The Hockey Captain's Secret Obsession Wasn't Me?! novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Too Loud to Study

At the library Mason's thoughts get so loud Lila snaps and walks out; Tori mentions Mason texted to ask if Lila is okay.

At six o'clock I was in the library, because Tori had hooked her arm through mine and would not let go.

"Stay," she said. "I'll be scared walking home alone later."

"Mason can walk you."

"He says tutoring me alone might start rumors. So it's both of us or neither."

I almost laughed.

How thoughtful of him, to protect the girl he liked from gossip.

But Tori gave me the big pleading eyes, and the scholarship office had already sent me one warning email, so I dropped into the chair.

Mason sat across from us at a corner table on the fourth floor.

He set out three notebooks, squared them against the edge, and tapped a worksheet with one finger.

"You both keep missing the same kind of problem. I made a packet of similar ones. Do the first page, then I'll go through them with you."

Free tutoring from a 3.9 was still free tutoring.

I shoved everything else out of my head and picked up a pen.

The first problem took me four minutes.

Then, quietly, his voice started.

[She has no idea I wrote this packet for her. Two all-nighters.]

[Watching her get better is the best part of my week.]

[Tomorrow's game. She'll come and cheer, right? I have to play well.]

I kept my eyes on the page.

[God, even her handwriting is cute. Everything about her is cute.]

My pen dug into the paper.

He was sitting two feet from me, writing love notes in his head to my best friend, while I sat here solving for x.

"I'm so stupid," I muttered. I had been stuck on question three for five minutes.

"You're not stupid," Mason said at once. "That one's a trap. Everybody misses it the first time."

I glanced up.

He had his head down over his own notebook, and his jaw was tight.

Tori beamed at him. "See? He's nice."

[Idiot. Don't be so obvious.]

The voice again, and then it got louder.

[She's frowning at the page again. I could lean over and help. No. Don't.]

[If she looks at me one more time I won't be able to think.]

Tori was humming over her own worksheet and had not looked at him once.

That made it worse.

I slapped my pen onto the table.

"You're so loud!"

Both of them stared at me.

Tori leaned in. "Lila. Are you okay? We're in the quiet section. There's just a cat outside every now and then."

My face went hot.

"I already know how to do these," I said. "You two keep working. I'm going to get some air."

I shoved my notebook into my bag and walked out before anyone could answer.

Outside it was cold enough to sting.

I paced the library steps and kicked a chunk of ice off the bottom one.

I had put a year of effort into Mason Doyle.

I knew he took his coffee black and hated mustard and wore the same gray scarf every game day.

Half his team knew I liked him, and the guys teased us about it, and he never said a word.

I had always thought that was just how he was.

Now I wondered if he simply didn't care enough to correct anyone.

The girl he wanted was somebody else.

The library doors opened, and Tori and Mason came out together.

"Done already?" I asked.

"It's too warm in there to focus," Mason said. He cleared his throat, which was not like him. "Studying works better when you're relaxed. We can stop for tonight."

I did not look at him. "Okay."

Tori hooked her arm through mine, and he trailed a step behind us.

[This is the worst. I spent two days on that packet and we barely touched it.]

[Why can't her best friend read the room?]

[Whatever. Without the tutoring, I don't have an excuse to be near her.]

I dug my earbuds out of my bag, pushed them in, and turned the music up until my ears hurt.

The voice dissolved into the music.

I didn't look back once.

I never even noticed where Mason turned off.

Tori and I took the elevator up together to the fourth floor of Pinewood Commons.

She lived across the hall from me, and the second we stepped out, she took my sleeve.

"What's going on with you? You've been weird since lunch."

I breathed in.

"I just suddenly envy you, a little."

She put a palm on my forehead. "No fever. Go to bed, you lunatic. Nate has his game tomorrow, remember? I need my best friend there."

Nate was Tori's crush, and he played winger on the same team Mason captained.

We both had a crush on a hockey player, and only one of us was going to be happy.

My phone buzzed. I took out my earbuds, and Tori's phone buzzed at the exact same second.

She read it, and her eyebrows went up.

"Huh. Mason says, 'Is Lila okay?'"

My heart did a stupid little jump.

Then I understood. He wasn't asking about me.

He was asking Tori about her friend, because that was the road to her.

"Tell him I'm fine," I said.

I went inside, locked my door, and lay in bed for hours, listening to nothing at all.

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