The Exchange

Chapter 30

"Arti, would you quit being difficult for thirty seconds and get in the goddamn car?" Blaine said.

"I don't want to. I'm unlovable," Arti replied.

Convincing her to do something to get her mind off of Eleanor was more difficult than conjugating irregular verbs in Spanish, but after a few days of failure, she was going to go to Matt and Viktor's hockey game, and she was going to like it.

She missed the first one, and even though she and Viktor had their mild differences, she needed to see what I made out of him.

"You have got to stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's pathetic, and you're way too pretty for that shit," Blaine said.

I never understood why he tried to reason with her.

"See? There you go again, saying that the only reason I deserve love is because I'm cute." Arti turned to me. "Can you believe this shit?"

"Well, considering you just said that you're unlovable, I think we're making progress," I said.

"Come on. You know I love you, so if you'd just get in the car since the game is an hour away, that'd be great," Blaine said.

Arti finally caved and got into the car with us, and before she could change her mind, we headed out to Winterview, Minnesota, which was a small college town with not much else there besides hockey arenas. It sure as hell wasn't Bloomington with the Mall of America, but nowhere else in the entire world was. People lived all over the world, but it was the only place I could ever consider my home.

***

"This is literally the worst game I've ever watched in my life," I mumbled to Blaine, who turned to me.

"We're winning four to nothing, and it's only the beginning of the third period."

"Viktor's playing like shit."

"He has a goal and an assist."

I looked at Blaine. "Don't argue with me."

He smiled. "But I like to."

"I like to argue with you too, but now's not the time. I'm going to lose my mind if Viktor gives up on the puck one more time."

He sighed. "He's doing fine. Chill out."

"You two make me want to throw up all the time. Do you really have to act like this right now? I'm sad," Arti said, but the more time passed, the less convinced I was that she was actually torn up about Eleanor.

Arti didn't give two shits about throwing Blaine and me away, after all.

She waited a moment for either Blaine or me to respond, and when we didn't, she stood up. "Whatever. I'm going to the bathroom."

I crossed my legs and ignored her. "I know what Viktor's capable of, and he's not showing it right now. It's really frustrating. It's like he's robbing me of seeing his talent."

Blaine shook his head. "He still has plenty of time to show how absolutely fantastic he is." He said the words absolutely fantastic in a high voice, and as Arti squeezed past us on her way out, she laughed.

I bit my cheek and looked away from him and back to the ice when something else caught my eye.

Not something. Someone.

I didn't know many people with red hair, so they were difficult to miss when I saw them.

I stood up from my seat. "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Blaine asked.

"To go pick a fight."

Blaine threw his head back. "Are you serious?"