He Slept With My Roommate, So I Moved In With the Hockey Captain novel · Chapter 3 of 32

Chapter 3: Open Skate

Kayla pities Maggie out loud at open skate, and Brody takes her hand in front of everyone.

Kayla's text came in on Thursday morning.

Open skate is tomorrow night. Cody and I really want you there. Let's show everyone we're okay!!

I read it twice and put the phone face down on the desk with the short leg.

"Don't answer that," Nate said from the doorway.

"I wasn't going to."

"You're going to go, though."

I looked at him.

"You've got that face," he said. "Same one my sister gets before she picks a fight with the bank."

"I don't pick fights."

"Sure." He leaned on the frame and ate a banana. "The rink hosts open skate every Friday. Free cocoa. Half the school comes. If you hide, they'll say you hid."

He was right, and I hated it.

So on Friday night I stood at the boards of the Northfield rink in rented skates, gripping the rail with both hands.

I had skated twice in my life, and both times I had ended up on my back.

The ice was crowded with first-years and couples and kids in snowsuits.

The team ran the rink for the night in practice jerseys, handing out cocoa and pulling beginners off the wall.

Brody was at center ice, doing slow backward laps beside a boy of about six.

I watched him longer than I needed to.

He skated the way he talked, with no wasted motion.

"Maggie!"

I knew that voice before I turned.

Kayla came through the gate at the far end in a white coat and a red scarf, holding Cody's hand.

She had put on lip gloss.

Cody had put on a clean shirt, and his shoulders were up around his ears.

People turned to watch them cross the ice. The phones had come out again, I noticed, just not as openly.

Kayla let go of Cody and came straight at me, arms out.

"Oh, babe," she said. "I've been so worried."

She hugged me. I stood stiff inside it.

She smelled like the vanilla body spray I had bought her for her birthday.

Then she stepped back and held both my hands, and she said it loudly enough for the whole rail to hear.

"I just want you to know, nobody is mad at you. You've been in such a dark place since the party, and we get it. It's hard when your best friend finds happiness first."

A girl near us stopped chewing her pretzel.

My face went hot.

Kayla tilted her head, so kind, so sorry.

"We're going to get through this together. I'll hold your hand the whole time."

She was making it sound as though I had been the one on the stairs with a cake and a crush, begging for a chance.

Which, to be fair, was true.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Of course you are." Kayla squeezed. "But if you need to talk, I'm here."

Behind her, Cody wouldn't look at me.

I opened my mouth, and nothing useful came out.

I had never once in my life been good at this part.

A skate scraped hard on ice beside me.

Brody stopped at the boards in a spray of snow.

He was breathing a little hard from his laps, and he didn't look at Kayla at all.

He looked at me.

"There you are," he said. "You're late, babe."

The word landed in the quiet.

He held out his glove.

"I told you to meet me at the gate. I've been out there ten minutes."

Kayla's hands loosened on mine.

I stared at the glove.

Maybe I should have asked what he was doing. Maybe I should have said no.

But he held it steady, and his eyes said one plain thing: Take it.

So I did.

He pulled me through the gate and onto the ice.

I wobbled for one second.

He caught my waist with his free hand, solid and warm through my sweater, and he did not let go.

"Don't look down," he said, close to my ear. "Look at me."

"I can't skate."

"I noticed. I've got you."

My feet slid. His hand stayed where it was.

Behind us, the rail had gone silent, and then it didn't.

Somebody whispered Captain.

Somebody whispered his girlfriend.

Kayla had stopped smiling.

She stood at the boards with her hand halfway to her scarf, and her face did something I had never seen it do, in three years of living with her.

It went completely blank.

Then she found a smile again, a small, thin one, and put it on.

"Brody?" she said.

She said it softly.

Brody turned his head.

"Kayla," he said.

His voice was flat and level.

My stomach turned over.

Because Kayla's eyes were not on me, or on the hand at my waist.

They were on his face, and she looked scared.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend