The bitter wind rushes over my skin, goosebumps rising along my arms under my thin sweatshirt as I hurry towards the coffee shop. The air is not as warm as it was a few weeks ago, seeing as it’s now the beginning of October.
I woke up this morning with the mother of all crinks in my neck. Half of my body was dangling off the couch because Oakley took up the whole thing. He woke up shortly after me and after some convincing, released me from his grasp long enough for the blood to rush back to my limbs.
He didn’t seem overly thrilled with me meeting Adam at the coffee shop after my classes, but he didn’t have a choice in the matter. It did little to stop him from spending an hour trying to convince me to stay in bed with him all day, though. I nearly gave in and was left with only twenty minutes to make it to my Addiction seminar.
At least Oakley was enough of a graceful loser to give me a hoodie to wear in the cold since me being me, left my apartment yesterday in nothing more than a long sleeve shirt and a pair of thin leggings. I can’t say I’m ready to walk the runway in a hoodie that reaches my knees, but I’m semi-warm.
I reach the coffee shop right on time and look through the glass window. Adam is sitting at our usual table with two white cups in front of him. The bell over the door jingles as I step through the door. Breathing in the smell and taste of strong coffee, I reach our table and pull my chair back. Adam’s head snaps up, the screech of the chair on the wood floor catching his attention. His lips stretch into a broad grin.
“One pumpkin spice latte for the lady.” He pushes the cup towards me and takes a sip of his plain black coffee.
I smile at him. “Thank you, kind sir. How was class?”
chair.
He rolls his eyes, blows out a loud huff and slumps back against his
Adam is studying kinesiology—which is a fancy way of saying that
he’s learning how the human body moves. I know he doesn’t plan to use his degree, however. I’m pretty sure he picked kinesiology as a giant “fuck you” to his dirt-bag dad.
“I was too hungover to pay attention to anything other than how painful Rackham’s voice ringing in my ears is. That woman’s voice is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, I swear.” He shivers dramatically, and I laugh—a little too loudly, apparently.
The devil herself, Beth Winston, shushes me from her nearby table. She pushes her round glasses up her small nose and shoots me a glare. If looks could kill, I would have died a long time ago.
I met Beth at the beginning of last year when I had just started at UBC. I was in this very same Starbucks. I tripped over my untied shoelace and spilled my cup of fresh, piping hot black coffee all over her light pink sweater. I apologized profusely, of course, and even offered to buy her a new sweater. But she wasn’t having any of it and shooed me away before stalking out of the coffee shop. She’s made her hatred of me very clear since.
To make matters worse, she’s had a crush on Adam since elementary school and hates me even more for being his best friend. According to Adam, they were somewhat close in high school. But she never got the hint, and eventually, he completely distanced himself from her.
I roll my eyes at her like the child I am and stick my tongue out. “Just ignore her, O,” Adam urges. “She’ll get over it eventually. It’s
not like you purposefully dumped your coffee on her last year.”
I shrug my shoulders and look away from her. I turn back to Adam and catch him watching her, an inquisitive expression on his face.
“She does seem to have gotten hotter over the summer break, though. In a sexy nerd kind of way, eh?” Adam adds, cocking his head to the side as he stares.
I roll my eyes and look back over at Beth. He’s not totally wrong. The waist long, unruly brown curls that used to fall in her face have been cut and straightened, left to rest at the base of her neck. Her defined cheekbones and large chest seem…new—probably a courtesy of her rich
father. The only thing that seems to have stayed the same are her piercing blue eyes.
“Don’t even think about it. You’ve done enough damage to the girl.
Plus she’s pure evil.”
He turns back to me, shrugging. “I was just saying Beth didn’t use to be that hot. Anyway, how were your classes? You had your Addiction seminar today, right?”
I groan in response and he snickers, “That good, hey?”
I nod and slump in my chair. “It was brutal. This year might kill me. To think I still have two years of this torture makes my head hurt. If that isn’t bad enough, I have to start looking for somewhere to do my placement next year.”
After I graduate with my Bachelors in Social Work, I’m taking an extra two years to specialize in child welfare, which means that on top of the two years of schooling, I also have to find myself a placement in one of the specialties to go along with child welfare.
If I don’t, I won’t be able to graduate.
“Have you decided what you wanna do? You still have a while to figure it out. Stop stressing,” he reassures me, knowing how in my head I can get. It’s a blessing and an even bigger curse.
“I’m leaning towards child services but I also want to work with teens. I just want to make sure that I get the spot I want and not procrastinate.” I stop to narrow my eyes at him, then continue, “Or by my luck, I’ll end up with the only one I don’t want.”
Adam places a hand on his heart and looks as if I’ve hurt his feelings. “Uncalled for, O. I never procrastinate,” he says, and another loud laugh escapes.
Without preamble, Beth shushes me again.
Fed up, I turn and give her the finger. She scowls.
“Your mouth is going to get stuck in a permanent scowl if you don’t sometimes smile, Beth,” I sing. I can practically see clouds of dark grey smoke shooting from her ears.
“I’d rather have a permanent scowl on my face than have to look like you, Octavia,” she shoots back.
I bite my cheek when Adam snickers, trying desperately to hold back his laughter.
“Are you sure about that? Cause if you looked like me, it would be you sitting here with Adam. We both know how badly you want that.”
Adam’s loud laughter cuts through the tension like a knife.
I watch as her anger is quickly replaced by fake glee as she turns her attention to him. “Oh! Hi, Adam,” she gushes. “I didn’t see you there. You know there’s an empty seat beside me, right? You don’t have to sit beside her.”
His laughter stops immediately at her sneering tone, and his eyes narrow. “You do know I got here before you, right? I didn’t see you making any move to sit beside me. Lay off of Ava,” he snaps, then raises an eyebrow at me. “Are you ready to go? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” I stand up from the table and throw my empty coffee cup in the trash bin on our way out.
Once we get into his shiny Mustang, he sighs. He turns to face me and takes a deep breath, fiddling with the steering wheel.
“I’m sorry for how I treated you the other night. You were upset and I was a total douche bag.”
“It’s okay. I just don’t understand what the big deal was with me telling Oakley,” I confess. His attitude has been bothering me since, in all honesty. “I hadn’t even told him the whole story when he decided to come back.”
Adam can be the most confusing guy, sometimes. I swear he PMS’s more than I do. Ever since David and I broke up, he’s been keeping a constant watchful eye on me. And as much as I appreciate it, it gets incredibly annoying sometimes.
“We know nothing about the guy other than he’s a fantastic hockey player and moved from Penticton. Do you even know anything else about him? Or does he just know all about you? I don’t want you to get hurt again, O.”
Adam’s words hurt because as much as I don’t want to believe them, I know that they’re right.
How can Oakley expect me to show him every skeleton in my closet when I haven’t seen a single one in his? I know they’re there. I’ve seen the sadness in his eyes and how bad his knuckles looked last night.
“I just want you to be careful, Ava,” he whispers and squeezes my
hand.
“I know. Thank you. Can you drive me home? I have a lot of homework to finish before your game.” It’s not a total lie. I do have homework to do, just not tonight.
“Yeah, sure. I love you, O.” He gives my hand one final squeeze before starting the car.
“I love you too, A.”
 |
“I’m home, Morgan!” I shout, closing the door behind me.
“Hey, girlie! How was class?” she calls from the kitchen. I join her next to the stove as she stirs something in that looks kind of like macaroni?
“Don’t wanna talk about it. What are you cooking? It looks…interesting.” I scrunch up my nose and turn to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. I twist off the cap and take a sip.
“That good? And Hamburger-Helper, are you hungry?”
“Obviously. And no thanks. As much as I would love some of that, Adam and I already ate.”
“Oh, okay. More for me!” Morgan exclaims, grinning.
I sneak away and speed walk to my room. I pull out my phone and send Oakley a quick text about Morgan poisoning me with her cooking.
I set my phone down on my dresser, swap yesterday’s leggings with clean ones and leave Oakley’s sweater underneath Adam’s jersey. My phone buzzes while I’m throwing my hair up into a ponytail. I can’t help but giggle at Oakley’s reply.
“The horror. Can I drop by on my way to the rink? I have something for you.”
My brow cocks as I reply.
“You have no idea. And of course. I’ll be waiting.”
 |
Half an hour later, there’s a knock on the door. I spring off the couch and launch myself at the door. Opening it, I look up at Oakley with a wide grin. He grins back at me and lifts me off of my feet, making me giggle.
“You look beautiful,” he murmurs and gives me a quick kiss. I jerk my head towards the living room and point at the couch. “You wanna sit down for a minute?”
When I don’t get a response, I turn to face him again.
“Are the only clothes you own Adam’s?” he grumbles, glaring at the
“I’m wearing your sweater underneath! This is the only jersey I have,” I explain, raising my eyebrows in bemusement.
“Not anymore.” He reaches into the bag hanging from his shoulder and pulls out a black and red Saints jersey. He hands it to me with a smile. “Now, you can wear mine.”
My cheeks flush as I take it from him. “Thank you,” I manage to mumble.
“Promise me you’ll wear it? I need to see my girl in my jersey in the stands or I might lose the game.”
“I promise,” I assure him with a nod as his phone rings.
He mutters a curse and glances back at me. “I gotta go before Coach benches me. I’ll see you there, baby.” He pulls me into another hug and places a kiss on my forehead.
“I’ll be screaming your name from the stands,” I tease.
“That’s not the only place you’ll be screaming my name, sweetheart.”
I roll my eyes and, with a final goodbye, close the door behind him.
