Sparkling Hope (The Eastburgh Devils Series Book 1)

Luna was the last person I wanted to see, and I was relieved she was upstairs with Aria.

Suddenly, Carter staggered down the stairs leading to the kitchen, and in tow, he had Luna and Aria with him.

Of all people, Luna had to come down the stairs now.

This get-together with my hockey team was supposed to be something other than a party. Suddenly I had fifty people, if not more, standing in the backyard and living room. I was the last one to object to a party, except yesterday. That was an exception and also the only one.

I didn’t dare look at Luna and walked past her to the fridge without any comment after greeting Aria.

The glass of beer bottles banged against each other as I took several at a time between my fingers to fill up the cups for beer pong. I set the glass bottles down and, using a bottle opener, popped the top off and poured the cups halfway full of cheap gas station beer.

By now, I had lost track of the people. People were playing around on the stereo. Some had opened the hood of the hot tub and were enjoying themselves in the bubbling water.

You could even see the steam from the water buzzing like a puff of smoke over the small, angular pool of water. The wood in the campfire barrel was already lit by Henry, and there were isolated people who had skewered sausages and marshmallows flickering over the flame.

I was still determining where the sausages, let alone the marshmallows, came from. As I was already thinking, I had lost track of everything, and somehow I didn’t give a shit because my Dad wouldn’t be home until the end of next week.

He’d probably be back with one foot in the next town before he even crossed the house anyway.

The absurd thing was that the guy was more likely to notice a missing vase that didn’t survive one of my house parties than a scrape or bruise on my face.

Ice hockey was nonsense. You don’t need nonsense in your life. Would you rather be after your college performance as much as the puck on the ice? Then I’d feel a little spark of pride. That’s what my Dad always said.

‘CUTIE PATOODIE,’ Carter roared, wrapping an arm around my neck while holding his cup in the air with his other hand.

This guy was lucky he was around the right people at that level because, otherwise, something like that could backfire quickly.

‘Please don’t ever call me that again, Carter,’ I called out to him over the loud music.

‘What, Cutie Patootie?’

‘Shut the fuck up.’

‘You shut the fuck up and do something good for your body for once,’ he handed me his cup.

Something suitable for my body, or my head, would be a conversation with Luna, which was desperately needed. I needed to tell her what I was thinking, and if Carter hadn’t intervened when we were both standing by the lake earlier, she would already know that too.

But that can wait for now, and I swallowed the thought as I let the alcohol from Carter’s cup flow into my mouth.

If only this didn’t escalate, and if it did, I’d be the first to join in.

It was two in the morning by now, although I wasn’t so sure about that anymore because the alcohol flowing through my veins made the hands of the wall clock look the same size, and I saw more than just two.

Most of them had already left, and Henry had taken off with Aria some time ago, which was no surprise.

I sat in the kitchen with some friends, and we gradually drank the already half-empty tequila bottle. The bitter part was that we didn’t have a single slice of lemon left, and tequila with salt wasn’t the real deal either.

Outside still sporadically, some buzzed around, where I was sure from a distance that some people fucked at the jetty.

Let’s pray for the guy that his dick does not die in the cold. But what I didn’t like about the whole watching was how Luna was flirting with a guy.

From his side, anyway.

He was sitting in the hot tub with his arms outstretched, resting on the edge of the pool and visibly flexing his arm muscles.

Who was this fucker, anyway?

‘Does anybody know this guy?’ I asked my friends without taking my eyes off them.

‘The guy who’s currently getting it on with your roommate?’ Charles rubbed the realization into my face.

I sipped my cup. ‘A straight yes or no would have sufficed.’

I wouldn’t say I liked how he was already undressing Luna with his eyes, scanning her body, just waiting for her to sit down in the water next to him.

‘I don’t know this guy. Maybe you should throw him out.’

I looked at my friends, and they all shook their heads except for Trevor’s fiancé Lucy, who had her seat on his lap.

‘This guy is going to my sister’s class at Easthill. Rumor has it he’s dropping out because he got drafted by the Seattle Kraken.’

‘Easthill?’

Lucy nodded.

I hated the Easthill Coast University hockey team because we’ve been enemies on the ice for years. Everyone hated the Easthill Hockey Team except for the Easthill Coast University Students. I thought Noah, the Captain, and now this were really shitty people.

There have been rumors that Noah injects stimulants into his veins, but if there have been drug tests, nothing has ever been found.

Who brought one of those fuckers to my party?

I didn’t like that the guy from Easthill Coast University was sitting in my hot tub with his ass.

Luna seemed so reasonable that she wouldn’t go for the guy, so I returned to my empty cup and spun it on the kitchen countertop.

‘Aren’t you going to do anything about it?’ Trevor said, and I looked at him as he nodded toward the hot tub.

Luna climbed in to join him in a t-shirt but sat on the edge opposite him and dangled her bare legs in the water.

What, from the bottom of my heart, the hell?

‘Why? Luna is her own person, with her own brain and voice.’ I noticed my body tense up.

Why did my friends think letting Luna get away from the guy was my business? Luna has her life, and I have my own life. As long as they’re not fucking around in front of me, I don’t give a shit what they were doing.

‘I’m just saying,’ Trevor raised his hands in defense.

‘It’s fine. Let her do it.’

At least she still had a t-shirt on.

From the look on his face, I was sure he had already taken off her white t-shirt with his eyes.

‘Pussy!’

‘Huh?’ I turned to Carter, propped up on the kitchen counter with both arms, staring into his cup.

‘I said, you’re a pussy.’

‘I think you should go to bed,’ I got up from the bar stool, forcing myself not to look into the garden again, put Carter’s arm around my shoulders, and headed toward the stairs.

He definitely can’t sleep at home.

‘We’re heading out now, too.’ Trevor and Lucy waved at me, and Charles ran after them.

Once upstairs in my room, I let go of Carter’s arm, and he plopped down on my mattress.

‘Sleep it off, and don’t throw up in my bed.’

My best friend mumbled something into the pillow, which I didn’t understand, but maybe it was better that way because he could save himself a stupid smart-ass remark now anyway.

What always amazed me was that the alcohol he drank at every little party didn’t affect his well-trained body or his performance on the ice.

On the contrary, the guy was a god in that regard, and I said that as one who considered pussy a religion. Carter could stand on the ice even with a hangover and shoot a puck into the opposing team’s net.

Back downstairs in the kitchen, the two hanging out on the dock ran into me.

‘It was a cool party. The jetty is awesome.’

‘Thanks, I guess?’

What did you answer to that?

Ey, thanks. I hope you both could bring yourselves to orgasm!

The two of them also disappeared through the front door, and only Luna, the wanker whose name I didn’t know, and I was left here. It just tingled in my fingertips to finally throw the guy out, and I let my intuition run wild from now on.

I turned off the lights in the garden, and the only lights still on were those of the hot tub, which changed between red, blue and purple, and the fairy lights that hung over the terrace.

‘I think your friends just left, too,’ I lied.

‘Okay, and who cares?’

‘I was going to put it nicely but to translate it for complete idiots like you. Pack your stuff and fuck off. Party’s over.’

Luna was visibly annoyed with me as she rolled her eyes, and I was sure she was about to give me a telling-off.

‘Go ahead,’ I growled.

‘Is that your boyfriend?’

Yes, it is to you. At that moment, I’d be anything for Luna right now. Anything to finally get this asshole to leave.

‘No,’ we both said at the same time.

He hesitantly got out of the hot tub, and I pressed his clothes into his hands.

‘Do you at least have a towel for me, bro?’

I looked at him, stunned. I hoped the fucker would die of his oversized ego.

If not, I’ll be happy to add to it.

‘You want some more fresh socks?’

I boiled with rage.

‘Ey, really?’

‘No, fuck off now, or I’ll stuff your mouth with your socks.’

This fucker and I walked towards the front door, and he quickly nodded to Luna, who then waved at him.

‘You got that little girl’s number?’

That’s how brave this guy was, asking me for her number at the front door. Either he didn’t have the ass to ask her, or he was trying to provoke me.

‘First of all, her name is Luna, and second of all, no.’

‘What a jealous prick you are. She’s not yours.’

Not yet.

That was enough for me to give him a blind date with my fist, and I hit his nose perfectly. It was like all the alcohol suddenly leaked out of my pores. He held his hands in front of his nose. Before he could show any other reaction, I dropped the door with a shove into the door frame.

I hoped his nose was broken.

Luna was still sitting on the edge of the hot tub as she had just been, while her legs were tumbling in the water.

‘That was an indirect request for you to get out of the hot tub, too.’

‘Or what? Are you going to punch me in the face, too?’

‘Never. Never in your life should you think such a thing of me.’

‘What am I supposed to think? Is Tyler an exception, or what? I liked him. He seemed pretty nice,’ Luna hissed, glaring at me angrily.

Now it clicked in my head, and I could put a name to the rumor Lucy was telling.

The rumor that he got a contract from the Seattle Kraken was complete bullshit. He started it himself because he wasn’t dropping out of college because of a contract, but he won’t even graduate because of his lousy class performance.

‘Yeah, one exception. The only thing he wanted was to get you in bed,’ I said, hoping she would realize what an asshole that Tyler guy was.

Her gaze darkened before she put her head back and looked up at the clear starry sky.

‘I’m not having this conversation with you, Weston. None of this is any of your fucking business.’

I didn’t think so. I want it to be my business and show her what she really deserves. It drove me crazy how much jealousy I felt inside, even though I swore I would never feel anything for her.