Chapter 5 - Nate fucking Hawthorne

Logan

Tossing my dinner into the microwave, I tap the buttons, and it starts to spin behind the glass.

Staying at a lodge away from school has its perks. I'm totally alone, and everyone here minds their business, unlike in the dorms.

But, of course, there's a but.

It makes commuting to and from school all the more stressful. Well, in a few days I'd get assigned a dorm room and start staying at school, finally.

I don't think I can fucking wait anymore.

It's been three days since that crappy practice session, and it's been hell. All Nate's done so far is ruin everything. He's either ignoring me on the ice, glaring death daggers at me, or, did I forget to mention, making me look like a bad player.

At this point, the last thing I need is Coach hassling me for always being late, in addition to Nate's antics.

I mean, there's an extent to how early I can wake up. So that dorm assignment needs to come in ASAP.

The microwave beeps after a while, and I take out the food.

Just a beef wrap.

Then, I take my yogurt out of the otherwise empty fridge.

Finally settling down after eating, I call the one person I miss and dread talking to at the same time.

My mom.

She's... a lot.

The phone barely rings before she answers, startling me.

"Jeez, were you staring at the phone waiting for my call?" I say to her face on the screen.

"You could say that," she laughs, and her face is so close to the phone I can almost see through her nose.

"Wait, let me call your dad."

She positions the phone somewhere and hurries out of view.

My heart thunders behind my ribcage.

I just need to get through the call. That's all.

Clenching and unclenching my fists, I wait until she comes back with my dad.

"My boy!" my dad exclaims. "How's Northwood?"

"How are you?" my mom quips by his side.

"Why didn't you call us yesterday?"

"Have you had dinner?"

"Why haven't you called us at all?"

"Oh my gosh, Mom, Dad, please let me relax. I'm fine, and Northwood is great. I just finished having dinner," I say quickly.

"You skipped one question," my dad says, rubbing my mom's shoulders.

I just roll my eyes. I'm not about to tell them why I didn't want to talk to them just yet.

Thank heavens they respected my decision and didn't call until I did.

And man, am I starting to regret it.

"Really? Are you making friends there? How about your new team?" Mom asks, settling into the massage Dad is giving her.

My mom's light brown eyes, the same as mine, are almost glowing with excitement.

How do I tell her that I don't even know if I have friends here? With Nate on the team, I don't even know what to expect.

Instead, I smile. "Mom, they're great, and they're really welcoming."

"Aww, that's great, honey." The sides of her eyes wrinkle slightly as she smiles.

"Uh, where's Emma?"

"She's grounded," Dad says, his voice suddenly gruff and annoyed.

"What? Why?" I ask eagerly. She always finds a way to get herself into trouble. Explains why I couldn't reach her earlier.

"When she's ungrounded, you can ask her," Mom replies.

A text from a strange number appears on my screen.

'Sup, Logan. Wanna hang out at Barney's?'

Then another one.

'It's Elias.'

I nod absentmindedly at what my mom is saying.

"Yeah, okay. I got it, Ma."

"Don't forget to always be true to yourself and be a—"

"Proper Hayes," I say at the same time as her.

"I've gotta go now, Ma. Bye. Love you, Mom. Love you, Dad."

I end the call before they can respond.

Okayyy... So Elias is texting me. How did he even get my number?

I text back.

@Logan: Uh, sure. I'll be there as soon as I get directions.

His response comes in seconds.

@Elias: Save my number. I'll share my location.

@Logan: You sure Nate's not gonna have a problem?

I quickly reply. I mean, the boys seem to be nice, but Nate is like a thorn in my back. I snicker at my own joke.

@Elias: No, he's not coming.

@Logan: On my way.

In a few minutes, an Uber is taking me to the so-called Barney's that Elias directed me to.

Lo and behold, it's the same bar I met Nate at just a few days ago.

Now that I think of it, they were most likely the ones sitting at the far corner. With Nate.

A chill crawls up my spine as I think back to that night.

No. Focus.

I step into the bar and spot Elias, Cam, and Dylan sitting at a table in one corner.

"My man." I raise my hand, and he takes it in a handshake, slapping his other hand against my back.

Yeah. I know how to act straight.

Even though I'm not hiding the fact that I'm gay, it'll be better to get a feel of the guys first before, surprise, surprise, Logan is gay and it's Pemberton all over again.

"Cam."

I sit opposite them, with Dylan by my side.

"Hi, Lo," Cam greets me with a wide grin, a lollipop in his mouth.

I turn to Dylan, who's furiously texting on his phone.

"Dylan?" I ask, and he raises his head to meet mine.

"Oh, hi, Logan."

"So..." I drum my fingers on the table, looking across at Elias, whose hands are folded over his chest.

He's quite the grumpy grandpa.

"Beer? Shots?"

Elias raises his hand, signaling the bartender, and he nods.

"What's up with you and Nate?" Elias asks out of the blue, his eyes narrowing on me. Well, not really out of the blue because I can't even blame him for asking.

Seeing the way Nate treats me, anyone would wonder what crawled up and made a nest in his ass. But luckily for him, I don't kiss and tell.

"Uh, I don't know what you mean." I shrug.

"You really wanna play dumb?"

"No, I... I just don't know, okay?" I shake my head, trying to maintain eye contact with him. "I don't know why he acts like a horse got up his ass or something whenever he's with me. It's been like that since I resumed."

"You sure? Because Nate's never like that. And when I say never, I mean NEVER." Cam finally speaks, inching his face closer to me as if to sniff out a lie.

Hey, I thought this jerk wasn't listening.

"I don't know, man."

I actually really don't. Because I didn't fuck him? Is that why he was being a jerk?

The bartender drops our bottles of beer onto the table.

I immediately open mine and gulp down half the contents.

The rest follow.

"So what?" Dylan speaks up for the first time. "Nate just hates someone he doesn't know? He's captain, you know. It's his job to make us work together as a team, and he knows that. But suddenly he fights with a new member for nothing? Make that make sense. I know Nate's not stupid, at least."

These people won't just give it a rest, will they?

"You know what? Believe whatever you want to believe. I've got bigger problems to deal with." I shake my head, gulping down the rest of my beer.

I'm really not in the mood for this shit. How about they go and drill their friend instead of blaming me?

"Like what?" Elias asks, his face still like a fucking frigid statue or something.

I mean, he is handsome, but he can just give it a rest with the death glares.

"Like fucking school and my fucking hockey career. I don't have time to bother myself about Nate. And just so you know, even if we had any issues, we'd sort it out ourselves. No need to have you prying birds on our asses."

I down the rest of the beer and get to my feet.

"Goodnight, boys."

I salute them, lifting my index and middle fingers from my forehead.

I turn to leave, but Cam grabs my hand.

"Let's have another drink." He winks at me.

I chuckle and dart my eyes to Elias and then to Dylan, who is frozen, his eyes fixed on Cam.

Elias leans on his palm with a smirk.

"Come, Logan, since you have nothing to hide."

I want to protest, but then again, who gives a shit? I can hold my alcohol a bit. I doubt they'd even get me drunk enough to say anything.

"Hehehehe, okay." I sit back down, and Cam slaps the table.

"Keep 'em coming, bartender!" he yells, flashing a stupidly hot grin at me.

Why are the boys in this school so hot?

Why meeeee?

~

My head feels so light and woozy.

I stagger out of the Uber, barely registering my surroundings.

"Hey, easy there, dude." Elias's voice washes over me as he helps me up to the porch.

Stepping into the lodge, I fumble with my keys and open the door.

Mumbling a hazy "thank you" and nodding at him like a lizard, I shut the door.

Staggering to the bed, I fall onto it with a thud.

My eyes snag on the ceiling and the slowly rotating fan.

Nathaniel fucking Hawthorne. Get out of my head.

And my life.