back to my apartment.
I didn’t live far from MontRec, but on twenty-seven straight hours with no sleep, the walk could have been a military-grade obstacle course. I tripped on everything there was to trip on and nearly put my face in the concrete as I climbed the few stairs to my apartment building. I was grateful for the elevator when I finally climbed onto it, but if it hadn’t dinged when it got to my floor, I wouldn’t have woken up from my doze on the short ride to the third floor.
I trudged off down toward my apartment and then remembered that my keys were buried at the bottom of my purse. I threw my whole body against the door instead of knocking and stepped a few feet back. A couple of seconds later, the door opened, and Alec, still wearing his bed hair, looked at me in confusion.
“Oh my god, are you just getting home?” He grabbed me and pulled me inside, and I didn’t stop on my way to faceplant on the couch. “Where have you been?”
I could already feel sleep trying to take me, but I didn’t want to fall asleep on the couch. It was probably a bad idea to lay down with that in mind, but I couldn’t have stayed on my feet for another second. “MontRec.”
“You stayed there all night? When you said you had something to do, I thought you might have forgotten to put something away. What were you doing?” Alec grabbed a blanket and started to pull it over me, but I flailed. “What?”
“I want to sleep in my bed.”
“You’re not gonna make it there,” Alec retorted.
I groaned as I pulled myself to sit up, even though it did very little to keep my body from trying to pull me into sleep. “I applied for semi-pro status.”
Alec’s eyes and mouth turned into saucers. “What?”
“You said we could.”
Alec shook his head. “I said it’s too bad. I didn’t mean to go do it.” He sat down on the couch. “Do the Widows know?”
I shook my head dramatically. “Nope!”
“Jesus, Quinn. What are they gonna think that you made a huge decision like this without them? You’d have to up practices. It’s a full-time job, so they’d all have to quit their day jobs.” He crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t be able to help as much as I do now.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I grumbled back. “They’re going to be just as excited as I am, trust me.”
Alec sighed. “I hope you’re right. That’s a big thing to throw on people.”
I was barely listening. My eyes closed over, and I started to fall forward.
Alec stood up and grabbed my hand. “Okay. Sleep first, then we’ll discuss it further.”
I nodded. “Yes to sleep.”
Alec pulled me up off the couch and let me lean on him as he led to my bedroom. He spilled me onto my bed and clawed my blanket over me. “I knew you were impulsive, but this is crazy, even for you.”
I put my finger to my mouth. “Shh, sleep.”
Alec rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. “Fine, but we will talk about this later.”
I barely heard him. The second I hit the pillow, my mind started to power down, and the sound of Alec closing my bedroom door as he left was the final thing I heard before I passed out.
4
Zeke
It had been two days since our loss to Minnesota, but it was still clinging to me like a life-sucking leech. My alarm went off to tell me to get up, but I stopped its screaming and continued to lay in place. I knew my team was half-baked, but it was painful to have it thrown in my face the way that it was. Knowing that it was televised and later regarded as one of the worst losses in the history of the Montpelier Vipers were small specks compared to the fact that I let it get to me toward the end and fell off my game. No one was ever going to pick me up if I acted like an amateur on the field. My next few games were going to have to be flawless. It was the only choice.
I finally threw my blankets back and willed myself to get up. I looked at the empty half of my bed for a moment and wished that I had taken home the girl I met at the bar. I wasn’t the type of guy to sleep with women for