Page 30 of What If We Break?
“Oh, my God,” I muttered under my breath, and without giving my mother an answer, I stepped back and shut the door before making my way over to Brooke.
As I crossed the parking lot to get to Brooke and Nova, I didn’t know whether I was supposed to kiss Brooke first or start talking right away. Technically, we were still fighting, so kissing her would’ve been weird, right?
“You lost again,” Nova pointed out as I approached them. While I wasn’t expecting to get attacked by a ten-year-old, I did appreciate her starting the conversation so I didn’t have to choose. “If you keep that up, you’ll never make it to the NHL.”
Brooke pressed her lips together to refrain from laughing, but it didn’t really work.
I knelt down to Nova. “Listen here, little lady, I only lose because you never believe in me.”
Nova gasped offendedly. “That’s not true!”
“So you weren’t rooting for the Denver team?” I pointed at the jersey she was wearing. “Because it sure looks like you were.”
She blushed. “Just because Trevor is playing for them! He has a sister, did you know that?”
“I did not.” Nor did I care. “Promise you’ll be rooting for my team next time so I can win?” I held out my pinky finger.
Nova sighed heavily, then hooked her pinky with mine. “Fine. But only so you can stop crying about losing all the time.”
I stood back up, meeting my girlfriend’s eyes. “Will you go to dinner with me?”
“Dinner?” Brooke cocked her head. “Like a date or with your parents?”
“With my parents.”
“Tonight?” she asked, something odd in her voice. She was going to say no, I could feel it. I nodded anyway. “I can’t tonight. I promised Erik I’d meet him for practice at eight. I’m already running late because of your game.”
I snorted in response, chuckling to myself. “Of course you are.”
“Reece—” Brooke reached her hand out for mine, but I stepped back.
“No, it’s fine. You enjoy getting fucked over by your skating partner for the tenth time this week.”
13
BROOKLYN
Erik was already waiting for me in front of the arena, but instead of greeting me, he pushed a blue folder into my hands.
“What’s this?” I asked, opening the first page. I expected some sort of new practice program, but what I found instead almost made me slap that folder into Erik’s average-looking face. “Are you serious?”
He shrugged. “I talked to my doctor and he said it was for the best.”
“A diet!” I pushed the folder back into his hands. “Even if I wanted to lose weight, your stupid doctor doesn’t know me! He can’t just put me on a goddamn diet, and neither can you!”
“You’re too fat,” he said, gesturing at my body. “I have a scar on my thigh from where your blade cut into my body. If you weighed less, that wouldn’t have happened. And lifting you gets more challenging every day because you gain like two pounds a day, which is no surprise. You eat like a pig and you never work out.”
Shaking my head at Erik, I stormed past him to get inside the arena. This was going to be a long, painful evening.
He could criticize my skating all he wanted, could drop me and throw me across the ice however he desired for another year, but I wasn’t going to let that prick of a human tell me I was fat when I knew very well that I wasn’t.
Thinking he could put me on a diet without my authorization was going to have consequences, though I wasn’t sure he had enough brain cells to really grasp that he wouldn’t get through with it this time. He tried the same thing four years ago when we just became partners, and while I didn’t start a diet, he never faced any punishments for his asshole behavior.
Now, I had no idea howIwas supposed to punish him, but there had to have been something I could’ve done to make him regret this.
As I walked inside the arena, my coach was already standing in front of the ice, looking more distressed than ever. He was on the phone, yelling at the person on the other end of the line. At first, I didn’t understand why, but the closer I got to the ice, the more I understood.
Half of the ice was melted.
