The Hockey Captain's Secret Obsession Wasn't Me?! novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Cafeteria, Tuesday

I ran for the coat room.

It was a narrow room behind the ballroom, packed with rows of black wool and cashmere, with one hanging bulb and a counter nobody was using.

I was inside for about four seconds before the door opened and shut behind me.

Mason stood with his back against it.

His tie was crooked, and his chest was moving fast.

"You heard me," I said.

"Yes."

"The shrimp."

"Yes."

"But I didn't say it. I didn't say anything."

"I know." His voice was rough. "I think you've been saying things to me since the cafeteria."

The little bulb swung on its cord, and the shadows moved on the coats.

"That Tuesday," he said. "At lunch. You looked at me, and you thought, 'Then say it to her face.'"

I put a hand on the counter.

"I asked 'Say what?' out loud," he said. "At the table. You told me nobody said anything."

"I thought I'd mumbled."

"I thought I was losing my mind."

"Then the library. 'I'm so stupid.'"

"You are not stupid."

"You said that, too."

"I know. I've been answering you for almost two weeks." He rubbed his face. "I thought it was just me. My own head, talking to me in your voice. It only came when you were upset, in pieces. The loud ones."

I thought back through all of it.

The diner. The rental skates.

I had thought, Please don't be nice to me, and he had said, Why wouldn't I be nice to you?

"You can hear me," I said. "You've been hearing me this whole time."

"And you can hear me?" he said, his voice cracking. "Is that how you found out about..."

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