OFF TRACK

19

SUMMER

"Bye, Court!" I'm untying my apron on Tuesday.

My boss, Courtney, is letting me leave a little early. She noticed me checking the time constantly and asked why. And I told her about Trevor, it felt good to tell someone about him, about us.

Courtney lit up when I started telling her, she's a hopeless romantic. Her husband, Ted, and her met in college, now they own this coffee shop.

"Thank you," I give her a side hug, "I'll come in early tomorrow to make up for it."

"Oh, don't worry, honey! Go have fun!" Courtney smiles as she restocks the cups.

"You're the best! Have a good night," I'm slipping my purse over my shoulder, checking out the window. Ellie's black Mercedes pulls up right on time.

"You too!" Her tone is sweet and light then goes into mom mode, "But not too much fun! Be safe!"

I laugh at her, "No promises!"

Courtney is the sweetest women I've ever met, she's beyond understanding with all of us that work at the coffee shop. We're a bunch of college kids with crazy ever changing lives but she and Ted deal with whatever we throw at them. We all call them Mom and Dad, despite the fact that they never had kids. I think they kinda like having an ever changing group of kids to take care of.

"Hey," I smile sliding into the passenger seat of Ellie's car.

"Hey, I put that shirt and stuff you wanted in the back," Ellie says as she pulls away.

I look in the back seat and there's a small pile of clothes on one of the seats, "Thank you!" I slide off my jacket then crawl into the back seat to change.

I replace my work jeans and t-shirt, with the clean jeans and the tight white long sleeve shirt I asked Ellie to bring for me.

"Did you bring any make up?" I ask still sitting in the back.

"In my bag," Ellie smiles.

"Thank you!" I lean over and dig in her bag, pulling out her little black Chanel makeup bag. I spend the rest of the drive touching up my makeup and fixing my hair, which is still slicked back from work.

Thirty minutes later we're pulling up to the USC ice rink.

"I'm still very confused on why you agreed to come," Ellie comments as we're now sitting a few rows up from the ice.

I shrug picking up a chip from the nachos I bought on the way in, "You're making me like hockey."

"I don't believe you, but I'll take it," she smiles stealing a chip from my lap.

Once again this is why Ellie is my best friend, she always knows when I'm hiding something but never forces me to tell her until I'm ready. And I love her for that.

Most of the game I have no clue what's going on, but I just watch Trevor anytime he's on the ice. I cheer whenever Ellie does, and it makes me laugh when they call a penalty on Alex that she doesn't agree with and she starts quietly cussing out the referee.

You'd never expect Ellie to be so into sports, but she's a biggest hockey fan I've ever met. And she knows what she's talking about, it's come as a bonus at the bars a lot. She's been able to win trivia games against drunk frat men at bars so many times, which means we get a lot of free drinks.

After the game I follow Ellie around to the locker room exit. There's families waiting and a few other girls around our age.

Ellie leans over to whisper to me, "The girls to our left,"