Fake Skating(92)

I hustled back to my filming spot and hoped for the best.

“That was fast. How’d it go?” Cassie asked as I sat down beside her.

“I chickened out,” I said, forcing myself not to look up in their direction. “Didn’t even talk to him.”

Just then the guys came back out, and the second I saw number seven, I stopped thinking about my dad altogether. Because when the game started back up, it was no less intense than before. Edina scored almost immediately, but a minute later, thank God, Richie sent one into the goal and evened the score. I was screaming as I watched Alec’s stick go up, and he skated over in celebration.

After that, things got even more physical. Alec totally slammed Edina’s number six face-first into the boards and got sent to the penalty box for the hit, but as the Edina fans heckled him through the glass, he grinned like he found them to be adorable.

Dear God, he was cocky in the hottest way.

We scored again—Kyle this time—but Edina followed up with their own goal.

I never would’ve imagined a hockey game could be this terribly, horribly riveting.

I was losing my voice from all the screaming, especially when Alec scored a goal three seconds before the period ended.

Cassie knocked over the camera when she shot out of her seat, and we started jumping up and down together, hugging and screaming, and I didn’t even lean down to pick it up until after I got to see Alec be surrounded by his teammates, and then they did a chest-bump-the-plexiglass thing in front of the rabid student section, and the crowd lost their minds.

My throat was tight, my heart was full—I was in jeopardy of bursting into happy tears as I watched them leave the ice, energized by their sudden lead.

I didn’t move from my seat during the intermission this time because I didn’t want to see that—with my parents—again.

Watching the Zamboni and stressing over the game sounded like a lot more fun.

All thoughts of my parents vanished when the guys came back out. I hit play and focused on Alec—as always—watching his face as he got ready for the third and final period.

It took all of thirty-three seconds for Southview to score. Kyle got the rebound on a shot from Richie on a two-on-two breakaway, which meant Cassie and I nearly broke the camera again, jumping and screaming.

After that, I couldn’t sit still because the clock seemed to be moving way too slowly. Yes, we were up by one, but Edina was way too good for that to be a comfortable lead. I clapped and yelled random nonsense that no one but me could hear or understand, and then with a minute left in the period, the entire crowd started counting down the seconds until… five, four, three, two… one!

“Oh my God!” I screamed, leaping to my feet.

“Holy shit!” Cassie shouted, hugging the custodian who was standing beside her.

The buzzer sounded and it was over.

We were going to the X!

“Oh my God!” Cassie yelled in my ear as she hugged me and we freaked out with the rest of the arena. I was screaming and crying and jumping, but my eyes were stuck on Alec and the team.

It was happening—we made the tournament.

I could barely see through the happy tears as the team piled on top of each other in front of the student section, and as I stood there with Cassie, watching the celebration, I knew that nothing was fake. As hard as I’d tried to create a separation, every single thing was real.

This team, Cassie, the Doug, Southview—I was obsessed with everything in this moment, not as a person using them as a backdrop for a ruse, but as a person who truly and genuinely wanted to be a part of all of it.

“You’re so happy!” Cassie said as she looked at my teary face, shaking her head. “Look at you!”

And she pulled me into a hug that made me happy-cry even harder.

I glanced up at the bleachers as she hugged me, and I saw my dad standing by the mural, talking to Big John.

Holy shit, he’s talking to Big John.

The few times I remembered my dad ever coming with us to Minnesota, quick little trips for weddings and graduations (never the monthlong summer vacation), he’d always been okay with John. I wouldn’t say he liked him, but they’d always gotten along.

So had they justconnected that minute, or did my mom already know my dad was there? I quickly checked my phone after Cassie let go of me, and the lack of messaging from my mom—and him—assured me she’d had yet to encounter my father.

But shit, shit, shit, it was only a matter of time.

“Girls!”

The trophy came out, and Coach Oz yelled for us to come onto the ice for pictures.

Apparently, team managers really were part of the team.

I swallowed and went out with Cassie, laughing with her while something in my chest burned with a warmth that felt like it had to glow,it was so intense. Because this photo was going to be in the yearbook, maybe on the mural, and my time at Southview was going to be forever notleft behind.

I followed Cassie onto the ice as some adult yelled instructions, trying to get the team to line up for photos, but when my eyes met Alec’s, the dark brown eyes of the best friend I was so fucking proud of, it was over.

I ran at him and his big arms caught me, holding me against him in the tightest hug.

“You did it,” I said, the tears back yet again. “That was amazing, Barczewski.”

“Thanks,” he said, and when he pulled back, I loved how huge his grin was. That was the smile of my old friend, the full-on beam of the happiest boy I’d ever known.