The Puck Bunny

Five

As soon as we were finished our food, we quickly bolted out of the café as Georgia shot daggers at me. By the time we reached my car, we were cracking up so hard that Luke couldn't breathe, and I had tears streaming down my face.

"Hey, can you do me a favour?" Luke asked once we were in my car. I had let him drive again, as he knew where IKEA was from here.

"Yeah, sure"

"Don't tell Bunker about that. At all"

I mimed zipping my lips to show I wouldn't say a word.

"Thanks Pruitt"

The IKEA wasn't far from the café and soon we were inside the vast, white mega-land of furniture. Luke turned to me.

"So, what exactly are you getting?"

"I want a shelf for my books under my bed, some string lights, a rug and maybe a beanbag or comfy reading chair"

"I'm going to take it that you're not some girl who loves shopping for hours?"

"I'm a girl who knows what she wants and gets it"

I grabbed a cart and beginning to walk away from Luke, who looked dumfounded. He quickly caught up to me, shaking his head with that stupid grin when he thought I wasn't looking.

"Oh, this is perfect!" I said, spotting a white three-tiered shelf. It was maybe a bit bigger than I anticipated, but it just meant that I would have to buy more books. Which didn't faze me much.

"Bit big, isn't it?" Luke teased, reading my mind.

"I can always fill it with more books"

Luke laughed, reaching up to the top shelf and grabbing the box which contained the flat pack shelf I'd fallen in love with.

"I don't doubt that. What next?"

"I saw some string lights a couple aisles back"

I went to grab the cart off him, he shook his head and continued pushing it. I rolled my eyes and lead the way to the string lights.

By the time we'd gotten everything I'd set out to get, adding in a new set of sheets, a new comforter, a lamp, an end table and a new throw blanket for the chair, it was nearing 12 pm and I could hear Luke's stomach rumble every so often, even though we hadn't had breakfast all that long ago.

"Back to campus?" He asked, taking my keys from me. I rolled my eyes, then nodded.

"Yes please, I have a meeting at 1:30 and I'd like to get some lunch before it"

"What kind of meeting?"

He was on the hockey team, so he was going to find out sooner or later. I took a deep breath and prepared to tell him some more truth than I think he'd be expecting.

"I'm meeting the chancellor and Coach Roberts about use of the rink to practice my skating"

"Why?"

Here goes.

"Okay, my mom pays for a lot, and I mean a lot when it comes to my tuition and college. She knows if I had the chance, I'd try play hockey. Even though I'm awful at it. So, in order to keep getting through college, I agreed no hockey, but I needed to skate. Apparently Coach Roberts is a family friend, so she said she'd work something out. She set up the meeting for it. And I know you're dying to ask questions but please, not now" I said, catching the look on his face. He closed his open mouth and nodded.

"Okay"

"Okay?"

"Okay. The others are obviously going to end up hearing about this too, but I'll tell them not to be invasive".