Winging It Read Free Page B

you whether to come by or not, okay?”
    “I can just give you a ride anyway, if you want.”
    “No, it’s fine.” Because Toby had practice in the mornings and I didn’t, so he’d be fresh off the rink, all tired and happy, and I’d be…nothing.
    But I couldn’t explain that to him, and he apparently couldn’t figure it out for himself. “Because if I don’t agree to help you with Scott, you won’t even ride in the same car as me?”
    “Because I’m too tired for this crap,” I said. It made sense to me, at least. “I’ll call you tomorrow. ’Bye.”
    I hung up and then flopped down on the wooden bench that ran around the sides of the room. The trophy. Could I give up the trophy?
    I looked around the locker room, saw the battered wood and wrinkled paint, the hooks that had held pads and jerseys for countless hockey players. So many people had passed through this room, played the game for a while, and then moved on. I was just one of a long line. Nothing special. Hanging on to that trophy, treating it like it meant something? Maybe that was kind of pathetic.
    Maybe it was time to let go of those childish dreams. I wasn’t a hockey player anymore, not really. So I needed to be something else. I needed to move on. And moving on with a guy like Scott Dakins? Well, I could think of worse directions to choose, that was for sure.

Chapter Four
    Toby
    I wanted to call Dawn. She knew Scott, she knew Nat, and technically we’d stayed friends after the breakup, so I should have been able to talk to her. But she’d made it pretty clear that the best way for me to be her friend was to leave her the hell alone, so…no bedtime phone calls.
    I couldn’t bring this up with any of the guys, either. It was just too weird. And most of them liked Scott, so they couldn’t really be trusted to keep a secret like this, assuming there was a secret to be kept. I was still hoping Nat would change her mind about it all; I was honestly kind of stunned that she was even thinking about giving up the trophy.
    So I went to bed without talking to anyone, made it through practice the next morning by keeping my attention on the ice where it belonged, and then went back to the change room to find a voicemail from Nat on my phone.
    “I’m in,” she said, and I could hear the determination in her voice. Once Nat decided on something, that was it; she would make it happen. “Come pick me up on the way to school. I’ll give you the trophy then.”
    I felt like a jerk, of course. The stupid trophy meant nothing to me, and for some reason it was really important to her. I used to catch her looking at it sometimes, and every time I did I was proud of myself for not fighting her for it. It felt good to have been part of giving her something she cared about. I’d honestly thought she’d turn me down when I made the price so high, but she’d called my bluff.
    And the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe I should take the trophy. I mean, assuming this plan worked, her stupid crush was going to cost me a lot. My pride, for sure, and my friendship with her, because there was no way I was going to hang out with someone who was dating Scott. Not that you hang out with her anyway , a little voice whispered, but I ignored it. Just because I didn’t actively spend time with her didn’t mean I hadn’t enjoyed having the option of spending time with her.
    If she started going out with Scott, that door was closing, forever. And if I was going to lose that, then she should lose something, too. Since she obviously didn’t care too much about throwing away our friendship, I’d take something she did care about. Yeah, I was taking the trophy. If she’d thought I’d been joking, she’d thought wrong.
    I showered faster than usual and left while the other guys were still getting dressed and shooting the shit. When I pulled into Nat’s driveway, she was waiting just inside her front door, and I had a little flash of déjà vu. How many