Page 99 of Secrets and Lies
Instead of turning the movie back on, I stop it completely. I’m not in the mood to watch it, and I should save it for when I’m in a better headspace and can actually enjoy it.
Absently, I open another one of the streaming services I have and scroll through the list of movies and TV shows I’ve saved for later, but even after going through the list twice, nothing is even remotely appealing, and I shut down the app.
What am I supposed to do now? I can’t just sit here and stare at the walls for the next few hours while I wait for Damon.
Reflexively, I reach for my phone, but stop myself before I can pick it up.
Ant sent me the link to the socials for his video edits last night after I left his room, and I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time stalking them today.
In my defense, his videos are amazing. The editing is top tier, and his song choices are always fire, but he and his friends are also really fucking good, and some of the stunts they pull off are mind-bending.
I don’t have the same excuse for why I also started following the house hockey team last night, or why I spent way too much time checking out the videos and posts with Anthony in them. And I really can’t use the excuse that I’m checking out his hockey skills when most of the team posts are thirst traps with a few clips from games and practices sprinkled in.
Obsessively stalking Anthony online is not going to help me get over this inconvenient crush I have on him, and I need to stay the fuck off my phone and find something else that will distract me for a while.
I could venture out of my room and hit the gym. It’s late enough that there probably won’t be more than a few guys in there, if any, but I don’t want to chance seeing anyone and having to deal with their questions. I could go for a walk to see if that will clear my head, but the thought of being out and running into people right now is about as appealing as army-crawling over hot coals.
My gaze lands on the bottom corner of my screen. It’s almost time for Anthony’s game to start.
Since Silvercrest doesn’t take part in any competitions with other schools, we don’t have formal sports teams. Instead, wehave what we call house teams that play in a competitive inter-house league.
Our campus is divided into four quadrants, with one of the four frats in each section. Everything in a given quadrant is technically under the frat’s control and is considered their territory, and those territory borders are also used as the feeder pool for school competitions and sports teams.
I stopped playing on the Keeper soccer team after my first year because everyone took it way too seriously. I like to win as much as the next person, and I can be a competitive asshole when I’m challenged, but the dirty plays and blatant cheating was just so unnecessary, and it took all the fun out of the game for me.
I’ve never watched one of the school hockey games, but it wouldn’t hurt to check out the game for a few minutes and see how the team is doing. Maybe watching sports will help distract me.
Watching Anthony play sports kind of goes against my whole “find something to do that will distract me from my obsession with Anthony” mission, but it’s a better option than stalking his social media or driving myself crazy analyzing every single interaction we’ve ever had.
Making up my mind, I open my browser and go to the Silvercrest streaming site. All the school games are streamed live, and because Silvercrest is extra as fuck, each stream is edited in real time to look like a professional game. And when the games are over, the streams are archived and available to anyone who has access to the school internet.
The hockey stream is the first one listed, and my heart does this weird, skittering beat as I click on it.
From the looks of things, the players are still doing their warm-ups, and I instantly zero in on where Ant, Hazen, andConnor are kneeling on the ice and doing what looks like butterfly dips to stretch out their hips and thighs.
A tingle moves through my chest as my neck heats. I know why they do those stretches, but the motion is so reminiscent of another action that my brain starts going places it shouldn’t, and I want to facepalm myself when I realize that I’m actually a bit jealous of the ice under Ant.
Shaking off that insane thought, I try to get my mind out of the gutter, but I can’t help noticing how good Ant looks in his hockey gear. He’s not wearing a helmet, and he hasn’t worked up a sweat yet, so his hair is smooth and glossy as it falls around his face in thick, messy strands, and his naturally olive-toned skin has a faint pink blush from the cold air.
I’ve never really been into hockey gear since it doesn’t show any of the good stuff, but seeing Ant in his pads and jersey is doing things to me, and I’m half hard before I can tell my dick to calm the fuck down.
He looks good, like really fucking good, and my stomach clenches as he and the twins skate over to where Rath is doing his own warm-ups near the net in full goalie gear.
Ant told me he played center, but what about the twins? I could always look up the team roster, but that’s too much work. I’ll just wait until they start playing.
The camera pans to the other side of the rink, focusing on the players on the other team, and I check the countdown timer in the top corner of the stream. Less than a minute until the game starts.
I don’t know why I feel weird right now, like I shouldn’t be watching the game, but I try to ignore the strange fluttering in my stomach and settle back against my pillows as I wait for the countdown to end.
The camera pans back to center ice, where Anthony and one of the twins are doing more of those butterfly stretches, and my dick goes so hard it tents my sweats.
“For fuck’s sake. Could you maybe not?” I mutter and adjust myself.
This crush I have on Anthony is getting ridiculous, and I need to get over it before I say or do something that could ruin the tentative friendship we seem to be forming.
Of course, that would be easier if he didn’t send out mixed signals like it’s his job, or if I could get a better read on him.
Part of what makes Anthony so hard to understand is how no one ever talks about him. He usually avoids getting involved in drama, and even the few times where he has gotten mixed up in things that were gossip-worthy, the rumors died off fast, and everything was forgotten a few days later.
