Heart As Cold As Ice

17: alondra

I wake up the next morning still curled up in Jack's arms. The urge to pee drives me out of the safety and comfort of him and I change out of my sweater into one of his t-shirts after carefully sliding out of the bed. It's still early so I'm not surprised he's still sleeping. I'm sure the game last night wiped Jack out once he came down from the adrenaline rush. I remember what that's like. The high after competing.

I go to the bathroom down the hall where I borrow some of his toothpaste and my finger to somewhat clean the gunk off my teeth and take care of my morning breath before wandering into the kitchen to start on breakfast. I'm assuming three hockey players can eat a shit ton. I get out a bunch of ingredients that they have in the fridge and I'm assuming it's thanks to Coop since he's the only one who seems to cook around here.

I have some old Taylor Swift playing from my phone speakers as I mix everything together when the front door opens. Peyton stumbles in wearing what looks to be the shortest dress I've ever seen and her heels are in one of her hands, dropping them on the shoe rack next to the door. I pause the music quickly and try to decide if I'm doing the right thing

Her blonde hair is a tangled disaster and there's dark smudges under her eyes. She freezes when she sees me standing in the kitchen and I do my best not to stare.

"Freshie, what are you doing?" Peyton's voice is hoarse and she moves past me to grab a water bottle out of the fridge.

"Making breakfast, would you like something?" I offer, politely choosing to ignore the fact she called me freshie. I don't know Peyton or particularly like her, but she's the guys' roommate and friend. It's not as if I can avoid her completely.

She scrunches her nose, "I'm good, thanks."

Fine, whatever. At least I offered. Peyton starts to walk out of the room and I wait a second before moving to unpause my music when she speaks again.

"You know you're not different than the rest of them."

I look up at her so fast I'm surprised I don't have whiplash. "Excuse me?"

Peyton's staring directly at me in her hungover glory, "I've known him for almost three years now. He doesn't do relationships. It doesn't matter how close you guys get; it's something Jack's firm on. This is going to end with one of you getting hurt and I'd put all my money on it being you."

"You don't really know me well enough to make that assumption." I don't want a relationship. I like my friendship with Jack. Sure, to other people it might seem like the lines are getting blurred, but nothing has happened between us since that first night we met. I trust him. That's it.

Her face softens, confusing me more than I already am. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to warn you because I don't want to see you get hurt and I know he won't either. Jack cares about you, he really does."

What do I say to that?

I run all the possible replies I could say that range all kinds of emotions: bitchy, nice, neutral. Before I can decide, she's walking up the steps and leaving me behind. I busy myself with breakfast, making enough to feed a small army.

Dylan's the first one to come down right after I finish the last batch of pancakes and he smiles widely. "Holy shit. You might be my favorite person in the entire world."

I guess I'm still a little rattled by what Peyton said so all I can really do is smile back. "Help yourself."

He piles more food on his plate than I could consume in an entire day while I poke at my own plate.

Peyton's wrong. I'm not pretending that this is something that it's not. I just...am enjoying the time I spend with Jack.

And last night? I get how that could be misinterpreted. I went to Jack's game and then to dinner with him and his mom. Oh and I stayed the night in his bed where we cuddled the entire time. I would like to be clear though that I was on my side of the bed and Jack initiated it. Let's not forget to mention the fact I'm about eighty percent sure I felt him kiss the side of my head last night. I don't know for sure though but I'm sure as hell not going to ask him about it.