Get Pucked

16. embarrassed

DAKOTA

I'm a liar. I've lied to everyone around me and I hate myself so much for it.

Nashville, New York, and Detroit. Those are the first three cities where I've already been offered an apprenticeship, and I'm meeting with a bakery in Tampa when I go home for Thanksgiving break. I'm also still waiting to hear back from about ten more places around the country.

I hate that I'm lying to everyone, but I don't want to make any decisions about my future until I'm one hundred percent certain about where I want to live. Every time Connor or Ellie asks about it I get clammy and have to hope they can't see through my words.

It's also been one of the only things on my mind for the past few weeks, so to say I'm happy that Ellie and I are heading to her parent's house for the weekend would be an understatement. Her parents are out of town for work and need a dog sitter, so she offered us up so that she'd be in a comfortable place when she heard back about her vet school applications this weekend as well.

It's really a win-win.

Plus, Ellie and I have always been great road-trip partners, so the three-hour drive has been fun.

"Do you care if Nate comes up for the night? He wants to be here if there's something to celebrate," she looks at me from the passenger seat.

"Only if he brings us lunch," I counter.

Nate, Ellie's twenty-five-year-old brother, is practically mine as well. He's a medical student in Cleveland, living only ten minutes away from their parent's lake house there. Every summer, we all meet up for a week and hang out, wakeboarding and jetskiing until we're so burnt we have to spend a month inside.

"Good idea," she smirks, typing away on her phone. "Did you hear about the scouts coming to see the guys this weekend?"

"Yeah," I can't stop the proud smile from spreading over my entire face. "Let's just hope they don't mess it up, could you imagine if Connor and Parker are drafted for the same team?" I speak a little louder over the gravel road leading up to their driveway.

"At least they'd beg you to follow them to the same place next year," she shrugs.

"Parker and I haven't talked about it at all," I tell her.

"You're insane if you think he isn't going to want to you come with him, wherever he may end up."

"I don't know, El, it's still really early for us. Anyways, we have a dog to play with," I park the car quickly and jump out, wanting to avoid any more conversation about the situation.

Ellie and I have been taking turns playing fetch with her dog, Ryke, for an hour now. He's a German Shepherd with more energy than both of us combined.

Right as I go to throw the ball again, two arms fly around my shoulders, and a body slams into my back.

"Kota bear!" I hear a familiar voice yell into my ear.

I turn around, hugging Nate back with as much strength as my arms have, "I missed you."

Nate has always been a phone call away for me even though we're not related. He's always been a shoulder to lean on if I have a problem that I don't want to worry Connor or Ellie with, he was actually the first person I told about Lincon last year. I was embarrassed and needed advice on how to tell them about what had happened.

He hugs me tightly for another moment before pulling back, a smile falling off of his face the second his eyes meet mine. "What the fuck?" His hands fly to my face, turning my head in a million directions so he can study the growing bruise. "Dakota, why does it look like someone rocked your shit?"