Page 70 of Payback On The Ice

"I'm always nice to Marcy."

Somebody at the long table laughs, nervous.

And then Petey gets up. The freshman from Bemidji, with the braces. He's bright red. He gets his chair off the stack and carries it over, too, and he has to squeeze it in at the corner of the card table, and he sits down and says, "Sorry. Sorry. Hi."

"Hey, Petey," Theo says.

Then Okoye. Okoye, who passed him the puck so hard on Monday he almost lost it. Okoye stands up with his glass and goes over and doesn't even bother with a chair; he just leans on the wall next to the card table with his arms folded, and says to Theo, "You still suck at backchecking," and Theo says, "I know," and Okoye nods, like that settles something.

The card table is four people now, crowded around a thing built for one. Marcy comes out of the kitchen with an armful of bread baskets and stops and looks at it and smiles.

I'm sitting at the long table.

I look down at it. At the empty seats where Wes and Petey and Okoye were sitting. At Gunnar, who's staring at the corner with his mouth half open. At Jace, who's looking at me.

I'm the one at the end of the table, alone.

I look up. Theo's looking at me from the corner, over Wes's shoulder. He's not smiling. His eyes are steady, and very blue, and he's looking at me like he knows exactly what I'm thinking.

He lifts his water glass. A little. Just to me.

I lift mine back.

Nico calls Sunday night.

It's the first time since the parking lot. He and Priya drove home Saturday. He didn't say goodbye. I didn't call him. I've had my phone in my hand five times a day for a week and haven't pressed the button.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey."

He's in his room at Mom and Dad's. I can see the edge of his old bantam team pennant over his shoulder.

"Theo says you took down the sign at the Lantern."

"Yeah."

"And Wes sat with him."

"Yeah."

"Wes called me. He cried." Nico smiles a little. "He always cries."

"He does."

Neither of us says anything for a while.

"I'm still mad," Nico says.

"I know."

"Like, really mad. I'm going to be mad for a while."

"I know, Nico."

"Have you said sorry? To him?"

I look down at my hands. "He won't let me."