Page 56 of Pucking Good Girl

So I have no other choice but to retrace my steps and walk the rest of the way to Macklin and Becks’s apartment complex.

By the time I knock on their door, my legs can barely support my weight.

Becker

I’m shooting pucks against my brother.

Seattle will offer a contract to the winner of this shootout. And I’m losing. Badly.

While Mack is sinking all his shots into the net, mine keep hitting the red metal poles with a deafening noise.

No matter how hard I concentrate, or where I aim, I miss.

Boom, boom, boom.

I jerk awake, looking around my dark bedroom, almost surprised that I’m not really at the arena.

The noise from my dream keeps echoing in my ears, and I strain to listen.

There it is again. I rub my hand over my face to shake off the last remnants of sleep and realize that it’s raining outside.

Maybe it’s thunder that woke me up.

No, it’s not. I decide when I hear it again. It isn’t a booming sound like in my dream, even though a clang would have made more sense since it was rubber against metal.

The sound that woke me up is a knock. Someone is outside knocking at the front door.

Without a second thought, I get out of bed. If someone is knocking at my door so insistently in the middle of the night, it must be something serious.

“Did you hear that too?” Mack comes out of his room brandishing a hockey stick like a weapon.

“What’s that for?” I whisper, confused.

My brother doesn’t skip a beat. “It’s late. You never know who might be outside. It’s best to be prepared in case we have to defend ourselves.”

He has a point. Kind of.

“Chances are one of our teammates decided to go out, had a few too many beers and lost their keys.” I reassure him.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s happened before. But just on the off-chance it’s a home invasion, I’m ready to protect us.”

Crossing the living room without kicking any furniture is easier said than done, so I flick the light on.

“What are you doing?” Mack whisper-yells. “If it’s a home invasion, we just lost the element of surprise.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Yeah, right. Because home invaders would totally announce themselves by knocking on the door.”

Mack shrugs but positions himself by the door, with the hockey stick over his shoulder, ready to strike. “I don’t know. I have no experience with home invasions. Ok, ready? Open the door.”

With another eye roll, I do as I’m told and open the door as fast as I can to catch the person outside by surprise. “Talia?” I gasp.

Mack’s hockey stick hits the tiled floor with a clatter. “Baby? Are you ok?”

He runs to her before I can, wrapping his arms around Talia.

“Pretty girl,” I run to the other side the second the door is closed behind us. “What’s going on? Did you walk here from campus?”

Talia is soaking wet, from her wavy blonde hair to her white sneakers. She’s paler than a ghost and she’s trembling.