Fake Skating(41)

I knew I couldn’t have heard her right. “Benji?”

To a hotel?

“Yeah, remember Benji Worthington, the kid who lived next door to us?” Hannah said it like it was hilarious, grinning as she told me that he’d been on the same flight and had offered them a ride.

Small world, right?

“That kid is so sweet,” she’d said, and I wanted to put my fist through a wall.

What a small fucking world.

I’d been so bummed that Dani hadn’t wanted to see me; it was like her refusal to come to the hospital made everything that was already horrible feel even worse.

And the idea of that jackass getting to see her brought it even lower.

But when I let Vinny drag me away from the hospital and to a party in White Bear later that night, and Benji was (of course) there, everything hit rock bottom.

“Zeus! I saw our old friend Dani today,” he said in that sniveling rich-boy accent that had nothing to do with geography and everything to do with the silver spoon that was jammed all the way up his ass. He’d grinned and pulled out his phone. “Check it out.”

I’d been so drained that fighting wasn’t on my mind.

At all.

I’d been interested to see what Dani looked like, honestly, even as I felt so damn disappointed in her.

But instead of showing me an awkward selfie of them at the airport where I could convince myself she looked like she hated him, it was a photo of just her.

Sitting in a chair, grinning up at the camera.

A chair I recognized as one we’d stolen from my dad’s shop.

Holy balls, she’d taken him to our spot.

She hadn’t come to the hospital to see me or my critically injured father, but she’d taken King Douche to our secret spot and was laughing with him.

It made me want to puke.

I’d kept my cool for another hour, but as soon as Benji started in on his shit—is it true your dad was drinking when he got in that crash?—I hit him.

Multiple times.

Knock it off, I told myself, leaning the back of my head against the wall and skipping to the next song as I tried to figure out my next move. Because no matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with anything better than Dani. More specifically, (fake) dating Dani.

I didn’t want to let her in, but I needed her, dammit.

“Screw it,” I said, pulling off my headphones and dialing the number my mom had given me in case I wanted to be nice and reach out.

While it rang, my mind went back to the locker room yet again.

How could someone’s neck smell so good?

“Hello?”

Something about her voice when she answered (I couldn’t believe she answered), the way she sounded tired, brought back memories that I didn’t want to remember.

“Hey, it’s Alec,” I said, realizing we’d never spoken on the phone before.

How is that even possible?

“Hey,” she said, and I was surprised she didn’t hang up or say something about the Benji incident earlier.

“Listen, I know you already said no,” I said, jumping right into it as I switched on the Bluetooth speaker next to my bed to its lowest volume, “but I’m wondering if you’d consider letting me try to change your mind.”

She sighed, but since it wasn’t a no, I kept going. “You can still reject me, but I’ve come up with more reasons why this might benefit you.”

“Have you?” she asked.

“I have,” I said. “Can I share them with you?”

“Okay,” she said.

Okay?“Wait—are you awake?”

“What?”

I said, “I’m worried maybe you’re sleeptalking or something, because you sound very agreeable.”

“I’m always agreeable. Now talk before I hang up.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and said, “So, for starters, I think you need to look at this in a pros-and-cons sort of way because I’m having a hard time coming up with any reasons why this would be a bad thing for you.”

“Of course you can’t,” she said. “Because why would any girl not want to be linked with Zeus the Hockey God?”

“I feel like you’re prejudiced against me for being athletic now,” I said, wondering offhandedly where she was in Mick’s house. Was she in bed, wherever that might be, or back down in the living room, where she’d been lost in studies when I showed up earlier?

I’d seen her through the window of the door, deep in thought with her eyes on her textbook and her bottom lip between her teeth.

I hated how pretty she was; I didn’t need that shit.

“Are you jealous—is that it?” I teased, hoping to soften her. Regardless of anything else, I needed her to be receptive to this. “We both used to be klutzes together, and now you’re left all alone…?”

I heard her cough something that sounded like a laugh, and it felt a little bit like a win.

“Believe me, I’m not jealous,” she said.

“Okay, so back to my outline. I’m going to give you reasons why this is a good thing for you. Number one—obviously—you get the extracurricular. You can be a hockey manager, which will get you the activity you need for Harvard. Since going to Harvard is very important to you, pretending to like someone to make it happen seems like a small sacrifice, don’t you think?”