Home or Away by Kathleen West

Author:Kathleen West [West, Kathleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

LEIGH MACKENZIE

August 2001

My bangs are growing out funny, and they look so stupid in a headband,” Susy said to Leigh in their dorm room. The light outside their window had turned pinkish. Dinner would start in thirty minutes. Susy pulled her blond hair down over her eyes and scrunched her nose in displeasure.

Leigh looked up from the InStyle she’d been paging through. The outfit she’d just inspected featured a knee-length cobalt dress with peep-toe ankle boots. As if Leigh or any of the other hockey players would have an occasion to wear such an ensemble. Once they made the team, they’d be in two-a-days, alternately lifting increasingly heavy barbells in USA gym shorts and throwing on sweaty dry-fit tights beneath their breezers to take the ice.

“Come here.” Leigh closed the magazine, sat on the edge of her twin bed, and pointed at the floor next to her. “Let’s try braiding them.”

Susy frowned. “I didn’t wash my hair after the afternoon skate.”

“Who cares?” Leigh said. “I’ve touched sweaty hair a million times.”

Susy flipped her wrist and looked at her Timex. Leigh could see a tan line at the edge of the band as it slipped. She’d been running a lot that summer, for sure. Susy’s stamina never flagged, whereas in the final minutes of the toughest skates, Leigh found herself wheezing. “Do we have time before dinner?” Susy asked.

“It’ll take two minutes.” Leigh combed out the left side of Susy’s hair with her fingers. Susy hadn’t said anything about the oatmeal the night before. She hadn’t asked about Leigh’s phone call with Charlie or about Jeff’s appearance in the training room that day after lunch.

Jeff had coughed as he leaned against the doorway, staring at Leigh as she swung her legs out of the ice bath. Leigh’s thighs had been pink and splotchy from the cold water as she hop-skipped after Jeff toward an empty locker room off the pool deck.

Leigh pulled Susy’s growing-out bangs to the left and began a tight French braid, trapping the shorter pieces in the plait.

“So,” Susy said as Leigh brought the braid toward the crown of her head, “are you going to tell me what’s going on with Jeff?”

Leigh tugged Susy’s hair tight, and her head jerked back. “Sorry. I just want these shorter strands to stay put.” She held all three pieces of hair with one hand and smoothed the fledgling braid with the other.

“Did you and Charlie break up?” Susy asked.

Leigh knew Susy had liked Charlie, too. How could she not? Charlie was the nicest person in the universe and also looked like a literal movie star. But Leigh had won the national championship the week before they’d met him. There was that thing about the victor and the spoils. And Charlie was devoted to Leigh. He and the guys from his dorm floor had painted GO LEIGH USA on their skinny chests in red, white, and blue for the World Championship final. Leigh still had the photo of them all together in her nightstand.

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