the only exception - kenny wu

13. tulips

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in the locker room after the game, it was safe to say that bombay was mad. arabella stayed in her corner, trying to make her as small as possible. 

she wasn't really listening to bombay, instead, she was thinking about earlier. of all the days he came back or wanted to show himself, why'd he choose today?

the thing that brought arabella back was luis. "you spend your time driving around in convertibles talking to all those sponsor fools!"

then fulton decided to attack bombay. "or hanging with the iceland lady. we saw you two saturday night."

"eating ice cream with the enemy, huh, coach?"

arabella didn't really care who he hung out with, but it still hurt a little. what hurt more was her head. bombay he was yelling at the team for not doing well, but he was on a date with the iceland trainer?

the team didn't take the news so great, and turned to bombay. arabella saw charlie, who looked hurt. 'now he knows how it feels.'

bombay tried to defend himself. "what i do is none of your business. is that clear?"

most of the team just scoffed, then broke apart to take their gear off. bombay wasn't happy about this. "don't take those pads off. everyone stay in your gear. we have practice."

"tonight?" goldberg asked in disbelief. 

arabella realized that if she didn't leave to go see him now, it might be her last chance. so while the team left to go skate, arabella put her skate covers on and left the locker room to head to the main part of the rink, but it took a while because she was extremely dizzy, and kept running into walls. 

she looked around for a while then saw a lady at a desk, and she hoped she saw something. "hi, excuse me, ma'am?"

the lady, whose name tag said 'amanda', looked over at arabella and smiled. "hi, how may i help you?"

"this is a really dumb question considering there was a huge crowd, but was there a man waiting here for a moment? dark brown hair, tan skin, was wearing a team usa jersey? did he leave anything behind?"

the lady smiled and nodded, before hanging arabella flowers and a note. arabella took the flowers and the note before thanking her. she went back in the locker room to put the flowers and note down, then went to the ice, where she saw the team doing sprints. she took a deep breath before walking onto the ice, and bombay noticed this. 

"where were you? just because you got knocked down doesn't mean you get to skip this."

when he said this, arabella became more aware of the pounding in her head, but ignored it. arabella took note of this new bombay, one that seemed more stern. since he wasn't going to be accepting about where she was, she didn't care to tell him. "none of your business."

the team had finished the sprints that bombay told them to do, so he told them to go get unready. arabella knew he was going to keep her there, but she couldn't have the team looking through the note. 

before bombay could say anything, arabella skated off the ice and went to the locker room first, getting unready pretty fast. 

luis was sitting closest to her, but not that close thankfully. he did, however, notice the flowers. he grinned before turning to her, gesturing to the flowers. "ditching sprints to go see your boyfriend?"