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Logan finds Hannah picking at her shoelaces by the DA's office. After Delaney pressed charges, Garrett suited up and called his lawyers. The Bruins’ offered someone up, too, but Garrett turned them down. He’s been in the district attorney’s office for nearly three hours now—Delaney has been strictly told to come in the next morning to avoid another fight. They’re trying to get him to drop the case.
Logan had known Hannah would be here without Garrett mentioning she would be. She’s wearing her hair in a bun with all these pieces hanging around her pale face, and she looks up when she hears him coming down the hall. There are dark circles under her eyes.
“Hey,” she says, swiping at her cheeks. Her hands glisten before she wipes them on her jeans.
“Hey,” says Logan. He sits in the chair next to her. To be honest, he hasn’t really gotten over his crush. But Hannah and Garret are so locked in that he can’t even hope that she’ll notice him. “Do you need a ride back home?”
“No,” Hannah sniffles. “I—This is all my fault.”
Logan blinks. Then he laughs. “How could this possibly be your fault?”
Hannah scrunches up her face. Her lashes are clumped together with tears, and they make her blue eyes look brighter. “Delaney—said something about me. To Garrett. That’s why he got upset.”
“Oh,” says Logan. He relaxes a bit. Guys from other teams were always chirping them about girls—when Tucker was seeing that one girl freshman year, the guys at Saint A’s were ruthless with their teasing. It’s not something Logan loves about hockey. The game is the important part. If you can’t play without opening your mouth to chirp someone, then you’re probably not that great of a player. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” she sighs. Rubs at her eyes. “He. Logan.” She turns to face him. Her button-down is rumpled and stained with chocolate on the breast pocket. She fiddles with her necklace. “I’m only going to tell you this because I think you should know. Since I trust you.”
“Woah,” says Logan, putting his hands up. “I get it. I don’t blame Garrett for fighting him. We made up weeks ago.”
Hannah huffs out a laugh through her nose. “And I appreciate that, because he was acting stupid. But this is about me. You know Garrett isn’t on a hair-trigger. Delaney called me a lying slut. And he would know,” she says, glancing away. “Since he raped me.”
Logan feels all the blood in his body go ice cold. It suddenly makes sense why Garrett was so shifty about why he’d punched Delaney. Not my story to tell, he’d said. And now Hannah is telling him it.
“Hannah,” he says softly, “Jesus, I’m sorry.”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. I promise it’s fine. I was gonna tell Dean and Tucker too, but I know you better so, um, this is easier. I’m kinda scared to tell them but they deserve to know.”
“They don’t,” says Logan. “I mean, no one needs to know.”
“I want them to know,” Hannah amends.
“I could tell them for you.”
She stares at him. The necklace she’s been fiddling with has a golden G charm, and Logan’s throat tightens around nothing. “Would you?” she whispers.
“Yeah,” he says, “totally. I gotchu.”
Hannah beams at him and that’s all the warning he gets before she tosses herself at him and drags him into a hug. She’s warm and smells kind of flowery. Logan hugs her back awkwardly. That’s how Garrett finds them two minutes later. He shoots Logan an unimpressed look and collects Hannah to drive her home. Hannah turns around and gives him a thumbs up. He returns it with a wavery grin.
He decides to tell everyone during dinner. Hannah tells Garrett that he’s going to tell them but clears Garrett out on a date so it’s just Logan, Dean, and Tucker. For the best, probably.
r u positive, he texts Hannah.
Yes, she texts back, please. I want them to know.
It feels sort of odd to be the one to tell Dean and Tucker the situation instead of her, but forcing her to do it herself would probably only make it worse. So Logan mans up and waits until Tucker is finished shoveling arugula salad into his mouth before he says, “So, the Delaney thing.”
“Jesus Christ,” says Dean. “This is all we’ve talked about in weeks. Don’t tell me you’re nervous too. He’s gonna drop the charges.”
“Noooo,” says Logan, drawing out the last syllable. “Um. So Hannah wanted me to tell you something. I’m gonna say it and then we can decide next steps, okay?”
“Mkay,” says Tucker, chewing on a beet now. Dean gives him a disgusted look.
Logan takes a deep breath. “So. Delaney raped Hannah.”
Tucker stops chewing. He looks between Logan and Dean, eyes wide, and swallows prematurely. Dean’s bitchy expression is wiped away by sincere shock.
“Holy fuck,” he says, “so that’s why Garrett went balistic.”
Logan nods. “Now, I wasn’t going to tell Hannah this part. But I think we should probably make sure he’s out for the rest of the season, right?”
It feels dirty to go behind her back like this, Logan can admit, but they’re not gonna beat Delaney up. Maybe just rough him up next time he’s on ice. He just needs to make sure Garrett doesn’t join in.
Tucker is nodding frantically. “Yeah, dude, for sure. For sure.”
Dean grins at him. “Oh, Logan. My sweet Logan. You’re thinking too small. We’ve got to employ the big guns here.”
“The big guns?” asks Logan.
“Wait,” says Tucker, “so we’re not beating him up?”
“I have a better idea,” Dean says.
“I’m so glad you called me,” says Allie. She’s wearing a long plaid skirt and Dean keeps staring at her ankles underneath it like he’s entranced. Whatever—Logan isn’t sure if he’s supposed to know that Allie and Dean have started to hook up again, so he keeps quiet. Allie taps something on her phone and hands it to him.
“What am I supposed to do?” asks Logan.
She rolls her eyes. “Each of you has a fake account. Logan, you’re a Bruins recruiter. Tucker, you’re James Schnider, Delaney’s teammate. Dean, you’re a random girl who wants to hook up with Delaney. Together—” she makes a fist, “we are going to singlehandedly ruin his life. Make him believe that he’s being chosen for the Bruins. Make his team disgusted by him. Make him think that he’s going on a date with a pretty girl and then beat him up.”
“Hold on,” says Tucker, “I thought we weren’t beating anyone up?”
“Like, a tiny bit of beat up,” Allie admits.
Logan stares down at her phone. “Allie, I hate to break it to you, but most guys don’t care if their team has a rapist on it.”
“Are you telling me,” she says, “that you’re the only nice hockey players around? I doubt that. We start small. Then we go big.”
“This is a stupid idea,” says Garrett. “I should just punch him again.”
Allie whips around to face him. “Absolutely not. Dean can do the beating up. And you can’t tell Hannah.”
Garrett rolls his eyes but settles back into his chair. He crosses his arms over his chest and nods.
“Alright team,” says Allie, “roll out!”
It’s surprisingly fun to pretend to be a Bruins recruiter. He messages Delaney asking if he’d be interested in training with the Bruins. Delaney is gentle in a way Logan isn’t used to, calls him sir and is exceedingly polite. Mostly Logan just wants to find him and punch his face in, but Allie keeps checking to make sure none of them are planning on doing that. Garrett tells Hannah, of course, but Hannah gets in on it too. She’s a good-natured girl but has no problem writing scathing text messages about how Delaney embarrassed himself last game.
It’s Tucker who cracks the code first. He messages other guys on the team with a link to an article about Hannah’s court case against him. A lot of the guys laugh it off but a good amount of them express how uncomfortable they are with the idea of Delaney hurting a girl that way. More than Logan expected. He knows that if someone on the Hawks had a sexual assault case raised against them, he and the guys would drop them faster than a one-timer. He just hadn’t expected other teams to have the same idea.
The next time Saint A’s plays, their formations are all wrong and some of the guys don’t celebrate with Delaney when he scores. They end up losing 4-1 against Chatham. Dean throws a mini party in honor; just the six of them, but even Hannah lets loose and ends up doing a duet with Tucker to Total Eclipse of the Heart. Then Dean goes on a date with Delaney and makes him cry, somehow, without even laying a finger on him.
“How the fuck,” says Logan, swiping through the pictures Dean took. They’re already on Fifth Line. The comments are crazy.
Dean shrugs. “I found his mom’s Facebook. She says some crazy stuff on there.”
Finally, Logan lays down the law and tells Delaney the Bruins aren’t interested in him anymore. His phone starts blowing up and he throws it under the couch cushions. Allie grins at him. She can be kind of evil when she wants to be.
Hannah smiles. “Thanks, guys,” she says. “This is a better plan than beating him up.”
“Yeah,” says Tucker, “we totally would’ve gotten expelled or something.”
“Or something,” mutters Hannah, probably thinking about all the loopholes hockey players use when they’re in trouble. Logan laughs a bit.
“Totally deserved,” Allie chirps. “Now, who wants to play Just Dance again?”
He catches Garrett leading Hannah away later that night, and she’s shaking a bit. He figures it’s not his place to worry but—Hannah turns around and she’s laughing, teeth flashing, and Garrett leans down and kisses her. Oh. Logan shakes his head fondly and gets back to beating Tucker’s ass at Mario Kart.