Chapter 53 The Party
CALEB
Eli decided the acceptance required a celebration approximately four minutes after Mia told him about it.
Not a calm celebration or dinner but an actual Party.
“Mia got into Hamilton Regional and you won a championship,” he announced Friday afternoon in the locker room like he was addressing a national emergency. “If we do not celebrate both things properly I think legally Canada revokes our citizenship.”
“That feels inaccurate,” I said.
“Do not ruin this for me.”
Coach Briggs overheard part of the conversation while walking past.
“If any of you are late to conditioning tomorrow morning,” he said without stopping, “I will personally make your lives unrecognizable.”
“See,” Eli said immediately after Coach disappeared. “He supports joy.”
I laughed despite myself.
By seven that night Eli’s apartment was full.
Not huge crowded party full.
Just team full.
Which somehow felt louder.
Music from somebody’s speaker in the kitchen. Pizza boxes on every available surface. Half the Wolves spread across the living room arguing about playoff highlights like the games had happened ten years ago instead of six days earlier.
Mia sat cross-legged on the floor beside Chloe near the couch while Jamie explained something hockey-related with intense unnecessary hand gestures.
She looked lighter tonight.
That was the first thing I noticed when I walked in.
Not carefree exactly because Mia did not really do carefree anymore after the past two years.
But lighter.
Like the acceptance letter had shifted something she had been carrying for so long she had forgotten it could be set down.
She looked up when I entered.
Immediately smiled.
God.
Still dangerous every single time.
Eli appeared beside me holding two drinks.
“One for you,” he said.
“What is it.”
“I genuinely do not know.”
“Comforting.”
“You are welcome.”
I took the cup carefully anyway.
Probably a mistake.
Across the room Jamie spotted me.
“Kessler,” he called loudly. “Tell Eli he is wrong.”
“That depends entirely on the topic.”
“He thinks the championship goal was better than your semifinal winner.”
“It literally was,” Eli argued from beside me.
“It had less emotional significance,” Jamie shot back instantly.
I looked between them.
“You are both deeply exhausting.”
“Answer the question,” Jamie demanded.
“The semifinal goal mattered more to me,” I admitted finally.
Eli pointed dramatically toward Jamie.
“You have made him sentimental. I blame you.”
Mia looked up from the floor immediately.
“I will absolutely accept responsibility for that.”
The room laughed.
I sat beside her on the floor near the couch because every time there was a choice lately my body kept choosing closer to her automatically.
She leaned slightly into my shoulder without interrupting her conversation with Chloe.
Automatic too.
Interesting how quickly people could become part of your physical instincts.
Chloe looked between us knowingly.
“You two are disgusting now.”
“We have always been disgusting,” Mia said calmly.
“False,” Eli interrupted immediately from the kitchen. “At first you actively looked like you wanted to kill him.”
“That was because I did.”
Fair.
Mia tipped her head briefly against my shoulder.
“You left out the part where he deserved it.”
“Also true,” Chloe admitted.
Jamie sat down across from us holding a paper plate overloaded with pizza.
“Mom says Caleb is officially invited to dinner whenever he wants now.”
“I already come over constantly.”
“She wanted me to formally communicate it.”
“Please thank your mother for the formal communication.”
Jamie nodded seriously.
“I will draft paperwork.”
The room dissolved into overlapping conversations again after that.
Hockey.
Graduation.
Summer plans.
Halifax.
Every topic eventually circling toward the future now because suddenly the future was no longer theoretical.
It was arriving.
Fast.
Around nine thirty Eli dragged me toward the kitchen under the excuse of helping carry more drinks from the fridge.
The second we were alone he looked at me carefully.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
I leaned back against the counter slightly.
“Why.”
He shrugged.
“Things are changing fast.”
That again.
Everyone could feel it apparently.
“I know.”
“Hockey stuff. Halifax. Scouts. Interviews.” He paused briefly. “Mia starting school.”
I looked automatically toward the living room where she was laughing at something Chloe said.
“She is scared,” Eli said quietly.
I looked back at him immediately.
“She does not seem scared.”
“Because she is Mia.”
True.
Eli opened the fridge unnecessarily just to do something with his hands.
“She wants all this,” he continued. “The program. Nursing. Everything. But I think part of her is waiting for the other shoe to drop because that is how life has worked for her for a long time.”
I stayed quiet.
Because he was right.
“She trusts you,” Eli said finally. “A lot.”
The weight behind the sentence settled carefully into my chest.
Not pressure exactly.
Something heavier.
More important.
“I know,” I said quietly.
Eli nodded once.
“Good.”
Then immediately ruined the emotional moment himself.
“Also if you break her heart I will actually kill you.”
“There it is.”
“I contain multitudes.”
We carried drinks back out.
Mia looked up the second I reentered the room like she tracked me automatically now too.
Dangerous.
Really dangerous.
Later in the night the team started a card game at the coffee table that became aggressively competitive almost immediately because hockey players treated literally everything like a playoff series.
Mia sat beside me with her knees pulled up under one of Eli’s blankets while Jamie loudly accused three separate people of cheating.
“You cannot cheat at Go Fish,” Chloe informed him.
“You can if you are emotionally corrupt.”
“That is not how rules work.”
“It should be.”
I laughed quietly beside Mia.
She glanced sideways at me.
“What.”
“Nothing.”
“That was a specific laugh.”
“You are all insane.”
“Correct.”
She smiled slightly.
Then her phone buzzed.
I watched her expression shift subtly while reading the screen.
Not bad exactly.
Just thoughtful.
“What happened?” I asked quietly.
She turned the screen slightly toward me.
Hamilton Regional financial aid office.
Requesting additional paperwork.
I felt her shoulders tense almost invisibly beside me.
“Mia.”
“I know,” she said quickly. “It is probably routine.”
But I knew her well enough now to hear the anxiety underneath immediately.
Money.
Always money.
Always the possibility of something falling apart at the last second.
I leaned closer slightly so nobody else overheard.
“We will figure it out.”
Her eyes lifted toward mine immediately.
Not offended.
Not defensive.
Just tired suddenly.
“I know,” she whispered.
The room stayed loud around us.
Jamie arguing.
Cards slapping against the table.
Music from the speaker skipping briefly.
Normal life continuing.
But I kept looking at her face and thinking about everything she carried so quietly that most people never fully noticed the weight of it.
Then she caught me looking.
“What.”
“You should not have to be scared every time something good happens.”
Her expression softened instantly.
“You should not have to think you need to fix everything.”
Fair enough.
I smiled slightly.
She leaned her head briefly against my shoulder again.
Across the room Eli looked directly at us and made exaggerated vomiting motions.
Chloe hit him with a couch pillow.
Jamie asked if he could have the rest of somebody’s pizza.
And for one completely ordinary Friday night everything felt strangely, perfectly alive.