A guy nods at them as he passes them. It’s Keith Taylor. The kid the Ravens call Crab.
“Oh, hey,” Blake says.
The kid freezes. “H…i.”
Blake grins at him.
“I’m so sorry about when I, you know… I’m really sorry about that. I honestly didn’t mean to.”
“No hard feelings, kid,” Blake says, because he scared the crap out of him, he had his fun, and he knows that the kid really didn’t mean to give him a concussion.
Keith Taylor smiles uncertainly and then practically runs away from them.
“What was that all about?” Charlie asks.
Blake only shakes his head.
Maybe half of the Ravens are here. No Mariners. They’re out of town. As he and Charlie walk around, they also come across a few more of their own teammates, but it looks like most of them ended up going to the rookie party. Or they’re home with their families.
Blake would also prefer being home with his family of two cats.
“Okay,” Blake says, “find someone to talk to.”
“What?”
“That’s why we’re here, right?”
“I mean, yeah, but…”
“Excuse me,” a girl says, smiling at them as she passes, “could I… You guys are right in front of the tiny burgers. Which might be your plan, you know, hiding the tiny burgers, so you can have them all.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Blake says. “But I think we’ll share. Right, Charlie?”
“Right,” Charlie says.
Blake steps aside so she can get some burgers, then he gives Charlie a pointed look.
Charlie gives him a pointed look back, looking absolutely helpless.
Blake waves. Just say something.
“You should try the ones with chicken,” Charlie tells her. “They’re good.”
“Oh, I will, thanks for the tip,” she says.
“I’m Charlie,” says Charlie.
“Nice to meet you, Charlie, I’m Emma.”
“Hi,” says Charlie.
“Hi,” says Emma.
That’s Blake’s cue to leave. He grabs another small burger and sneaks away. Charlie doesn’t even seem to notice that Blake is begging off. He’s not going home immediately, because he didn’t come all the way here from fucking Newark to spend half an hour at a party.
The good thing is that there are so many people at this party that it’s easy enough to hide, the partygoers spread out across several rooms, no one really paying any mind to Blake as he wanders about. He slips past a bunch of Ravens players who apparently just arrived, hangs out in a corner, scrolling through Twitter on his phone for a bit, and then ducks into the kitchen when a girl across the room keeps smiling at him.
In the kitchen, he finds a teary-eyed girl and her friend and two guys who are bickering.
“–can’t believe you wouldn’t stop flirting with him. Fuck’s sake, Jay.”
They look up when Blake wanders into the kitchen and fall silent.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” Blake says.
“No worries, tall one,” says the guy named Jay.
The other guy shoots Jay a murderous look.
“You want a drink?” Jay asks.
Blake holds up his beer. “I’m good.” He does grab a plate and some appetizers, though.
“You a hockey player?” the nameless guy asks.
“Yeah,” Blake says.
“There are so many of you,” Jay says.
Blake snorts.
“And all so handsome,” he continues. “We were talking to one of your fellow… hockeys. He was pretty. But so are you.”
“I swear he’s not harassing you.” The long-suffering guy holds out his hands. “I’m Marcus. The one without a brain-to-mouth filter is Jayden.”
“Blake,” Blake says and shakes his hand. “What do you guys do?”
“Jay’s in Wicked, I’m in Jersey Boys.”
“Oh, so you’re… actors?”
They nod. Jay winks at him and Blake is weirdly pleased.
“I have to admit, I’ve never been to a Broadway show,” Blake says.
“Well, I’ve never been to a hockey game, so I guess we’re on the same page,” Jay says. “Although our new best friend did offer us tickets. What do you do in the hockey? Score a lot of goals?”
“I’m a goalie, actually.”
“Ohhh,” Jay says. That’s probably the first time that I’m a goalie elicited such delight. “Is that why you’re so tall?”
“You need to stop drinking,” Marcus says.
“Shhh,” Jay says and gently puts his hand on Marcus’s face. “So do you play with Captain Elliot?”
“You guys know Elliot?”
“Yeah, we just met him,” Marcus says.
“He’s actually on a different team,” Blake says. He can’t run off and try to find Elliot, right? That would be ridiculous. “But I know him.” He really wants to talk to him. He’ll say hello real quick. Then he’ll make sure that Charlie is doing okay. Then he’ll go home. “Maybe I should find him and say hi.”
“Yeah,” Jay says, “and tell him we love him.”
Blake laughs. “Sure, I’ll do that.”
#
“Hey, it’s your best friend.”
“Wha–” Elliot looks up. He was distracted, scrolling through Instagram. “Oh.” It’s Blake. He’s across the room, looking over at one of his teammates, Charlie Trainor, who seems to be deep in a conversation with a girl over by the food.
“And he brought his luscious hair,” Adam grumbles.
“Ohhh, it’s Blake Samuels,” Lou says, across the table.
Adam looks like he’s about to crawl under the couch.
“You wanna say hi?” Elliot asks, because Adam was a dick to him earlier and he deserves it.
Lou tilts her head, eyes on Adam. “Will you still love me if I ask him for a selfie?”
Adam rolls his eyes dramatically and says, “There are maybe two things that would make me stop loving you and that’s not one of them, so I guess it’s fine.”
“Love you,” Lou says and makes grabby-hands for Elliot, who offers her his arm and leads her over to Blake.
