each other, or two people with history who might be reconnecting?”

I wanted to hit him. I wasn’t a violent person, but I wanted to hit him for saying something I hadn’t considered, for speaking out loud something that was a freaking nightmare.

People were going to be talking about me tomorrow, about me and Alec in the locker room together.

I knew he was right, but I was too mad to give in.

“Listen,” I said, my throat tight because everything was going south at Southview so freaking fast. “It sucks that you’re having to face the consequences of your actions, but I’m passing on this opportunity.”

He squinted a little more, looking like he was trying to see in the dark as he glared at me. “You’re not at all interested in helping when it might actually help you, too?”

“Nope,” I bit out, glaring back at him.

“Harvard isn’t worth a tiny little favor to you?” he asked.

“Not even a tiny little bit,” I replied, overwhelmed by the stress of what tomorrow was going to look like at school.

“Wow,” he said, his lips turning up in a mean smile as he gave his head a slow shake. “Some things never change.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, because I’d alwaysbeen Team Alec until I couldn’t be anymore because he’d disappeared.

“Just that I thought maybe this one time you could think of someone other than yourself, maybe like a cool new thing for you to try out, but obviously I was wrong.”

“You cannot be serious.” Was the guy who’d ghosted me after a lifetime of friendship actually calling mean asshole? “You’re saying Idon’t think of anyone but myself?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said, his voice rising. “I guess I expected—”

“Yes, you expected me to drop to my knees and do whatever you asked because now you’re Zeus the Hockey God,” I said, standing up. “It’s late and I need to study, so maybe you should go find someone else to pretend to be your girlfriend. I mean, it seems like the ladies line up to be on Zeus’s radar, so it shouldn’t be hard—”

“You don’t have to be an asshole,” he said, rising to his feet.

“I don’t? Because it seems to me that you’ve been an asshole since the second I got to Southview for no good reason. If the big hockey star doesn’t want to be friends with his old nerdy buddy, that’s totally fine—I don’t want to be friends with you, either—but don’t act like I’m a jerk when you’re the jerk.”

Just then, there was yet another knock.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” I muttered under my breath, because who else could possibly be dropping by this late on a weeknight? I walked over to the door and was shocked when I pulled it open and there was Benji.

“Hey…?” I said, surprised to see him because I hadn’t seen him since the day we moved in and also why the heck would he stop by when we weren’t even friends and Grandpa Mick hated him? Also, it’s ten o’clock at night! “What’s up, Benji?”

“I saw the lights on and I’m about to go on a food run, so I wondered—oh, hey, Zeus,” he said, looking around me with a big smile. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“You didn’t see my car?” Alec said, and his voice was so tense it made me turn around. “Really?”

And he was glaring at Benji. Not with the mild distaste he used to have for my grandpa’s annoying little next-door neighbor, but glaring like he wanted to annihilate him.

“Now that you mention it,” Benji said with a creepily huge grin, “I guess I did see a rust bucket in the drive.”

“Listen, um, Benji,” I said, having no idea what this tension was but not in the mood for it. “I really appreciate—”

“Bye, Ben,” Alec said, suddenly standing beside me.

“Alec,”I said, looking up at him in disbelief.

“Well…? Are you hungry, Collins?” he asked abruptly, angrily.

“Um, no…?” I answered, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“She’s not hungry, you fuck, so get the hell out of here,” Alec said to Benji, reaching for the door, looking like he was going to take it off its hinges with a slam.

“Alec,”I said in disbelief. “What are you—”

“Is he bothering you, Dani?” Benji asked me with a face full of fake concern. “Because if he is, I can—”

“You’re both bothering me,” I interrupted, having no idea what was going on with this angry machismo. “Thanks but no thank you on the food, Benji, and I think we’re done here, Alec.”