Fire on Ice

Part 16

Nora's POV

I step off the rink after a freestyle practice and put my skate guards on while Gigi comes rushing off the ice behind me along with Nikolas and Sebastian. "Hey Nora! I was just trying to convince the boys to go out tonight. Can you come too?" She asks, displaying her best puppy dog eyes. At this point Nikolas and Sebastian have caught up and we are all standing in a circle by the locker rooms. I look at Gigi uneasily, "I don't know Gigi. I'm tired."

"Aww, come on! It's a Friday night, which means we have to go out and do something." She looks around pleadingly, "We've never all hung out together. It'll be fun! Who's in?"
"I'm down." Sebastian chimes in. He is received with an extremely wide grin from Gigi as she turns her focus to the brooding, tall, angsty man beside him, "Nikolas?" At this Nikolas looks straight at me as if waiting for an answer from me. This catches me off guard and I turn my gaze to the floor in avoidance. "Nah, I think I'll pass." Gigi looks at him with daggers in her eyes and turns her attention back to me, "Nora, please. It'll be so much fun. We can get ready together and I promise you if you are not having fun I'll drive you back myself." Looking at Gigi, I honestly start to cave in. These last few weeks I've been training nonstop, constantly either at the gym or rink, and when I'm not there, the café. I deserve a night off, a night of fun, a night for me. "Okay. I'll go." Gigi's squeal almost reaches a glass shattering pitch as she hugs me, "You won't regret it."

Gigi drives me to her apartment and when we enter the first thing I notice is how the only two colors throughout the entire apartment are red and pink. Gigi notices me looking and says, "Yeah, I have a bit of an obsession. Come on, let's get ready." Gigi says as she makes her way to her room. Gigi's apartment is almost double the size of mine and her room is bigger than my kitchen and living room combined.

She plops me down in her makeup chair, "Ok so I'm just gonna go with a natural look since we want to get there as soon as possible." I'm not sure what to expect since Gigi's definition of 'natural' is a little vague, so I just give her a thumbs up and she starts. Once she is finished I look at myself in the mirror. There isn't much difference but the small accentuations to my features with the mascara, blush, and lipstick makes me seem like a different version of me. I haven't gotten ready to go out like this for a while. She heads into her closet to find me clothes and pulls out a tight black dress. I'm skeptical of whether I will even fit into it considering she is way shorter than me. She picks up on my stare and says, "You'll look hot, don't worry." I put on the dress and as I predicted, it is way too short and the top's too tight for my comfort. The dress ends a little above mid thigh and shows more of my chest than I am used to. Gianna looks at me up and down and reading my mind says, "I'll lend you some tights, and you will be fine." Not wanting to seem ungrateful I don't say anything else. She starts getting ready herself. I sit awkwardly before she picks up a conversation in a teasing voice, "Sooo... what's up with Nikolas looking straight at you when I asked him if he was coming tonight?'' she asks.

I know she is trying to attribute his reaction to me, but I honestly have no idea why he looked.

"Uh, I'm not sure." She sticks her head out of her closet to give me an unimpressed look.

"Nora, he is totally into you."

"Argh" I flop back onto her bed. "Why does everybody think that? Even my mom thinks he has a thing for me." Gigi laughs at this, "Your mom is a smart woman." She comes out a few minutes later in a short red dress covered in sequins. There are no tights in her hands but I decide to let it go. She does a little twirl for me.

"Wow you look so good!"

"Thanks sweetie. Anyway, come help me pick what shoes to wear." She drags me into her walk-in closet. She ends up going with long strappy heels where the strings tie around her calves and hands me black chunky heels. They have straps that go up my legs but they stop at my ankles. By my luck, it seems that me and Gigi have the same shoe size. I put together the final outfit and fluff up my long, chestnut hair. It reaches close to my waist and I grab a hair tie to pull it into a ponytail.