Icebreaker by A. L. Graziadei

Author:A. L. Graziadei
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

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I’M NOT ALLOWED on the bench with the team for the next game, so I sit with Jade in the row behind where the women’s team will sit once they finish changing. All anyone wants to talk about is my fight, and I chew on the rim of my plastic cup like it’ll hide me and everything I did last night. Delilah used cover-up on my hickey and honestly god bless her, because I didn’t need to add that to the bruises plastered all over the internet now.

Most of the people back off when Jade starts telling me all about her plans for her final art portfolio, but a couple are still rude enough to try to interrupt.

I ignore them.

“I don’t know, I’m worried though,” she says as the first few women’s players start filing into their seats. “I feel like nothing is original anymore, like anything I come up with, someone’s already done, and done better, and even if they haven’t people will say they did because I’m a Black woman. People don’t like to admit when a Black woman can do something better than them.”

“Gonna be real hard to deny it with the work you do,” I say. I don’t know anything about art, but I know when something looks good, and hers looks good.

Jade sighs, watching as Delilah makes her way toward us. “They always find a way.”

It’s weird seeing Delilah in something other than a dress or hockey gear, matching her team in their postgame sweats. She slumps into the seat right in front of Jade, and when I say slumps, I mean she’s sunk so low, she’s barely on the seat at all. Jade leans forward and offers her the tea she brought in a travel mug and a pill over her shoulders. Delilah tilts her head back and says, “God, I love you. Thank you.”

Jade kisses her temple and sits back as Delilah downs the pill with a short sip of tea.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask.

Jade frowns. “Cramps.”

I’ve been in a group chat with my sisters long enough to know that’s not something to scoff at. Especially not with Delilah. She’s got something called endometriosis and apparently it’s worse than a heart attack.

“But you just played a game!” I say. And she straight-up dominated the ice.

“Such is life with a uterus,” Delilah grumbles.

I grimace, turning my attention back to the ice where my team is finishing their warm-up. Dorian, Barbie, and Cauler skate toward the bench together. The sight of Cauler makes it hard to breathe, and when he looks up at me and smiles, I think I die a little.

I spend most of the first period talking with Jade and answering questions from the fans sitting around us, to the point where I’m no doubt gonna be chewed out by Coach again for not paying attention.

Seeing the Royals play from the outside is damn near a religious experience. We’ve settled into something fast and fluid and beautiful and completely worthy of our 10–3–1 record.

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