Hockey With Benefits(38)

“Did they come with you?”

He winced, motioning inside. “Miller’s here.”

I cursed, swinging open the door and marched in. Susan was in a back booth, and she perked up when she spotted me. Her hand went up until she saw my face, and she lowered it as I marched over near her, but not to her. I felt Leander trailing behind me. Gavin and two other guys were in a separate booth. I motioned at Gavin. “Out.”

He raised an eyebrow. Scooting back, he rested his arm across the back of the booth and motioned to me with his drink in hand. “Good morning to you too.”

“Get out.”

“Uh, Mara?” I heard Susan behind me. Her voice was so small.

Leander had turned to look at her instead. “Hey, I know you.”

“I ran your orientation club.”

“Yeah! Sarah, right?”

“Susan.”

“Susan. That’s right. I’m so happy you remembered me.”

“I–”

I could work with this. “Leander.”

He frowned at me.

I motioned to Susan. “We were going to have breakfast with Susan this morning, but how about you go on ahead without me?” I gave Gavin a dark look. “I’ll handle this guy instead.”

“Uh, you said–”

I held up a fifty-dollar bill, and he whisked it out of my hands. “Thank you very much. Susan, what would you like? On me?”

“Oh. I’ll go with you.”

She moved behind me, pausing just briefly to say under her breath, “Thank you.”

I nodded, waiting until they were up at the counter. “Can we at least go somewhere else?”

Gavin was studying me with narrowed eyes before sliding them to where Leander and Susan were, but he nodded, one long up and down motion. “Sure, Daniels. Anything for you.” He motioned for the guys. “See you guys.”

Both waved as Gavin got up and I felt him following me out of the coffee place. Susan gave me a little grin before moving closer to Leander, which Gavin also caught. He waited until we were outside before saying, “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Daniel–”

“Leave it alone. My God.”

He stopped walking. “You know what? Enough of this shit. You were weird at laser tag. You don’t respond to my texts and now you’re just snapping all the time. You’re not that fun and you used to be fun. I don’t think I want to be friends with you anymore.”

Oh… I shrugged and kept going. “Okay.”

I got three steps before, “Are you kidding me?”

I kept walking. I had an hour before class, and still needed coffee, so I veered toward the food courts.

“Daniels!”

He was following me. I kept walking.

“Come on!”

We were attracting attention, and oddly, I didn’t care this time.

“I was–can’t we talk about this?”

That made me smile, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t pause because I really needed some caffeine, but I said over my shoulder, “You’re not fucking me, Miller.”

“Why is that always your go-to? I thought there was a basic foundation of consideration for friendship.”

Well, damn. He had me there.

I was going through the door but paused and stepped aside as a group of students were leaving. I shifted to the side, my arms folded over my chest. “Miller, you don’t act like a guy just wanting friendship.”

He was more wary, closing the distance between us. He stopped a few feet back. “Yeah. I can see it that way.” He gestured behind to where we’d come from. “What was that back there?”

“None of your business.”

He was studying me again before he looked into the food court. “What are you getting in there?”

“Coffee.”

“Because you didn’t get it back there?”

“You’re not wrong.”

Another long up and down motion of his head. “Because I was there?”

“Again. You’re not wrong.”

“Because you weren’t there to go on a date with Leander Carrington?”

I didn’t respond to that one.

“Hey, Mara.” Skylar was coming up the sidewalk with a few people. “What’s up? Don’t usually see you at the food court.”

“Coffee.”

“Oh yeah.” Her gaze skirted from me to Gavin. She said to him, “Hi. Gavin, right?”

“Hey. Yeah.”

She stopped walking and shot him a confused look before switching back to me. “Did you hear that screaming the other night?”

I went cold. “No.”

“Really? We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Felt like it was from your place. Were you watching a movie or something?”

“You know, I think I was. After studying, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I put on a horror movie, but I fell asleep. That’s probably what woke me up.”

“Oh.” She visibly relaxed. “We got a little scared there. Wasn’t sure what to do and we were in bed. I don’t think anyone else heard it so for a minute we were even thinking we had a ghost.”