PARKER

For the fourth day in a row, Birk wakes me up by licking my face.

Yes, he has a name now. The girls saw him trying to eat Brooks' Birkenstocks and thought it was fate, so, meet Birk. We still haven't found his owner, and even though Connor has claimed the thing as his dog, it seems to be attached to me every minute I'm home.

It's like having a second Brooks around, except only one of them is cute.

Speaking of the devil, he struts into my room without knocking and lays down on my bed.

"Kota isn't here, so why are you in my bed?"

He's formed a habit of trying to have a 'sleepover' with us every time she's here. I shut that one down quicker than Usain Bolt, I'm not sharing her at night.

"Birk missed me, isn't that right," he pulls the dog into a hug. "And you need to get up, we're leaving for practice in ten, and I'm bringing the dog!"

~

I've never seen Coach smile as much as he is watching Birk stumble around on the ice.

The whole team is loving having him here, and it's been a nice distraction from the killer practices we've been having. Since most of the team is going home for break, there's no guarantee that we'll keep up with our workout schedule, so Coach is kicking our asses before we leave.

Connor is uncharacteristically quiet, and Lincoln has been looking at me weirdly since I walked in the door, so to say I'm unnerved is an understatement. The only good thing right now is the thought of Dakota and I leaving for North Carolina in two days.

Both her and my mom are excited about the trip, and I'm excited for her to see my favorite spots. She'll be meeting my extended family, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing her with my baby cousin.

"Cadell," Connor waves me over to the bench.

Skating over, I lift my chin in acknowledgment. "Everything good?"

He nods at Lincoln standing in the hall behind him, "we need to talk to you."

"Why?"

"Now, Parker." Connor is not one to get angry often, so his harsh tone has me flying off the ice.

The three of us walk to the empty locker room, and I take a seat on the bench while they both remain standing. We stare at eachother for a few moments, all of us uncomfortable with the current situation.

"Tell him," Connor urges Lincoln.

He cracks his knuckles before finally speaking. "Josh is going to hurt Dakota."

"Come again?" I lean forward, glancing at Connor who only nods, and the small action makes my stomach sink.

"We have that long road trip next month," Lincoln reminds me, "which the whole school is obviously aware of. I overheard Josh at a party talking about how he was going to finally get revenge on her for convincing Ellie to break up with him while we're gone."

I'm still for a few seconds after he finishes, not wanting to believe what he's saying. "Why should I believe you? You're the one who basically tried to use her as a prostitute," I spit out.

He sighs, "yeah, I am, but do you really think I could morally just sit back and watch this all go down?"

A laugh escapes my throat as I stand up, getting in his face. "Don't ever try to talk morals with me."

"Parker," Connor shoves himself between us, a hand on my chest.

"Does she know?" My question is directed at both of them.

"Lincoln told her, and she told me," Connor speaks calmly. "Between us, I don't think she's taking it seriously, so I decided you needed to know too."

Hurt flashes openly across my face as I finally make eye contact with him, "you weren't going to tell me?"

"I told her I was going to, but I haven't found the right time until now," he sighs, obviously torn up.

Tearing away from his hold, I slam a gloved fist into the locker behind me, the sound echoing through the room. "Fuck!"

"Stop before you hurt yourself," I'm so mad I can't even tell who says it.

"I'm not going on the trip," I tell them.

"Like hell, you're not," Connor scoffs, "we'll figure something else out."

"How the fuck can you say that? Do you not care about her or some shit?"

He steps forward, shoving me repeatedly until my back hits the lockers. "Don't ever fucking imply that I don't care about her safety. I was there for her long before you ever were, and I'll be here long fucking after you walk away." Connor's eyes are dark as he speaks, and I stand completely still as he storms out of the room.

Lincoln shakes his head at me, then glances at the door.

"What?" I say firmly.

He goes to leave without speaking but stops, changing his mind. "Believe it or not, Cadell, I actually kind of respect you. But that," he juts a thumb toward the hall, "was a real dick thing to say to him."

"Whatever," I laugh tightly, sitting down on the bench.

~

Not even the dog can break the tension in the house tonight.

Ellie and Dakota came over earlier for a movie night they planned out the other day, but Connor and I haven't even looked in each other's direction since our argument this morning. Instead of her usual spot between us, Dakota sat on the floor with Birk, leaving our tense bodies directly next to eachother.

Connor was eager to drive Ellie home after, and I don't know if it was because he was trying to get away from me, or if he wanted to get her alone.

Now, my girlfriend sits at the foot of my bed, eyeing me carefully as I scroll through Instagram, back against the headboard.

She raises an eyebrow at me, "you have a weird look on your face."

"No, I don't."

"You do," she looks sure of herself. "You were also avoiding Connor like he had the plague today."

"We had a disagreement," I shrug.

She climbs further up the bed, straddling my waist and I drop my phone, hands automatically resting on her hips. "Parker."

Lightly kissing her forehead, I smile at her. "It'll blow over, don't worry about it."

"If I tell you about my offers, will you tell me what your fight was about?"

"I never said it was a fight."

"You didn't have to," she squeezes my forearms, reading me better than anyone else would be able to.

Staring into her soft eyes, I weigh my options here. On one hand, I'm dying to know the information she's offering up. On the other, I know this girl like the back of my hand, and it'll break her heart to know the fight was over her.

Making my decision, I take a deep breath. "Tell me."

She giddily bounces, shaking my body beneath her. "Okay, are you ready?"

"So ready, love," I can't help but smile at her excitement.

"I have five official offers on the table. LA, Detroit, New York, and Tampa."

I chuckle, "Kota, that's amazing, but I think you miscounted."

"I didn't," she bites her lip, shaking her head. "I just wanted the last one to have its own moment."

"If you say some shit like Australia, I'm throwing you off this bed," I jokingly threaten.

Drumming on my bare chest, she adds anticipation before stopping abruptly. "Nashville," she whispers.

My mouth opens and closes, and I really can't tell if my ears are playing a trick on me. "Did you just say-"

"Nashville? I did," she chuckles at my reaction.

Wrapping my arms around her back, I yank her upper body so It's flush against mine, squeezing the air out of her. She hugs me back with just as much force, kissing my neck lightly between laughs and rubbing a hand on the back of my head.

I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my chest, making it easier to breathe. "Does this mean-"

Cutting me off again, she pulls back slightly to look me in the eyes. "As of right now, it's just an offer. All of them are. I haven't accepted anything yet, and nothing is off the table. But yes, there is a chance we'll both be in Nashville next year."

Satisfied with her answer, I wrap a hand around the front of her neck, bringing her lips to mine.

"Nope," she mumbles against me, "I did my part, now you need to hold up your end of the deal."

"This is such a happy moment, though," I dispute, continuing to kiss her.

"Don't care," she says, pulling away from my hold and laying on her side next to me, head on the pillow.

Tucking a stray hair behind her ear, I whisper, "I don't want it to upset you."

She grabs my wrist, placing a feather-like kiss on my open palm. "It's okay, I want to know."

"He and Lincoln told me about the whole Josh thing."

I see her physically tense, and it tears at my heart.

"Oh."

"I told Connor that I'd stay home from the road trip and stay with you instead, and when he told me no, I accused him of not caring about your safety."

"Then," she pushes me to continue.

"Then he said some shit about how he's been here for you longer, and he'll continue to be after I walk away from you." Cupping the side of her face, my thumb runs over her parted lips, "which I'll never do."

Now that I'm not in the heat of the moment, the weight of both of our words hits me like a truck. She's basically his sister, and I told him he didn't care about her. I told him that I love her, yet he said I was going to walk away from her. Both are complete lies.

Dakota climbs off of the bed, walking toward the door, and she holds a hand out when I go to stand up and follow her. "Stay," she commands, and I do exactly that, scared of her possible reaction.

Just when I start to worry that she left the house, I hear Connor's voice carry down the hallway and through my open door.

"Stop, that fuckin hurts."

"Deal with it," she drags him into my room by his ear and pushes him onto my bed, slamming the door closed behind them.

Saying nothing, she looks between the two of us for a solid three minutes, tapping her foot against the floor.

This commanding attitude is turning me the hell on.

"Connor, why did I not want to tell him about Josh?" Her voice is icy.

"You didn't want to stress him out," he mumbles, not even making eye contact with her.

"And now we're all stressed, would you look at that," she gasps sarcastically, but we can both see through the tough act she's trying to put up.

"Kota-" I start.

She points a finger at me, "no. I'm mad at you too right now."

I nod at her, "understood."

"I appreciate that you both care about me so passionately, I really do," she stresses. "But at the end of the day, how I handle this situation is my decision, and the last thing I want is for it to mess up your friendship."

When her voice begins to wobble at the end, Connor and I shoot off of the bed and share a look, silently putting an end to our argument. We surround her, sandwiching her small body between ours as she desperately tries to get ahold of her emotions.

The three of us stand together for a few minutes, waiting for her to catch her breath.

"We're okay," Connor says quietly in her ear. "Parker and I will always be good, we both said some bad things in the moment and needed some time to calm down a bit."

When she finally lifts her head, the sight of her red-rimmed eyes splits me in half.

"I know Con cares about you, I shouldn't have said what I did," I admit. "Reality is, I can't take it back, and I deserved him being angry at me for that."

He squeezes my shoulder, "I shouldn't have implied you'll leave her. Sometimes, it's hard for me to accept that I'm not the only one who worries about her like this anymore."

Fist bumping him, I nod. "All good, man."

"Can you both just hug or something?" Dakota sniffles, "it'll just help me feel better about this."

Laughing, we hug eachother for a few seconds to appease our favorite girl. Like I said before, we'd do anything for her.

"Am I allowed to go back to sleep now?" Connor raises an eyebrow at her.

"Yes," she finally smiles, "but I want Birk."

Groaning, I lay back down. "Whenever he sleeps with us you cuddle him more than me."

"You either get me with the dog or you don't get me at-"

"Connor, give us Birk! I miss that big guy!"

______

Just kidding, I cranked out another chapter so I decided to upload twice this week anyway!