Breaking the Ice

seven*

I arrived at the the school at around eight, alone.

It was packed to the brim with loud high schoolers who definitely pregamed a little too hard before showing up to a school function. A group of girls with blue glitter on their cheeks brushed by me, hugged by tight miniskirts and drowned in football jackets. On the field, a student in a hawk costume was hyping up the crowds, flinging their arms in the air to be met with hoots and hollers. A gaggle of sophomores were huddled under the far bleachers passing around a vape, and some students from the rival school were looking around uncomfortably, hugging their green jerseys closer to themselves.

My friends were all busy tonight: Jason with the twins, Simon with homework, and Thomas and Hector with some party one of the volleyball girls was throwing. That left me alone to head to the game, and since I had promised Adam I'd be here, I felt bad bailing last minute.

"Luke! Over here!"

As I scanned the bleachers, a wave caught my attention. My gaze snagged on a grinning Brandon, the guy from the grocery store, sitting with a couple of girls and the theatre kids on the bleachers. He was dressed head to toe in blue and black, with a too-big jersey with "Lee," his last name, and the number 63 plastered across the back. Blue paint was striped across his cheeks, which pulled apart as he grinned.

"Come sit with us!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth.

Tucking my hands into my pockets, I made my way to the group, sitting besides Brandon. "Hey."

"Hey!" he replied, cheery. "Where are your friends?"

"Couldn't make it," I replied with a shrug. I waved to the others "Hey, guys. Tiana, Inna, how're auditions going?"

Inna, with her hair tied back in a slick ponytail and her cleavage peeking over the low neck of her top, squinted at me. Her eye widened in recognition "Oh my God, it's Goofy Lukey!"

Tiana's attention was grabbed at her sister's words. She looked up at me, breaking into a huge grin. "Luke!"

Soon, I was swarmed by the theatre kids, asking me how I'd been and who'd been dating who on the hockey team. I knew most of them already, from when I was a techie before hockey started to interfere, and they were just as sweet and drama-filled as I remembered.

"Glad to see you already know each other," Brandon chimed, grinning. He was quick to introduce me to the others: the girls were friends of Carrie, who was on the field with the rest of the cheer team. When Brandon pointed her out to me, she waved, blowing him a kiss between routines. Quickly, I was roped into a circle of gossip and laughter, squished between bodies.

"Apparently, Kelly got a henna tramp stamp of Liam's phone number at last week's party," Angel said, a wicked grin ripping across their cheeks. Tiana was tucked into their side, her head on their shoulder, fiddling with the label on the group's vodka water bottle. "I got a picture if anyone wants to see. She put the area code and everything."

"No," Jeremy said, his eyes widening behind a thick pair of round glasses. He was wearing a giant, blue football jacket. "Mason" was written across the back with the number 70. "Doesn't he have a girlfriend?"

Inna laughed from his right, plucking the bottle from Tiana's hands and taking a swig. She grimaced as she swallowed, passing it back to her twin. "Yeah, last month they just celebrated their two-year. It was all over their socials."

"Did he fuck Kelly?" Jeremy whispered, shoulders hiking higher.

Madison, one of Carrie's friends, laughed. Her hair was tucked into afro-puffs, and she threw paint-splattered jeans over Jeremy's legs, taking a long inhale on her vape. Her ankle was hugged by a brace and her words were trailed with smoke: "I think she blew him in the bathroom."