Jack entered the locker room and flung his neck towel down onto a bench. He hurried in and out of the shower before any of his teammates were finished. When Peter eventually jogged into the locker room, Jack was already getting dressed.
The captain did his usual round of high fives and cheered with the rest of the team, then stopped next to Jack. “Sullivan, my man,” he said, giving Jack a pat on the shoulder. “It’ll go better next time, and we won anyway.”
Jack gave him a stiff nod, avoiding catching his eye. He was scared he might punch his friend otherwise. Peter’s words of condescension continued to ring in his ears, their implied meaning obvious. Did Peter expect Jack to thank him for saving the game? Fat chance of that. He’d never been jealous of Peter being the better player. Jack cared more about his academic achievements as far as his time at Harvard was concerned. Yet tonight, he was bitterly jealous of Peter’s raw talent. He was getting increasingly mad, and it was all Alice’s fault.
Jack finished getting dressed, packed his bag, and sat on a bench near his locker to wait for the others to catch up with him. When they were all showered and mostly dressed, Coach Morrison came in for his usual after-game speech. Jack’s shoulders slumped, and he prepared himself for another humiliating fifteen minutes.
As expected, praises for Peter were equaled only by admonishments toward Jack. Harsh, but—thanks to the final victory—brief. Peter had cut his rebuff short by winning the game almost single-handedly; it should have made Jack appreciate his captain. It only made him angrier.
After dinner, a few players decided to go for a nightcap somewhere nearby. Jack was tempted to say goodnight and go sulk in the privacy of his room, but then he noticed Peter join the group. A mean idea struck him. If Peter was going, so would Jack. All it took to end Peter’s so-called relationship with Ice was for the captain to go home with a pretty girl. Piece of cake! Peter always ended up sleeping with someone after a victory on the court.
They headed for a cheap beer in The Cambridge Queen’s Head, a low-key pub on campus. There were six of them in total, the best regular players. Scott and David Williams, two brothers on the team, went to order for everyone while the others secured a table. Jack was puzzled. It was rare for the two brothers to hang out together; they usually avoided each other. Besides blood ties, the two seemed to have little in common. Scott was warm and easygoing, David cold and detached. Jack was pretty sure they hated each other. He shook the thought away; the Williams brothers weren’t his focus right now.
Jack concentrated on the crowd in the pub. Being Saturday night, it was busy and packed with pretty girls. In fact, just as Scott and David returned with their beers, two blonde girls strolled by. One had her hair tied up in a high ponytail; she had a cute smile and big eyes. Pretty. Yet her friend was more attractive with her long, straight hair and doll face.
“Did you guys all swallow a bottle of Skele-Gro as kids?” Ponytail asked, while her friend smiled with a flirtatious twinkle in her eyes.
Jack would’ve usually focused all his attention on the prettiest girl, but tonight he had a different agenda. He chatted up the ponytailed friend, completely ignoring Doll Face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Doll Face’s temporary confusion at being overlooked. Then the girl shrugged and turned to talk to the other tall guy standing next to her: Peter.
Jack was only half-following his conversation with Ponytail. He was too busy trying to overhear snippets of what Peter was saying to Doll Face. She was exactly his type, much more than Alice was, especially with her new look.
“Are you even listening to me?” Ponytail asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Jack lied.
“So what do you think?”
“About what?”
“Forget it. I’m getting another drink.” She left.
Doll Face was still talking to Peter when she noticed her friend was gone.
“I’d better check on my friend,” she told Peter. Her tone suggested she didn’t actually want to. Jack read her imaginary subtitles: “I want you to tell me to ignore my friend and ask me to stay here.”
Jack waited for Peter to use one of his usual get-lucky lines. If he left with this girl, his relationship with Ice would end before it even started.
Instead, Peter just shrugged. “Sure,” he said, lifting his glass to drain the last inch of his beer. “I’m heading home anyway.”
Hit by her second rejection of the night, Doll Face left tight-lipped.
Jack was shocked and unnerved. True, the team never stayed out late or for more than a light beer during the season, but that didn’t mean they didn’t pick up girls on the way. It wasn’t like Peter to pass on an opportunity like this.
The team left together, and they paused outside the pub in the cool night air to say goodbye and part ways. Scott and David headed down Cambridge St. with Matt and Blake, while Peter and Jack left in the opposite direction up Oxford St.
“Dude,” Jack said as they walked. “That girl you blew off was hot.”
“My man,” Peter sighed. “She was.”
“How come she’s not headed home with you?”
“I have a date with Alice tomorrow.”
“Oh, so now you’re going exclusive?”
Peter stopped. “Sullivan, if you have a problem with me dating one of your friends, just come out with it and say so.”
“I don’t have a problem with you dating anyone,” Jack lied. “But I care about her and I don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“So why did you try to fix me up with a blonde doll tonight?”
“I didn’t. I was talking to her friend.”
Peter ignored his lie. “Listen, my man, I get it. Alice is your friend; I told you, I have my white gloves on.” He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers. “So, did I pass the test?”
Jack nodded stiffly. Peter was too smart for his own good, only he had no idea how badly Jack wanted him to fail, not pass.