The Billionaire's Secret Love Child(60)

“Seriously, Casey. You’re a real downer right now with that book,” she said.

I rolled my eyes behind the pages of my book. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. The school room assignments saw fit to randomly place an introvert with an extrovert. I was reaping the rewards of having a roommate more outgoing than me.

Kathy snatched the book from my hands and gestured to the ice rink in front of me.

“This is all the action you need right now, come on Casey. Give it a try for just ten minutes and I won’t bother you again for the rest of the night,” she pleaded.

I took my book back.

“Do you promise,” I asked snidely.

“If you can manage after enjoying all this action,” she said.

I stuffed my book into my purse and turned my attention to the athletes providing the entertainment.

The two teams flurried about, doing their best to attack the puck. Our star player was on the field, heading down the ice towards where Kathy and I sat, with the puck shuffling back and forth on his stick.

For a brief moment, I could make out the baby blue in his eyes, and I felt his stare shooting at me. Everything fell away in the moment; the crowd cheered, but I was deaf to their tune, as though nothing else mattered.

Then a rival player smashed him hard into the glass that I was sitting near. I held my hand to my mouth, feeling his pain shoot through my head.

It didn’t seem to faze him much; he just turned my direction, smiled, blew a kiss and shuffled the puck from the corner.

“I think he saw me,” Kathy said.

I could see her already begin to swoon. More times than I could count I’d returned to the dorm room with a sock waiting for me on the door. It was the standard signal for me to get comfy at the local coffee shop until she told me it was all clear.

I wouldn’t say that she slept with a lot of different people; she just liked to sleep with the same people very often. I would always do my best not to judge her choices, but honestly, none of the boys held much interest for me. Most of the men around here reminded me of home, and that bothered me to consider.

In the small amount of time I watched, I witnessed two different fights on the ice. The referee would always back off for the briefest of seconds as the idiots would have a go at trading blows. I did my best to avoid giggling at their stupidity, but even so it was hard to suppress.

“I hear they’re having a party after the game, we should go, it’s Friday, could be fun!”

As she continued to talk I-having fulfilled my requisite time watching-returned to my book. She scoffed, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to finish the chapter before the game was over so I wouldn’t have to remember my place on the way home.

“Okay, that’s it. You’re staying for the party. You need to get out and meet people,” she said.

“Not interested,” I replied.

“If you come, this time, I promise I won’t bother you for at least a month,” she suggested.

The idea of being able to be left to myself was tempting, but definitely not enough.

“How about, if I go, you won’t have sex in the dorm for a month,” I suggested in jest.

“Deal,” she responded all too quickly.

“I was just kidding, really. I don’t want to go,” I said.

“Too bad, we have a deal.”

I slumped into my chair, wishing I hadn’t said anything at all. Before long, the game time had elapsed, and our team ended up the victor. This party had all the sudden become a victory party, and I had an inkling of what that might entail.



2.

‘Come to the party,’ she said, ‘we’ll have some fun,’ she said. Why do I always get stuck being the person she drags to these stupid things. I’d rather just be curled up at home, reading a book, and getting to sleep early.

That’s what I get for having a roommate that can’t do anything by herself. She just has to pull me along, until she finds someone more interesting to talk to, and then she forgets about me.

This would be the fourth party in recent memory that this has happened. I watched her from afar, chatting with a couple of boys, whom I’m sure she had every interest in sleeping with tonight. It wouldn’t be the first time.

They held the party at the now empty ice rink where our local hockey team had just won. I wasn’t much of a hockey fan. When I was a little kid, my dad would have the games on in the den, sitting beer in hand, while shouting excitedly at the T.V. I never minded curling up nearby while he watched, I’d just read a book and forget what silly things the boys said at school.

I still remember when he got me into skating; he wanted a son more than a daughter, but he did the best with what he had. He tried getting me into hockey; its popularity never waned through all of elementary school. Instead of getting into that sport, I found myself oddly taken by figure skating.

He rolled his eyes at the idea, but never once said a bad thing about it whenever he’d take me to practice. I miss him, even though we never really saw eye to eye.

I had a feeling I might be roped into an after party, Kathy always knew how to pry me out of my shell. Having brought along my old pair of ice skates, I thought now was as good a time as any to get back on the ice. A smattering of other partygoers had already convened on the Ice and had started playing games. I hadn’t much interest in their brand of fun, so I did my best to avoid their gaze.