Chapter 76 76

Chapter 76 76
Roman’s POV

A few minutes after Coach left, I turned to leave too. I hurried through the exit doors, walking outside with my duffel bag in hand, and towards my car. The night air was biting, so I pulled my hood lower over my face, wanting nothing more than to slide into the driver’s seat of my car and turn the heater up to full blast.

But when I stepped outside, I was slightly taken aback by what I saw.

Quinn and Harmony were with Miles, standing right next to the driver’s side door under the yellow glow of a flickering parking lot light. Miles was chatting Quinn’s ear off, leaning against the hood with a familiar desperate look on his face. He was gesticulating wildly with his hands as he recounted some play from the second period. Quinn on the other hand, she looked like she wanted to murder him. She was staring at him with a look that could have pierced through a solid brick wall.

A few feet away, Harmony was rubbing her hands together against the cold, peering at the athletic building apprehensively as if she expected the entire UIC team to come charging out in a wave of anger.

I walked towards them, and the sound of my footsteps made them all turn around. Quinn stepped away from the hood of the car before Miles could finish his last sentence.

“Oh, thank the Lord!" Quinn exclaimed, gesturing aggressively toward Miles, who was still smiling like a fool. “Another ten seconds of listening to him talk about his off-side wrist shot and I was going to use your car keys to take out his eye. You’re late.”

She took a short breath, her sharp expression softening just a tiny bit as she looked at my tired eyes.

“Also, we saw what happened on the ice,” she murmured soothingly. “And Miles here told us that you went off in the locker room. Harmony and I wanted to make sure you are okay.”

I tossed my bag onto the gravel near the rear bumper, feeling vaguely annoyed at Miles for telling them that. “I’m fine, Quinn. It was just a game. We got beat by a better team today, that’s all.”

Quinn rubbed my arm sympathetically, her fingers pressing through the cotton of my hoodie. “Scoring a whole four goals isn’t getting beat, Roman. You played really good.”

Miles stepped up, clapping his heavy hand against my back. “Exactly what Quinn said, man. You carried us out there—our goalie couldn’t even catch a beach ball. You did everything you could. Don’t let this one loss ruin your whole mood.”

The loss on the ice was a heavy thing, sure, but the real weight was Aaron. It was the feeling that no matter how many goals I scored, I was always going to be the second-best version of a dead boy. But I didn’t have the energy to explain that to Miles out here in the freezing cold.

“Yeah, thanks,” I muttered, giving him a small nod. “Appreciate it, man.”

I turned to Harmony, who was staring at me with pity. She hadn’t said a word since I walked up, but her large eyes were fixed on my face, full of a soft, sorrowful understanding that made my stomach turn over. I hated the pity in her eyes and wished I had led the team to victory, so that I would have seen some admiration there instead.

I wanted her to look at me the way the rest of the campus looked at Aaron: with awe and pride. I didn’t want to be the broken player she felt sorry for.

"It's a lot more than that, isn't it?" Quinn asked.

I looked up and met her gray eyes. I could see what she was trying to say in those eyes: I know the world compares you to Aaron. She didn’t say his name out loud, but the look was heavy with it. She had been around long enough to know the shadow my brother cast over this entire university.

“Thanks, Quinn. I know.” A small sense of relief washed over the bitterness, because at least someone understood my troubles.

“Aaaaand," Quinn said, knocking her knuckles playfully against my shoulder. “if you need to hide away from your coach, or if you just want a hot meal, you can come over. No questions asked.”

Instinctively, I glanced at Harmony to see if she agreed to this. She nodded silently.

Miles puffed out his chest. “Hey now… does that invitation extend to the co-captain? A nice, home-cooked pick-me-up sounds exactly like what I want.”

Quinn gave Miles such a frosty look that Harmony burst out laughing. She covered her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking as she looked at Miles’ absurd posture. Even I managed a smile at my best friend’s lack of shame.

"In your dreams, Carter." Quinn muttered. "This is an invitation for Roman alone. You keep your distance, unless you want to find out how many seconds it takes me to break a hockey stick over someone’s shins.”

Miles' shoulders dropped instantly as his seductive grin vanished into a deep pout. He snatched my duffel bag with a theatrical huff, as if I were to blame for what Quinn had said, and opened the trunk to put my stuff in, slamming the lid down with a loud, metallic bang that vibrated through the frame of the car.

“Unbelievable,” he muttered under his breath, stomping back around to the side of the car while Harmony continued to laugh.

“Alright, stop whining, Miles." I told him as I opened the driver's door. "Everybody, get in before our toes freeze off. I’ll drop you guys back at your places.”

Miles opened the backseat door and stepped in. The moment Quinn saw this, she reached for the front passenger seat, but Harmony beat her to it. With a surprisingly agile step, Harmony slipped right between Quinn and the door, pulling it open and sliding inside before Quinn could even register what was happening.

Quinn looked at Harmony with a deep look of betrayal in her eyes, her hand frozen in mid-air as she stared through the glass at her roommate. Harmony just buckled her seatbelt, while chuckling.

I started the engine, the rumble filling the cabin with heat. “Looks like you lost the race. Hop in the back with Miles.”

Quinn reluctantly slipped in the back, pulling the rear door shut with a heavy pull, but not before casting a dark look at the grinning Miles, who had seemingly already recovered from being rejected by her once again.

“Don’t touch me, Carter,” Quinn warned as she settled into the corner, pressing herself as close to the opposite door as possible. “Keep your hands on your own side of the seat.”

Before I drove off, I glanced at Harmony in her black dress that now rode up her thigh, the dark fabric stark against her skin as the streetlights outside began to flash through the windows. I could not stop staring at her.

The drive was mostly filled with Miles’ one-sided attempts at conversation from the backseat, punctuated by Quinn’s one-word shut-downs. I kept my eyes on the dark road, the heat from the dashboard vents slowly thawing out the deep ache in my knee.

I dropped Miles first, who gathered his gear with a loud groan, thanking me for the ride and giving Quinn one last hopeful wave before slamming the door. With Miles gone, the car became quiet again as I headed to Harmony and Quinn’s shared apartment on the other side of campus.

The buildings turned into older, brick row-houses with small front porches and overgrown trees. I pulled up right in front of their entrance, idling the engine near the curb.

Quinn popped her door open, stepping out into the cold night air, but Harmony hadn’t moved an inch. Her seatbelt was still securely clicked into place, her hands still folded in front of her.

“Go on ahead, Quinn." She said. "I’m going to stay with Roman for a bit. I’ll be up in a little while.”

Quinn glanced between both of us, her gray eyes narrowing slightly as she looked from Harmony’s calm face to my surprised expression.

“Don’t keep her out all night, Foster,” Quinn said, pointing a warning finger at me through the open door. “And bring her back in one piece, or I’ll come looking for you with a baseball bat.”

She went into the apartment building, leaving the two of us alone in the car. The dark trees were rustling above the roof of the car.

I shifted in my seat, resting my arm on the steering wheel as I looked at her. Her face was half-hidden in the shadows of the dashboard lights.

“Uh, Harmony?” I called her. “Why didn’t you get down with Quinn? It’s late, and you must be freezing in that dress.”

Harmony turned her head to look at me, her dark eyes clear and thankfully devoid of the pity that had bothered me in the parking lot. All that was in it now was an odd kind of sadness.

“I need to see the beach, and I need you to come with me.” She said.