Breakaway Read online

  “Of course,” she lies. “It’s a little boring here, don’t you think?” If possible, her smile gets bigger as she gives me the opening. “Maybe we could go back to your place?”

  The girl is ruthless with no shame, not even giving me a chance to take her opening before she forges forward. Her bleach blonde hair looks like it’s been dyed one too many times, but her big, round eyes are pretty. She’ll do for now.

  “Not my place, baby,” I say, laying it on thick. “Too far away,” I add the lie when she slightly frowns, thinking that she won’t have her way with me. Ha. “C’mon,” I stand, not bothering holding out my hand for her. That disappoints her, I can tell, but that’s not my concern. Bunnies are good for one thing with me, and I’m not about to waste any gentlemanly gestures to make her think otherwise.

  We find an empty room upstairs, and my first thought is that she definitely isn’t Presley. She’s thinner, almost too thin and her smile seems fake. Whatever. Let me get my fill and sleep the rest off. Some time later, I’m on my way home, not feeling completely satisfied, but happy enough for now.

  ~ ~ ~

  As promised, I’m making the guys’ lives hell. I can go on little sleep, that’s no problem. The boys should have known better than to stay out too late last night because ever since we lost to McCarthy, we’ve been having practice at 4:30 every morning for four hours. Four hours of relentless drills. For the most part, I just watch. I played well. They didn’t. So I skated around and barked orders, intervening here and there to play. It’s hard to watch and not to get in the action and play.

  Being the weekend, I don’t care what their plans are. We have two more practices later today. One at noon for three hours and one at six for three hours. Sunday will be our last day of hell-filled practices. Nichols has been giving me lip all morning, and he’s starting to piss me off. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately, but he needs to fix it and fast. It’s not going to do me any favors to have my own teammate talking back to their captain. One more time and I’m going to put him effectively in his place.

  He stays quiet enough and once practice is over, I decide to press my luck a bit. Jere is one of the last ones out of the locker room, and he is a few paces ahead of me.

  “Hey, Jere. Wait up.” I jog to catch up, and he smiles easily. “You did good today,” I say easing into things.

  “Thanks, Captain,” he grins. He’s a pretty easy going guy, and I’m assuming I’ll be able to get some information from him.

  “Marley seems nice,” I fumble, thinking talk of Marley will lead to talk of Presley. Her rejection last night only made me want her more and the anticipation of seeing the look on Trevor’s face is almost too much.

  “Yeah, she’s cool,” he shrugs. “Presley grilled ya last night, huh?” he chuckles.

  “She’s feisty, that’s for sure.” I don’t know how much I can say with Jere. We’re teammates, sure and I made sure to know everyone, but I’m not exactly close with him.

  “What did you do to her anyway?”

  It’s my turn to laugh. “Nothing. McCarthy and I go back a few years and we weren’t exactly friends. That’s her problem,” I clarify.

  He nods and there’s no time left to talk as we’ve stepped outside. “Hey, Marley is dragging me to a party over at JWU. Maybe you should come with us? That way I won’t be the only guy from the team with all of McCarthy’s guys there. I know the rules, but those guys,” he shakes his head. McCarthy’s team has lots of big guys and intimidation is their forte.

  “Sure.”

  We make arrangements and Jere’s going to drive us across town. Between practices, I grab a bite to eat each time and take a nap. I’m positive that I’ll be able to follow through with my plan, but Presley will need a little convincing. I’m sure of it.

  Jere and Marley are sitting in front while I’m in the back of Jere’s tiny car and wondering why the hell someone our size would want something so little to be crammed into for any length of time.

  “So, Levi, are you from NY?” Marley asks.

  “Yep. You?”

  “Yeah. You’re a chemistry major, right? How come?”

  “Just an interest of mine,” I say. To make sure she leaves it at that, I ask her a question. “Are you a hockey fan as well?”

  “Oh yeah. If it weren’t for Presley, probably not. She’s the one who introduced me to the game. Between her and Trevor, I was bound to become a fan. I’m a fan of the Blackhawks, though.”

  “That’s cool. How long have you two known one another?” I’m fishing for information, but I don’t think she’ll catch that. She seems too much of a talkative person to notice.

  “Since we were little kids. Her and Trev were always close and when he moved with their dad, she wasn’t happy about it. It was tough for her to adjust after always having him around and he didn’t have the easiest time at his new school either,” she finishes with a quick glare my way.

  “That was just petty high school stuff,” I shrug, letting the comment slide without a second thought.

  She barks out a laugh and opens her mouth to say something, but changes her mind. If I had to guess, she would say that the “petty high school stuff” carried over into college for me. Whatever. I feel justified, especially because of what happened after he took my captaincy. I’m not thinking about it today, though. I’m on a mission. I have every intention of succeeding, feeling even more confident when we find a place to park among the many vehicles.

  Not as if there were any other way to dress but simple, I’m wearing a dark pair of jeans and a white polo shirt. Nothing over the top, but nothing down in the dumps either. Marley leads the way and she obviously knows a lot of people at JWU. I was somewhat surprised when Jere picked her up from an apartment near our campus. A quick glance tells me that most of the people here are part of the hockey world at James Wayne, and they know that Jere and I are not.

  I see Presley before she sees us. She’s standing near an air hockey table, surrounded by her brother’s teammates while he and another guy play. Presley seems to be in her comfort zone and laughs when one of the guys bumps her shoulder and says something to her. We follow Marley further into the room as she makes her way to Presley, who catches sight of us.

  Her glances switch from Marley to me and back. I smile an all-knowing grin full of arrogance.

  “Pres, you see that?” Trevor asks with a quick look at his sister, who doesn’t even acknowledge him. Following her line of vision, Trevor looks over to see Jere and I as Marley left Jere’s side to go to Presley. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asks, causing everyone’s attention to turn to us.

  “Marley invited us,” Jere says easily.

  Trevor looks back at Marley, who says, “Sorry, Trev. They won’t be any trouble, I promise.”

  “We didn’t cause any trouble Friday with your girls, McCarthy. Isn’t that right, Presley?” I smile.

  Presley opens her mouth, but Trevor beats her to it. “What is he talking about, Presley?”

  Uh oh. Looks like little Miss Presley isn’t as close to Trevor as I thought to leave out where she was Friday. I can’t help but smirk at her while her eyes frantically move between her brother and myself. She straightens her shoulders, composing herself.

  “I was with Marley, Trevor. Get a grip. We just went to their after party since she’s dating Jere.”

  Everyone’s attention is on Presley, her twin, and me. The guys seem to squeeze even tighter as if forming a shield around her. They won’t be able to stop me from getting to her though. Trevor seems to be debating what to say so I speak up one last time.

  “I even got her home safely, McCarthy. Nothing to worry about with me.” I want so desperately to laugh, but I manage not to let it slip.

  Anger dominates Trevor’s features as he faces me. He steps forward and when he does, his teammates do as well. He closes the distance between us, and the laugh bubbles up again. He’s four inches shorter than me and I’m built more than he is. I�
�m not the least bit concerned, and McCarthy knows that.

  “Stay away from my sister, Carr. Don’t underestimate me.”

  Easy does it, I think as I raise my hands in surrender. “Take it easy, man. I just gave her a ride. That’s all. I was a gentleman, in fact. Wasn’t I,Pres?” I smile shortening her name as he did.

  “Get over yourself, Levi. Trevor, just leave it alone,” she says, pushing her way through the group of men and coming to stand beside her brother.

  “We aren’t here to cause any trouble,” Jere adds. “Just to hang out with Marley.”

  Trevor steps to the side and brushes against my shoulder as he walks past. A chuckle escapes, but Presley brings my attention back to her.

  “You’re an ass, you know that.” It’s all she says as she follows her brother to the other room.

  “Sorry about that, Jere,” Marley tells him, completely ignoring me. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t need Marley to like me. I hang with Jere and Marley, listening to their conversation and inputting here and there. Being the third wheel is a little awkward, but I don’t pay too much attention to it. Then I notice my favorite redhead stomping over to me. She snatches me by the arm and pulls me away from the throng of people.

  “Sneaking me away to make out already?”

  Her nails dig into my skin at my comment and she stops in a nearly empty hallway. She has me standing between the wall and herself. “What the hell are you doing here anyway, Levi?”

  “You’re not happy to see me?” I jut my bottom lip forward in a pout. Her eyes drop for just a second before she’s scolding me again.

  “Is it your life mission to mess with my brother and pursue me as a means to do that? Are you that pathetic that you have nothing better to do with your time? Do you actually think I would fall for that? What is yourproblem?” She shoves me backwards, but all it makes me do is rock on my heels. “Are you so affected by losing your captaincy inhigh school that you let it run your life? Are you that frivolous -”

  “You don’t know a damn thing about me, Presley, and I’m sick of you and your brother acting like you do. What part of ‘I’m not here to cause trouble’ did you not understand? Jere asked me to come and I did. Get overyourself,” I say as I hold my finger just an inch from her nose to point with accusation, “for thinking that I came all the way to this damn campus to pursueyou or annoy your brother.”

  I walk past her and out of the house, shoving people in my way. Presley can jump off her high horse anytime now. She pushed, and I reacted. Not as calmly as I wish, but whatever. The only thing running through my mind right now is what led me to behave exactly as Presley described and yeah, I am pissed that she called me out on it.

  I might be on the other side of town, and it might be dark, but I grew up in NY. It doesn’t bother me to walk all the way home. The thought of getting into a cab and being idle is annoying. I rather walk off my steam and hopefully, by the time I get home, Presley will be out of my head. Where does she get off thinking that everything I do is only because he took my captaincy? She doesn’t know what happened after that. No one here knows. If it bothers her that much that I can’t stand her brother, well, she can get over that.

  My fists clench and it seems like the more I walk, the angrier I get. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to follow through with my original plan. I don’t want to touch her with a ten foot pole, much less sleep with her. God, all she does is bitch and make snide comments. All. The. Time. I don’t think I’ve even seen her be nice. Okay, she did thank me for giving her a ride the other night, but that doesn’t count.

  Harper and Nichols aren’t home yet so I slam all the doors I walk through. To distract myself, I take an extra hot shower. Hot enough that my skin turns from tan to pink while I wash. The pellets of water beat against me, gliding through my thick blonde hair, down my neck, and dividing into two halves. One half routing down my collarbone and chest and the other falling easily down my broad shoulders further down my back. It’s soothing for a bit until I turn off the water and step out of the stall to dry off.

  I slip on a pair of gym shorts and fall into bed. Maybe I will cancel the practices for tomorrow because I surely don’t feel like going and possibly dealing with a smartass Nichols. I get comfortable by rolling onto my stomach after setting my alarm and deciding that I should follow through with my word. Surprisingly, within minutes, I fall asleep.

  ~ ~ ~

  We’re running through simple drills. Simple drills, okay? Nichols was loud as fuck when he got home last nightand he had a girl with him. That was strike one. He earned another strike when during a drill, he, for no good reason, knocked me into the glass barrier causing me to lose my balance because he effectively kicked a foot under me.

  I’m standing off to the side as they run through a play and Nichols keeps missing the passes, allowing the other team I divided us into to steal it away. Not once or twice or even three times. He turns the puck over five times.

  “Nichols,” I yell. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “It’s 5:30 in the morning, Levi. Cool it,” he snickers, looking to his left at one of the guys.

  There he goes again. Challenging me with his little comments. “Jere,” I call over my shoulders to the few guys that aren’t currently playing. “Take over for Nichols, will ya?”

  “Sure thing, Captain,” he says, skating onto the ice.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Carr?” Andrew asks, skating towards me. “He can’t take my place,” he points at Jere with his stick.

  “Last I checked, this ismyteam, Nichols. You can have a seat on the bench until you get your shit straight because you aren’t playing onmy team. Have a problem with it? Quit.” I’m fed up with him. Yes, we have been friends since we started here at Roxboro, but that doesn’t mean he gets any leniency when we’re on the ice. Here, I’m in charge and I will have respect. I look around at the guys, lingering on the one who was going to laugh with Andrew before I finish my sweep. “If any of you have a problem with my decisions on this team, feel free to join him on the bench. Otherwise, get back to work.”

  It takes everything within me not to smirk when they quickly get back to the play at hand. At the end of practice, I do call off the other two scheduled for today. I’m sure they got the point after this morning. Nichols stays scarce for the rest of the day and Harper comments.

  “Don’t worry too much about it, Levi,” he says as we chow down on a couple of subs. “He’s still pissed about Jere’s playing the other night.”

  “It was his fault Jere played to start with,” I start.

  “I know, but you know how he is. He gets pissed and goes with it.”

  “Yeah, but he’s pushing the buttons of the wrong person.”

  Gavin shrugs and asks how my adventure with Presley went.

  “Don’t get me started, Harper. That plan has sailed and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic. She’s so much worse than McCarthy.” I shake my head at the thought of her.

  Gavin chuckles and sips his drink, causing that annoying sound to rise from the bottom of the cup alerting that it’s empty. We gather our trash and return to the apartment. Gavin has to study for a test tomorrow and so do I. The last thing I want right now is to fail a test, and I have four between Monday and Tuesday. I won’t have much studying time after today.

  Nichols comes home late and makes a ruckus again. I hear Harper yelling at him to be quiet and decide that he can handle Andrew. Monday and Tuesday drags between schoolwork, tests, and hockey. It’s no wonder that I’m ready to get away for a bit. It’s almost six, and I call my favorite Bunny. Sunny and I have an understanding of sorts. Any time I need someone on my arm for an event, or if I just wanted to take someone out, I call her. I take her out for a good time, and thank her back at her place. She’s fun, has no expectations about us, and we always enjoy ourselves when we’re together, in and out of the bedroom.

  “It’s about time you called, Levi. I was beginning to think
you forgot about me,” she answers.

  “Oh, c’mon now, Sunny. You know you’re my favorite.”

  “I know,” she giggles and I can’t help but roll my eyes. “When do you need me to be ready? Where we going?”

  “I figured we’d catch a movie. I can be there in an hour.”

  “See ya then, Levi,” she drawls.

  I shake my head at her and head into the bathroom to shower. By the time I finish getting ready, I’ve got thirty minutes to spare and that’s plenty of time for me to drive over to Sunny’s. She’s always ready early so I have no problem heading over to her place. As expected, she’s locking her door when I pull up. Sunny is yet another blonde in my life of Bunnies with her hourglass figure. She has a bright personality and always seems to be wearing a tad too much make-up, giving a fake vibe. Overall, though, she’s pretty.

  She hoists herself into my SUV, leans over my console to place a peck on my cheek. “Long time, no see, Levi. Better treat me extra special tonight,” she laughs.

  Chuckling with her, I reply, “Don’t worry, Sunny. We’ll have a good time.”

  “What movie are we going to see?”

  “Whatever you want. I don’t really know what’s playing.”

  Her pretty little head bobs to the music playing in the background and the rest of the ride is quiet. There’s a cinema downtown and that’s where we go. A crowd is already outside and we’re standing a couple feet behind the group of people, looking at the showings. My arm is hanging loosely around Sunny’s waist while she looks over the movies, trying to decide. Meanwhile, my eyes are bouncing from head to head of the people in front of us when I look around and land on a pair of familiar faces.

  Presley and Marley are laughing as they walk over, only a couple of feet away. It seems they both notice me at the same time. Sunny picks a movie, bringing my attention back to her. No surprise that it’s a romance. I urge her forward with a little push on her lower back so I can buy our tickets.

  Chapter Four