Somehow, someway I woke up in Silky's bed, with Silky beside me. How that had happened I didn't know.

All I remember from the night before was I was at work when Silky and Rizzo walked in. apparently the guys were taking shifts on watching out for me until the guy could be charged for disorderly conduct and assault. I didn't mind. It just meant that I had someone to hit while I worked.

Three nights before Jimmy and Johnson had come in and were soon joined by Bah, Buzz and Pav. They ordered their drinks and food and left me alone. Every now and then I could feel them watching me as I moved around my section but they didn't otherwise move. Bah stayed after the others left and walked me home.

Two nights ago, OC, Verchota, Broten, Suter, and Christoff came in. this time I knew it was OC's idea to come in. ever since Norway, we had had this odd friendship going on. If I ever wanted anything, instead of going to Buzz, I went to Jack. He never said a word except when he handed it to me. I got a lot of flak from Mac about it but I just shrugged him off. He had always been like that.

Groaning, I untangled myself from Silky and went to the kitchen. He lived with Jack and that was bad. I could hear Jack snoring in the other room. He was out like a light, which meant I was in the clear. I looked down to double check that I was in something and sighed gratefully that I hadn't had sex with Silky. That would have been bad. I was in shorts and a Boston t-shirt.

Luckily we were in the same dorm as Jack and Silky so I ran down two flights. I opened the door and Buzz was sitting on the couch with his morning cup of coffee. He looked at me before getting up to go in our room.

"Buzz," I said and followed him. "I was in Silky's room all night."

"I know." he replied.

"I figured you did."

"What I don't know is why you took a hydro instead of ibuprofen." I looked at him confused. "When you were at the bar, you asked Petey for ibuprofen and instead took a hydro. Why?"

"I didn't know it was a hydro. He put it in my hand and I just assumed it was ibuprofen. It felt like one."

"You know you can't take hydros."

"Yeah and like I said, if I had known, I wouldn't have taken it." He nodded, obviously believing my story. "What exactly happened?"

"You passed out. Silky called me about two and said he was taking you back to his dorm. It made no sense to me considering we live two flights down from them." we looked at each other. A thought occurred between the two of us.

"No, it couldn't be."

"It could. Silky's more reserved than OC, Bah and Rizzo. He could and you not even know it." He stopped midsentence and looked me over, taking in the shorts and Boston t-shirt. "You two didn't, did you?"

"No! At least I don't think so." He started laughing. "It's not funny."

"Yeah, actually it is. You don't even know if you slept with a guy or not."

"Well, I slept with the guy but I don't know if I slept with him."

"There's only one way to find out." He grabbed my hand and hauled me from the room.

"Buzz. Buzzy." I didn't try to stop him because he was taking the stairs two at a time and I didn't want to trip him. We stopped outside Jack and Silky's door. He knocked hard. "We don't have to do this."

"Yeah we do. I know you. You're going to be going up the wall wondering if you did something you didn't want to do. And until you know that, I won't get any peace." He knocked again. Jack opened the door and stared at us for a moment. "Hey, OC. Is Silky here?"

"Yeah. Silky!" Jack smiled broadly. "Coming back to finish your night, I see." I made a face at him. He was smiling as he turned to see Silky coming out of the bedroom. "Your girl's back."

Silky looked up from buttoning his shirt. "Hey."

"Hey." I said.

"So I got a question." Buzz said. I tried my hardest to keep him from asking but he deflected my attempts with a big smile. He was enjoying this. "Silky, did you and Minni here happen to do anything….fun last night?"

I covered my face with my hands and shook my head. I wasn't as much embarrassed as slightly annoyed. Jack started laughing. I looked at him with a scowl but that fell when I looked at Silky. He was turning bright red.

"Buzz, leave it alone." I said.

"It's just a question, Minni." He replied.

"You're embarrassing Silky. I don't care but look at him."

He turned his gaze and the smile fell. "Dang, Silk. Sorry."

Silky shook his head. "It's okay, Buzzy. No, we didn't do anything. I just brought her back here and let her sleep. She told me not to sleep on the couch so we shared the bed. That a problem?"

I looked at Buzz. He was thinking it over. I could see that on his face. He shook his head, dark hair flying all over the place. "No, but don't hurt her."

"Buzz, we're not even together!" I sputtered. This incited Jack to laughing harder than he had been. "Don't make me come over there, O'Callahan."

"Whooo! I'm so scared." He said holding his hands up and shaking them.

"Watch it, OC." We turned around as Bah stood in the doorway. "Minni may be, well, mini, but she will break your hand. I've seen her do it before."

"I'm just having some fun, Bah. Silky and Minni here slept together." I couldn't help it. I reached out and punched Jack. He recoiled quickly but laughed even harder. "Ow!"

"I told you."

"But still, they slept together. I think that was awesome."

I was embarrassed for the first time in my life. So I turned and walked down the hallway away from the room. I found myself in our room searching for my skates. When I found them, I slung them over my shoulder and left the building. The U wasn't that far and I wanted to be alone. Of course, Buzz would know where I went. He always knew but he also would know that I would want to be alone.

I entered the U and went to the box. I kicked off my shoes and pulled on a pair of thick socks before putting on my dainty ice skates. I had both hockey skates and figure skates. Hockey skates were good for speed. Figure skates were for recreation.

I took the guards off the blades and moved onto the ice. I was free. I moved around for a bit to make it more comfortable. I was never a figure skater. I always loved high impact sports but putting on regular skates instead of clunky hockey skates was always freeing. Being on the ice was very comforting. I had grown up on it.

Like I said, I had never been a figure skater but I had taken lessons as a kid. So I spun and I did some jumps but nothing much. When I was younger, I was able to flip while on the ice. I hadn't done that in a while but I was going to try it. I got my speed up and turned, kicking my feet out as I went. I went over backwards and then my feet hit the ice.

I fell and skidded across the ice face down. That hadn't worked out like I wanted it to but then again I hadn't done it in years. As I was going to get up, someone yanked me up by the arms. I looked over my shoulder. Silky was behind me.

"Hey." I said as I got my feet underneath me.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I was a little wobbly and obviously that showed because he helped me to the bench. "What were you thinking?"

"I have no clue. It just seemed like a good idea at the time." I took the bottle of water he handed me. "What are you doing here?"

"Buzzy said you'd be here. I didn't know you would try to kill yourself."

I laughed. "I wasn't trying to kill myself. I trained like that. I always pushed myself to be the best I could be. It was fun." I took another guzzle of water then looked at him. "Why are you here?"

"I followed you, obviously."

"Yeah. Why?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay? You seemed embarrassed and I got the distinct impression you don't get embarrassed too much."

"Try at all." I amended. "I've lived with boys all my life and I acted like one. I never got embarrassed, even when Bah, Pav and Buzz became the Coneheads. It never occurred to me to think of myself as an outsider."

"The boys never made you an outsider. They brought you into the group because you're fun to be around."

"Thanks, but Jack was way out of line there."

"He just tells it like he sees it."

"But you were embarrassed too. I saw your face as he said it."

"I don't even pay attention to OC anymore. I've known him for so long most of what he says just goes in one ear and out the other."

I shook my head. It wasn't the point. He knew that but he wasn't going to say it. Silky wasn't that type of person. He wasn't going to tell the boys he was embarrassed. They could see that. He wasn't going to tell them the real reason I slept in the same bed with him. That would remain between him, me, Buzz and Jack. No one would believe the truth anyway.

I stood, which surprised him, and got back out on the ice. My head was spinning so the ease it, I started to spin. Made no sense I know but it helped. Every time I spun around, I saw Silky standing in the box watching. It was unnerving but comfortable all the same.

Soon the rest of the boys started filtering in for their first practice of the day. Herb yelled at me to get off the ice and I was much too happy to agree. As I moved to the box to put my shoes on, I saw Jack look over at me as he talked to Rizzo and Jimmy. He was telling the story. I shook my head as I finished putting on my shoes. Silky caught my eye as he skated onto the ice. He nodded as if we had said something that only we knew.

"Yo, Minni!" Johnson called from across the ice. "Make some lasagna tonight and I'll be happy to let you sleep with me."

I turned and walked away, anger seeping into every pore.