Page 30 of Don't Look Down

With his annoying presence, I can feel the smile leave my face. Fuck. I guess I do have a look. Shoving his hand away, I direct us back to what’s wrong with what he said. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

Bending down, I start pulling my skates on. Which is what I should have been doing instead of looking at my phone.

His ever-expressive eyebrow shoots toward his hairline. “If you say so, bro. Either way, he seems like a cool dude. And I think it would be a safe bet to tell him who you are. He’s gonna shit a brick when he realizes he spent hours playing with both of us.”

“He seriously will.” My face is torn between a smile at imagining his reaction, and a grimace for the same reason. It could go really well or very badly.

Finished lacing up his own skates, he hops up before leaning down to whisper in my ear. “But Spence? Maybe you should ask yourself how you automatically knew I was talking about Sky. I never said his name.”

My head whips around to glance at him. Is he implying I’m being unfaithful to Savannah? Guilt trickles through my bloodstream. And that pisses me right the hell off. There’s nothing to feel guilty about, so I brutally shut the feeling down.

Savannah and I are exclusive, but we’re not in a relationship. And that doesn’t matter anyway, because these chats with Skyare purely innocent. Leigh knows. He joined that game and participated in that innocent chatting a few weeks ago.

He must be a little concerned at the expression on my face and my tense posture since he raises his hands in surrender. When he gets to the door, he tosses a “just saying” over his shoulder as he exits the locker room.

10

Landon

February

Today was a long-ass day; I’m absolutely wiped out after practice. I need some rest to prep for tomorrow’s game against Philly. But I’d promised Sky I’d make it on today. At least for a little while.

Shouldn’t have done that, but I can’t help it.

There’s no saying no to him. A few days ago, I’d just returned home from our latest string of away games. Against my better judgment, I’d joined him for a quick match. I should’ve gone straight to bed, but I didn’t. Exhaustion had finally started to kick in, so I’d had to cut our time short. It was then he’d asked me to hop on come Wednesday. When I’d opened my mouth to decline,“sure thing, man”had popped out against my will.

What the fuck?

Apparently, I have zero willpower. His voice compels me to give him whatever he wants. Like a puppet on a string, I am powerless to deny him.

So here I am.

Exhaustion won’t stop me from following through.

As soon as I got home, I changed into some athletic shorts, and now I’m walking back down the hall to use the living room console. If I’m near my bed right now, I’ll likely faceplant straight into unconsciousness. I grab the controller and headset and start up the system.

A groan of frustration leaves me the second I notice the “update required” notification on my screen, but start the download without hesitation. Grabbing my phone, I send Sky a quick message, letting him know I’m a bit delayed by the update. He assures me not to worry.

Since I have some extra time on my hands, I figure I might as well order some food. Practice lasted a bit longer than normal, and I burned a ton of calories that I should replenish.

I fuck around scrolling through my socials a bit to waste some more time. Nothing too exciting to see there. Same shit from the same people.

Not for the first time, I find my fingers hovering over the Instagram search bar. Sky is sure to have more interesting posts. It would be so easy to do a search for him. I’d bet my entire hockey career that I’d find him in a heartbeat.

Something tells me Sky’s Instagram handle is the same as his gamertag or very close to it. It’s a core part of who he is as a person. It would be so quick and easy. Just a few clicks and there he’d be.

I know it.

But I can’t bring myself to do it.

There’s no way I’ll allow myself to invade his privacy like that when I’m not being straightforward with him. He can’t searchfor me with how little he knows about me, so I don’t have the right.

My conscience won’t let me.

Glancing at the TV, I'm shocked to find the update already completed, so I click the icon and load the game. Headset on, I settle in on the couch. I’ll be here for a while.

Sky must have been in the game lobby, because he’s already inviting me to join his game chat. When I accept his invite, it’s obvious Addy is there based on the volume of the chaotic conversation Sky is in the midst of. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear they were brother and sister for how much they pick at each other.