Sparkling hope, p.9
Sparkling Hope, page 9
Weston
It was uncomfortable for me, and Luna noticed that immediately.
You could usually tell from her facial expression what was happening in her little head and what she was thinking. Based on her skeptical expression and her raised eyebrows let me know that she wasn’t too thrilled about it.
The tip of her nose and cheeks were slightly pink, and I saw a delicate glittery gold hue on her eyelids. Her thick eyelashes were so long that they almost touched her eyebrows.
Why was I starting to study her face? This must look really silly.
"Can’t you see I’m working?" She brought me out of my thoughts with that.
I would love to reply: Of course, I see that, and I don’t really care.
Before I could get a sentence past my lips, she turned her attention to the entire tray and walked past me toward the counter. I couldn’t even blame her for not wanting to talk to me.
She hasn’t spoken a single word to me since Wednesday and didn’t give me a glance or a brief eye contact.
Nothing.
As if I was air. Nothing more than air. I didn’t like that she ignored me like that, but it was my own fault, and I had to fix it somehow, but I didn’t quite know how yet because I’ve never apologized to a girl. Luna and I had talked briefly in the morning, only the most necessary things, but at least more than now.
Sometimes she had even indirectly tried to steer the conversation to ice hockey to allow me to tell my father about the training.
She didn’t do that anymore.
My father didn’t think it was terrible.
No unnecessary information that he had to listen to in the evening, as he always said. Everything interested him more except my sport and my performance in ice hockey. Even that Camilla was drinking a coffee in town and suddenly bit on a coffee bean interested him more.
A shitty coffee bean.
"Captain Bad-tempered is finally here. Did you get lost or what?" Henry greeted me, with Aria sitting on his lap and an arm around his neck.
"Shut the fuck up, and don’t call me that," I retorted, taking half of his bagel and biting into it.
"You’re a pervert," I chewed on the bitten-off piece of bagel and felt the spiciness spread across my tongue with the mix of avocado.
"Mustard with avocado is like a good porn. Enjoyable and leaves you wanting more," he laughed, and Aria shook her head.
The two portrayed their relationship as a fuck friendship, but I’m just waiting for them to announce their official relationship.
"What did you want from Luna?" asked Trevor, nodding toward Luna, who was just standing behind the bar talking to Landon and laughing so hard.
I still thought Landon sucked.
I’d bet that guy jerked off at least once because of her, the way he looked at Luna. When I watched a little longer, the funny thing about it was that Luna was absolutely not into how he was flirting with her.
He was definitely flirting.
"Stop looking at her like that," Carter whispered, nudging me with his elbow.
I cleared my throat and looked at Trevor, who was still waiting for my answer to his question.
"Oh, uh, it was just something about dinner tonight," I lied so severely I was sure that bad lie was oozing out of my pores.
Dinner tonight? That was a shitty lie.
Trevor looked at me confused but didn’t ask further. Aria smirked and rolled her eyes before getting up and walking over to the two, still laughing.
I hoped she had some taste and won’t give him what this guy wanted.
"Dude, stop," Carter rammed his elbow against my crossed arm again.
Only now did I realize that Luna wasn’t even standing next to Landon anymore, but behind Henry, and I was staring at that ass the whole time.
He looked at me stupidly with raised eyebrows, and I turned away. Not a dollar would he ever get as a tip from me. I’d rather throw that dollar down the drain.
This was probably some real smart-ass who searched newspapers and magazines for spelling mistakes and then wrote to the companies to point them out.
I turned my gaze to my friends and watched Henry, who rummaged out of his sports bag something that, according to the colors, had been our jersey.
What was he doing with that here in the café?
"You’re awesome. Now we can cheer for you at the game later," Aria gloated like a little kid as she unfolded a Jersey, and in capital letters, SINCLAIR and his number thirty-four decorated the back of the Jersey.
"Just for you, baby," Henry replied, receiving a kiss on the lips from Aria.
In what fuck friendship manual did it say to act like a kitschy high school couple?
"Now we’re your two exclusive supporters in the bleachers with your number," Aria smiled.
Henry grinned and exchanged glances with Charles. Carter next to me also bit his lip slightly to stifle a smirk.
I understood absolutely nothing and didn’t bother to understand any of it because I wasn’t in the mood, and Trevor didn’t understand their looks too.
Aria had also handed Luna her red and blue jersey, and when she unfolded it, she immediately exchanged glances with Aria, who then looked at the jersey.
"Oh," Aria crossed her head and switched her gaze between the two jerseys.
"Thank you," Luna called out to Henry, smiling intimidatingly before looking at me.
I hated to admit it, but I was interested in what was on her jersey that she wasn’t happy about. Before I could ask, Charles nearly panicked as he looked at his smartphone.
"Come on, you pussy lovers. Get your well-toned asses to the
arena."
The arena was full. Like really full.
Just about every seat was taken. Everyone was wearing red and blue clothes or jerseys of our team.
That feeling was insane, knowing that all those people were there because of us as a team, cheering us on. We would bring home the win today for us and all those in the arena.
The male voice of the announcer started to tell a few facts about our team before calling my name after Charles.
"Back number eleven, Weston Sinclair, center forward and assistant captain for the Eastburgh Devils," he enumerated the information about me as a hockey player, and I slid my skates on the freshly polished ice for the first time after warm-up practice while golden rain went off at the entrance.
I slid across the ice and made a sharp stop at the blue line separating the neutral zone from the other team’s offensive zone, the Vancouver Falcons.
Who was perfectly arranged like birds on a branch on the other blue line?
The entire team was on the ice, and after a few minutes, some left the ice again. Five stayed there and Henry skated toward the goal.
Coach Henderson stood behind the bench, and we watched as the game started.
"Look who’s here," Carter leaned toward me and pointed to Aria and Luna, who were just a few feet from the partition separated by Plexiglas.
I turned my gaze to the two of them, and Aria waved at us or at Henry while Luna, with her back turned to us, talked to someone in the back row.
God, she looked beautiful.
She wore her hair down, gold creoles adorned her ears, and when I saw the back of her jersey, I realized the problem had been in the café. Her jersey had the name SINCLAIR on it, but not Henry’s number like Aria’s.
It was my number.
Number eleven.
Chapter Seventeen
Luna
The game was over, and the Eastburgh Devils narrowly won the home game. It was quite a head-to-head race as the Vancouver Falcons played pretty aggressively and tried to unfairly hurt everyone on the Devils team and didn’t even get a penalty.
Henry got a bat under his helmet and was taken off the ice for a short time to get his lip patched up.
I wondered if Weston noticed I was wearing a jersey with his number. I would have preferred not to wear the Devil’s jersey after Aria, and I compared back numbers in the café, and my jersey had the number eleven on it.
I would have preferred any jersey.
It doesn’t change that I was mad at Weston, even when he tried to talk to me in the café.
The only reason I wore a Jersey was Aria; otherwise, I would have just gone in our college sweater.
After all, the sweater had the same colors as the jerseys.
Once we got home to the Sinclairs, Aria and I were the only ones there. All the lights were off, and it had been too quiet for anyone else to be in the house. No car was in the large driveway, which further supported my suspicions.
My best friend was here for the first time, and she was fascinated based on her expression.
Because she looked just like I did when I first got here.
"Holy shit. I think I’m dreaming," Aria looked around the ample space where the living room and dining room were, and around the corner was the kitchen.
"Two-hundred dollars for such an ugly piece?" she whispered, putting the really ugly figure back in its place.
"This house is full of pieces like that." I got two glasses from the kitchen cabinet to pour Aria’s mixed drink, which she had brought.
We walked up the wood-covered stairs to the landing and entered the guest room filled with my things.
"Did you know that my Jersey had a different number on it?" I asked her the question I had wanted to ask her all along.
The looks Henry, Carter, and Charles were giving each other in the café were very suspicious.
So was Aria’s giggle.
"I swear on my jam cookie secret recipe that I knew nothing about it. I didn’t even know Henry could organize some for us."
I snorted and placed the jersey on the rail of the bed.
"I got the idea for the Jerseys so spontaneously after having sex with Henry in his Jeep. I would say after sex, I always have the best ideas," she laughed.
"Okay, enough information," I rolled my eyes and flipped her off with a shirt that was within my reach.
When I spent time with Aria, it felt like I was constantly listening to a song and realizing from the first moment that I would never get bored of it. As if that song would always be my favorite.
Our first encounter was pretty funny. I had bought cocoa at the coffee shop where she worked before college, and when I paid, she arrived from the back room with the same hat on her head as me. A white crocheted hat with a pom-pom and red hearts.
From that day on, we were inseparable and still are.
Aria has been in college as long as I have, but she knew the campus and the team much longer because she was Coach Henderson’s daughter and has had the whole team sitting in her living room once or twice a week.
"Here’s your costume," Aria tossed me a few packets containing the individual pieces for my costume.
Music was playing on the side at a comfortable volume so we could still talk while we got ready.
I sat in front of the big mirror and did a little makeup with red eyeliner, red lipstick, and mascara after curling my brown hair with a curling iron and putting on a hairband with red horns that shine.
"Luna, do you have hairspray? Mine is empty," Aria tried to spray some more from her bottle of hairspray, but nothing but the sound of gas came out.
I already had the red tulle skirt and only my red lace bra on because I was afraid I would get my red long-sleeve shirt dirty while doing my makeup.
"Yeah, wait a second." I got up and walked through the mess Aria and I made in the room.
When I went to open the bathroom door, I realized it was locked from the inside, and as I listened with my ear to the door, I heard the splash of the shower head turning on.
Weston was already home by now.
I wasn’t surprised that Aria and I didn’t notice Weston coming home because the walls were so thick that sometimes I thought metal plates had been installed.
"Seems like he’s home by now."
"Who?" asked Aria as she pulled white eyeliner on her eye, matching the color of her costume.
"Who do you think? Weston, asshole number one. He seems to be trying to shower off his huge ego." I sat back in front of the mirror, started applying the red glitter to my cheeks, and humming along to the song.
A few minutes passed, and I heard the door from the bathroom to my room being unlocked again.
So I ran to the door and opened it.
The bathroom mirror was fogged up, and the smell of mint rose into my nose.
But the real shock was Weston standing before me, soaking wet and only wearing a towel around his waist, while I stood in front of him in my bra and tulle skirt.
"Fuck. What are you doing here?" I held my hands before my torso and gulped when I saw him standing there.
"Uh, I live here, and I’m allowed to shower. After all, you’re the one who’s nested here like a fucking virus," he grumbled, not breaking eye contact.
"I need my hairspray."
"Then go get it," he leaned against the wall in front of the bathroom cabinet, blocking my way.
"Stop playing games. I’m not in the mood for that kind of thing. I just want the hairspray, Weston."
"Not until you listen to what I have to say."
"Over my dead body."
An ugly grin formed on Weston’s lips which made me angry.
"You know you look silly in that costume, right?"
"Save your bullshit comments. We’re done with each other. You really got your brain fucked out, you know that?" On the vanity, I saw another hairspray I assigned as Weston’s.
"I must have so much brain left that I can at least tell you that you look stupid in your strawberry costume."
"That’s a devil costume, you idiot." Without saying anything else, I grabbed the hairspray from Weston and left the bathroom.
I purred my shoes off while Aria came down the stairs.
"Henry’s here," she gloated as the horn honked outside.
"I’ll go out ahead and show him my costume," she dug her lip gloss out of her bag to apply to her lips in front of the mirror in the hallway.
"Take your time," she bellowed as she headed for the front door.
"Can you try not to tear your clothes off?" shouted Weston to Aria, standing in the kitchen, sitting on one of the bar stools and typing away on his cell phone.
"You’d better hurry up then," was the only other thing I heard before the front door slammed into the lock.
Ever since Aria had told me about their fuck friendship, the two of them had been acting like a cheesy high school couple. But anyone with eyes in their head and a functioning brain saw that there was definitely more going on between the two than just a fuck friendship.
"What are you going as? As a male whore? Then you’re ready to go. All that’s missing is a hickey," I asked Weston.
"You can give me that one if you like, Hazel Bug."
"Dream on."
I rolled my eyes and walked out the front door to Henry and Aria with a red zip hoodie in my hands.
That was enough talking and enough that we had to sit in the same car the drive there.
Chapter Eighteen
Luna
There was no car ride in which we sat together in the same car because Weston suddenly didn’t go with us. He only told Henry by a message that he still had to do something and would later drive on his own or look for another ride.
This only had its advantages because I didn’t have to sit next to him and had a back seat all to myself.
Henry’s love language was definitely physical touch.
Because somehow he always had to touch Aria, whether it was his hand resting on her thigh or the two of them holding hands while he shifted gears. Sometimes even just their little pinky touched.
Henry could have strapped Weston to the car if he’d gone with him.
The car ride to the Halloween party already put us in a party mood as we listened at total volume to one of Henry’s many playlists, this time one with songs from the 2000s.
While he focused on the traffic, Aria and I loudly yelled the lyrics to the songs that filled the car.
The bass was so intense and loud on some songs that I could feel it in my chest, and I felt like my heart would slide down my torso any second.
The abandoned diner was far on the outskirts of Eastburgh, and the closer we got to the Sigma Devils, the more cars parked close together on the sides of the road to the left and right.
The place before the Sigma Devils laid out with pebbles, where Henry caught the last parking bay while the people stood distributed before the Sigma Devils.
In fact, everyone in front of the diner was dressed up because, as Aria told me the other day, you only get the stamp if you really are dressed up.
It was going to be a memorable night.
Something was always happening.
At the beginning of college, Aria and I were invited to one of our first frat parties, and the next day the TV was missing, and there was a raccoon in the guest bathroom.
To this day, the TV has not been recovered, and the raccoon lived there for a few more days until the chamber hunter arrived.
The right place, the right people, and of course, the right music made a lot of difference.
The Sigma Devils was decorated from the outside with colorful strings of lights in small bulbs that glowed in blue, green, purple, and orange. Through the windows, you could see into the diner, where some people were already sitting.
On the columns from the entrance hung strings of lights that flickered red and blue and spider webs where tiny black plastic spiders hung inside.
We pushed through the crowd of people playing beer pong, smoking, or dancing to the music in front of the old diner.
Carter made a shrill noise as he put his fingers between his lips and waved at us.
For the first time, I saw what Carter and Charles were dressed up as, and from their looks, you could tell how much they liked it.
Enjoyed being looked at by the girls and almost undressed.
