"Hey, Jackie. Are you—" I walked into our dorm, and there was Jackie sitting on her bed, her eyes red enough to match her hair. "Whoa, dude. What's with the emotions?"

"What emotions?" she asked, her voice rubbing my skin like sandpaper.

"I'm not a feelings expert by any means, but you appear to be sad," I said.

"Of course, I'm sad. I let myself get played by another asshole like Diego."

"I'm sorry about that. He was just so interested in what the hell I'm doing, and he kinda prioritized his own curiosity over you."

"Wow, thanks for the reminder." She turned onto her side, facing away from me. "Just go away. I'm not in the mood to talk."

"I thought you didn't even like the dude," I said.

"I didn't, until he offered to buy me dinner. Food changes things, Amanda."

Her sniffles made my skin crawl, since some of us had actual problems that we had to deal with.

As much as I wanted to roll my eyes and say, "This is fucking ridiculous," I didn't. I was proud of myself for being nice.

"Are you just going to stand there?" she asked.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do. What do you want, a hug?"

She sat up and glared at me. "Haven't you ever gone through anything like this?"

"To be honest, not really. I'm more of a 'don't get emotionally involved with people' type of gal."

She rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"Look, I'm already pissed off enough right now, and I really don't—" I stopped myself before I could finish my thought. I didn't need to put any strain on our friendship.

So I finished it in my head: And I really don't need your fucking sobbing over some stupid boy in my life right now, so get your shit together.

"Then you can just leave," Jackie spat.

"I'll be sleeping in the hallway if you need some ice cream or some shit," I said as I opened up the door.

I shut the door behind me, then slid down the door and sat with my head on my knees.

I had work, then class the next morning, and because somebody couldn't keep her shit together over a stupid arrogant asshole, I was probably going to be grumpy. Unbelievable.

I must have dozed off for a moment, because Viktor nudged me awake.

"Did you lock yourself out of your room again?" he asked.

"Nope. I just got temporarily banished for 'being insensitive,' probably."

He frowned. "Is Jackie really that upset about Diego picking the party over her?

"I think she's been crying for, like, six hours straight. It's fucking ridiculous."

"That is a little odd. Maybe she's really upset over something else."

I shrugged. "I don't know, and at this point, I don't really care."

"Don't say that. You probably do care, but you're just annoyed. That happens to you a lot."

I smiled. "It really does, doesn't it?"

He sat down beside me to the best of his ability, then rested his crutches against the wall. "Are you just going to sit here all night?"

"Maybe. Depends on whether Jackie continues to be a little baby."

"Don't say things you'll regret later. Just focus on something else."

"Well, believe it or not, being personally attacked by your girlfriend is enough to put me in a shitty mood for a little bit," I said with a slight chuckle. "I just don't get it."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Well, that's news to me. You seem to like where she can get you."

"I don't need or want her negativity in my life anymore. I like your negativity a hell of a lot more," Viktor said.

"Wait, what?"

"I didn't like how she talked to you, so now, she can find someone else on the team as payment for her thing with the twins. She's not my problem anymore."

"Really?" I smiled. "Ha, fuck her. That bitch had this coming for a long time."

"So you don't have to worry about her any longer. She's not an issue for us anymore."

"But what about you? Are you happier now that you dumped her ass?"

He shrugged. "I think so, but it's only been half an hour."

"I just figured you'd be miserable when this day inevitably came," I tilted my head toward my dorm room door, where we could still hear Jackie's sniffles and sobs.

Viktor shook his head. "Why would it make me miserable? There's a lot to be miserable about in this world, but that isn't one of them. You're one of the few positives for me, and I don't want anything to take that away from me."

"I understand that you've had one of the other things that makes you happy taken away from you—" I said, but Viktor interrupted.

"What, hockey? I can replace that." He made signals with his hands faster than I could follow.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked.

"American sign language. Pretty cool, right?" He smiled.

I nodded. "Okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. What did you just sign?"

"Just 'my name is Viktor.' Here, I'll teach you how to say your name."

"I'll forget it in two seconds. It's late, you know."

"You'll probably be better at learning this than me. You're a much more visual learner than I am. Here, an A is just like this." He held up an upright fist.

I copied his hand with my own. "Is that right?"

He smiled and nodded. "Exactly."

"Okay, so what's an M?"

He shifted his thumb between his pinkie finger and his ring finger. "It looks kind of like an M, so it's easy to remember."

I made the same sign.

"See? I told you that you would figure this out more quickly that I did. And another A, which looks like...?

I held up my fist, then looked at it.

"Jesus, I need to paint my nails," I said.

He laughed. "I think they look fine. An N is just like an M, but you move your thumb closer to you." He put his thumb between his second and third finger.

I did the same thing, then looked up at him with a small smile.

"D is like this." He rose his pointer finger and formed a circle with the others. "And you already know what an A looks like." He smiled. "You're lucky. You have three A's in your name. That makes your life easier."

"I guess so, but there's no way I'll remember this."

"Sure, you will. If I can do it, you certainly can."

I smiled. "I'm gonna throw up positivity now."

Viktor shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it's just pointless to worry about everything now. I'm trying my best to keep a good attitude moving forward. It's my resolution for the new year."

"I don't understand how you can be so positive about humanity, but so negative about yourself. This'll be good for you. All you have to do is start believing what I tell you."

"Except the time that you tried to convince me that the American national anthem got changed. I can't completely believe you all the time," he said with a laugh.

"Well, we should change the national anthem. 'America, Fuck Yeah' is a much better representation of who we are as a nation."

He smiled. "Of course."

My phone rang, and when I looked at the screen, Blaine's name popped up.

"What does he want?" I muttered to myself. "Do you care if I answer this?"

"Go ahead. He's your boyfriend."

Blaine and I decided that since we didn't really drift apart during the fall semester, it couldn't hurt to go for a long-distance relationship.

I picked up the phone. "Why are you calling me now?"

"That is not the proper greeting, but I'll let it slide without a lecture. Okay, so—" Blaine began, but I interrupted.

"I'm not in the mood to talk right now. I just got forcibly removed from a party and my roommate's mad at me. Can this wait until tomorrow?"

"You didn't even let me start before cutting me off."

"Sorry, but it's not like it's been months since we've seen each other. It's been three days."

"Okay, that's true, but I still have something I'd like to say, grouchy pants."

"I'm not grouchy. Just leave me alone for one goddamn second. I'm literally sitting in a fucking hallway, since my roommate is pissed at me, so—"

"Just because you're pissed, that doesn't mean you can take it out on me."

"I'm trying to avoid that, but you keep talking."

"Because you keep talking. You know what, I'm not doing this right now. Go the fuck to sleep, and I'll tell you tomorrow. Good night, gorgeous."

He hung up before I could get another word in.

"Well, that was rude," I said. "He called me gorgeous sarcastically."

"You should probably go to sleep. You get grumpy when you're tired," Viktor said.

"Right, just let me get my pillow and blankie, and I'll camp out in the goddamn hallway."

"You were in a good mood until he called you," Viktor said.

"And now I'm not happy. I'm probably about to get my period, but still, what the fuck does he want? It's, like, midnight."

"And you're yelling in the hall," Viktor said. "You should probably quiet down."

I glared at him for a second. "Whose side are you on?"

"The side of being courteous to your neighbors."

"Well, aren't you just suddenly the most moral person on the planet?"

He smiled. "I'm just trying to be a better person."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't even have to try. You're just naturally an angel."

I wasn't sure where this new old Viktor was coming from, but I missed him, and all I wanted was him back. Maybe since the pressure of his hockey career was put on hold, he was less stressed, and he could finally go back to his smiley, childlike self.

I loved that Viktor more than anything else in the entire world.

Turning away so he couldn't see my smile, I smacked him in the face with my ponytail.

He laughed. "Your hair smells really good."

"It's strawberry, I think. I don't fucking remember." My smile still hadn't faded, so I couldn't turn back to him quite yet.

"Anyway, I do have one thing I have to ask you."

"Of course. You always want something from me." I laughed, then turned to him.

"I feel like you'll actually like this, though. So my season's obviously over, but my chance to impress teams isn't. I actually got invited to a banquet thing for the Boston organization, and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, you're the reason I'm here, so I figured there wouldn't be anyone better to have by my side—"

"What?"

"I'm confused. Am I not clear?" Viktor asked.

I shook my head. "No, no. I'm just surprised, that's all. I guess I just—" I trailed off, unsure of what to say.

It wasn't about me, though, so I wasn't quite sure why "I" was my pronoun of choice.

"Is that a no?" Viktor asked.

"No, no. It's a definite maybe. It depends on when it is, of course."

Was this a step in the right direction for us?

At this point, I was pretty sure the score was Amanda: 2, Life: 5.5, but maybe this could get me a little closer to evening it all up.

"I think it's in late February. I'll let you know for sure, though." Viktor smiled. "I just feel like maybe we have a chance now. Maybe this," he gestured to his knee, "was a blessing in disguise."

I tilted my head down, then let out a breath.

"What?" he asked.

"I just—" I looked up and smiled. "I just missed this positivity from you. I know the last few months have been tough on you, but it just feels so good to hear something positive out of you again. Not really sure what triggered it, but damn, I missed it."

He smiled back at me. "I missed it too."

"Then why did you let it disappear?"

His smile faded. "She's not my problem anymore. Caroline is a thing of the past."

I stared back at him for a moment. Of course, Caroline's bitch ass was responsible for it.

Viktor was miserable with Arti, he was miserable with Caroline, and I couldn't help but think that he would be miserable if I let him any closer to me. There was a common denominator among the three of us: we were all abrasive personalities who got what we wanted. But where Caroline tore others down to walk all over them, I liked to think that I held out my hand in friendship and loyalty to the ones who proved they were worthy.

"She's a nasty person. I'm glad you finally did what was right," I said.

He frowned. "I know I wasn't supposed to be listening to your argument with her, but I just hated the things she said about you. She doesn't know anything about you and me."

"Damn right," I said with a smile.

Amanda: 3, Life: 5.5, Caroline: -87.

As long as I was kicking Caroline's ass, I didn't care about what life did to me anymore.

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A small victory (or Viktory hahahahaha) for Amanda. Are you surprised Caroline was a reason for Viktor's sadness?

Thank you so much for reading!!