Grace
The bar is already loud by the time I arrive with Krissi and the noise spills out onto the street. This is what happens when several sports teams want to blow off steam all at the same time. I don't particularly care about any of the others, but I know Krissi and some of the others do. Normally because they're dating someone from another team.
"I'm not sure how much of this I can take," I murmur.
She snorts. "How much celebrating?"
"Yeah, you know how the rugby team gets when they win. No offence."
"None taken," she responds. "I'm not the one on the rugby team."
"I'd have thought you'd come with Jeremy." I push open the door and we head inside.
"He had to go to the medical room first."
Alarm crosses my face and I regret making it sound like I think the rugby team are unreasonable. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine, he just got tackled hard and they want to make sure he hasn't hurt himself. You saw, right?"
"Oh, right." Now she mentions it, there was a nasty tackle that looked as if it would have hurt.
"He'll be here soon, you don't think he'd miss a chance to celebrate a win did you?"
I shrug. "It's not like he's on the basketball team."
Krissi laughs. "I heard they lost again today."
"I think that's a given at this point. Have they won at all this year?"
"Not as far as I know," she says. "But then again, neither have we."
"Ouch, did you have to go there? We got through to the next round at least," I say as we head to the bar.
"Mmm, that's true. What do you want?" She gestures to the bar.
"Rum and coke is good."
"On it." Krissi flags down the bartender and orders us drinks.
I turn around and lean against the bar in time to see Henry and Fabio heading towards us with a couple of the guys from the rugby team who didn't need to head to the medical room before coming out.
"Hey, Grace."
"Henry." I haven't had enough to drink to deal with him. And by enough, I mean anything.
"You did good out there today."
I raise an eyebrow. "I did?"
"Yeah I saw the back handspring you did, it was impressive." He leans against the bar next to me and I'm suddenly aware of his closeness.
He smells nice. It must be his soap, or maybe whatever it is he's washing his clothes in, because the scent is familiar. Presumably, I've smelled it on him while we've been paired together for practice.
"Thanks," I murmur, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as I look down.
"Yeah, anyway. It looked good."
"Careful, Henry, it'll almost seem as if you're giving me a compliment."
He snorts. "Hardly. Just one athlete recognising another. You can't tell me you've never noticed anything I do."
"You caught Amanda earlier," I say, surprising even myself with the comment. "She was a little early, your instincts were good on that one."
"She was," he agrees. "But it wasn't just me, Asher was there to help."
"I guess that's why cheering is a team sport."
"Yeah." His beer appears in front of him. "See you around, Grace." He gives me a smile.
I frown and watch him walk off.
"Do I want to know?" Krissi asks, holding out my drink to me.
I shrug. "There's nothing to know."
"I believe that about as much as you believed me when I said there was nothing going on between me and Jeremy."
"Except that the difference is you and Jeremy actually liked each other. At best, I have mild tolerance for Henry and that's only because he doesn't drop me."
She snorts. "Yeah, sure. Mild tolerance. More like you're annoyed that you're attracted to him."
"What? I'm not." I sip my drink and wrinkle my nose as I realise it's not cold enough. I close my eyes and summon a pinch of pixie dust to my fingers, dropping it into the glass and mixing it with the straw. I take another drink and nod to myself. Better.
"I think you're lying to yourself," Krissi says.
"Why would I be lying to myself? I don't see the point of doing that. Or of messing around if I like someone."
"Mmhmm. So why don't you go over there and ask Henry to dance with you if you're not into him?" she asks.
"Is that going to be what it takes to get you off my back about this?"
The leopard shifter gives me a smile that doesn't convince me she's going to let this drop no matter what I do.
"Fine, hold this." I take another sip of my drink and hand it over to her, making my way over to where Henry is hanging out with Fabio.
I can feel Krissi watching me, and it only makes me more determined to prove to her that there's nothing but annoying team spirit between me and Henry.
I clear my throat and he turns to me.
"Want to dance?" I ask.
Surprise flits over his face, but he shrugs. "Sure."
I head over to the dance floor, throwing a told you so look at my best friend as I do.
I turn around and place my arms around Henry's neck just as he places his hands on my hips. We've been this close a few times during practice, there's no reason for it to feel different now.
But something about it does.
I sway in time with the music, noticing how easily Henry moves with me. Though that's probably just because of how much Zara keeps pushing us together.
"What's this about?" Henry asks.
I sigh. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Just like I wouldn't believe you if you denied that you were the one who put something in my shoe during practice the other day?" His lips quirk up into a smile, as if he knows he's caught me.
"Eurgh, it was just because you annoyed me. And if it makes you feel better, my socks wouldn't stay up after that, karma was out to get me."
"Yes. Karma."
I narrow my eyes at him and swat him lightly on the chest. "It was you, wasn't it?"
He grins. "Only because I'd already worked out the stone-in-the-shoe thing was you."
"Well now I feel less guilty about it," I grumble.
He chuckles and leans in, his breath fanning against my cheek. "It was fun."
"It was meant to be annoying," I mutter.
"It was that too. But maybe I like it when you're riled up at me."
The statement does funny things to my insides, though maybe that's the booze. Not that I've had much to drink.
"Don't make me curse you again," I mutter.
"Bring it on, Grace." His eyes sparkle with mischief and understanding dawns on me.
I put both hands on his chest and push him away. "You're a pixie!"
"So are you," he counters.
"How..."
He shrugs. "The stone in the shoe? You're going to have to try harder than that, Grace." He holds up his hand and a light sheen of purple dust spreads over his fingers.
"Don't you dare," I mutter.
"I won't now, but you declared a pixie dust war the moment you first cursed me. Is it going to be that easy to get you to concede?"
"Never," I respond. "Watch your back, Henry."
His satisfied smile is enough to infuriate me more. I'm going to have to come up with something good to get him back.
Clearly, the standard pixie curses aren't going to be enough to drive him as crazy as I'm feeling. But that's okay, it just means that I'm going to have to get creative.