Darkroom: A Moo U Hockey Romance by Kate Willoughby (reading a book .txt) 📕

I grinned. Deke was a deep thinker.

When he’d finished his treat, I put him back in the enclosure and put the roof back on. Hamsters are skilled escape artists so I had to make sure the lid was secure.

Unable to procrastinate any longer, I tossed my dirty clothes into piles of lights and darks and told Deke about my encounter with Indi two years ago after a one-nighter with her roommate.

“The thing is, I barely even remember the roommate. We hooked up once and that was that. But I did remember the girl who walked in on us as I was getting dressed. There was something about her that caught my eye and she was really funny. I thought about trying to meet up with her again, but it seemed like a dick move after I’d had sex with the roommate. But now, here we are, a couple years later having lunch. What are the chances?”

Deke snuffled around his food dish, perhaps looking for more spinach.

“Anyway, against all odds we’re both in my photography class and she’s still pretty hilarious, so I’m doing my best to charm her and everything was going great. We talked about some real personal stuff. But then I had to ruin it all by saying something completely idiotic.”

Deke’s nose twitched as he continued to look at me unblinkingly. I imagined, if he could talk, he’d sound like Morgan Freeman. Silence is a source of great strength. You should exercise it more often.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I should talk less and listen more. I should also apologize. Hopefully, she’ll have cooled off by Monday.”

I ended up with three bags of clean, dry clothes by the time I had to head to the rink for practice. I had to put all thoughts of Indi out of my head and concentrate on hockey. Our first game of the season against UConn was in three short weeks. The freshmen had a lot to learn. The rest of us were still adjusting to the loss of the Graham twins and Josh Gruber.

Even though there was a part of me that wanted to defy my dad, I was still one of the first ones to show up at the rink and found myself being a little extra cheerful and encouraging to the freshies. I bit my tongue and smiled when some of them complimented me on how great a guy my dad was.

Then as I was taping my socks, I heard someone’s voice raised. It was Tate Adler. He and Callan Thomas were looking at something on his phone.

“There, see?” Adler said. “I’m telling you, she died. Look at the way the camera is moving. It’s flying, like she’s a spirit.”

“Yeah, but when they open the door for her, that floating stuff stops. Replay it.”

Curious, I ripped the tape, secured it to my sock and went over. “What are you arguing about?”

“Whether or not Rose dies at the end of Titanic.”

I suppressed my laughter as I watched the ending scene on Adler’s phone.

“All the people that are greeting her died at the end, like Jack. You can tell they’re all in heaven because of the white light at the very end.”

Thomas crossed his arms. “So you’ve watched the movie and confirmed that every single person in that last scene was shown to die when the boat sank.” He said it as a challenge.

“No,” Adler said, “but I will if I have to. She was a hundred years old in the movie. Of course she died.”

“She was dreaming, I tell you. Did you ever really listen to the song? The very first line is about her dreaming about him every night.”

Adler turned to me. “What do you think, Forts?”

“What do I think? I think that Jack was a fucking pussy. He tried one time to get onto that door. One time. That, my friends, is the definition of a quitter. He didn’t deserve Rose.”

Both of them stared at me then Adler held out his fist for me to bump.

“You are absolutely fucking right on that score.”

“We should take a vote,” Thomas said. “Raise your hand if you think she was dead.” He counted the hands. “How many think she was dreaming?”

“It’s a tie,” Thomas said. “Brammy, you didn’t vote.”

Bramley didn’t even look up from lacing his skate. “I never saw Titanic.”

Thomas gasped. “What the fuck?”

“You’ve never seen Titanic?”

They both gaped at him.

“Dude,” Adler said, “you’ve got to see it. It’s like mandatory.”

“Not interested,” Bramley replied.

“But Kate Winslett is beyond hot in that movie. There’s this really great scene—”

“The scene where he sketches her!” AJ exclaimed.

“Yes!”

Other guys were chiming in now, fast and furious. It seemed that scene was A Moment in a lot of my teammates’ lives.

“OMFG. So hot.”

“So fucking hot.”

“We saw it when it was rereleased in the theaters. My mom tried to cover my eyes!”

“Mine too.”

“Guys, tell you what,” I said. “We’ll all watch it at the hockey house next week and Brammy can break the tie. The rookies can make dinner for us. How does hot dogs with all the trimmings sound?”

Everyone seemed to think that was a great idea, especially when AJ said he’d bring his famous “totchos,” which were nachos made with tater tots instead of tortilla chips.

But Bramley said, “You guys go ahead, but I’m not watching that lame ass chick flick.”

He was so adamant that no one said anything after that. Someone turned some music on to fill the awkward silence that followed.

Pulling my jersey on, I went over to Bramley.

“Come on, Brammy,” I said in a low voice. “It really is a great movie, especially the last part when the ship is sinking. It’s so realistic. Really makes you feel like you’re there. Don’t let the team down.”

He sighed. “All right, I’ll go on one condition…that you stop campaigning for the C.”

“What? What are you talking about? I’m not campaigning.”

“Can you deny you want to be captain?”

“Let me put it this way, if they offer it to me,