Gangster Cinderella

Chapter Fifty Nine: Friend or Foe?

Mikey stops his motorcycle in front of my mom's house. Just as I'm climbing off he grabs my hand gently, "Say...Chieko....would you be interested in going out with me, my sister and Draken sometime? You can also bring your sister along if you want."

"Yeah, I'd like that, what were you thinking?" I ask, holding my helmet against my chest.

"Ice skating, Emma's been bugging me about going ice skating. Also, I don't feel like being a third wheel to Emma and Draken, so it'd be cool if you were there too."

"I'd love to. It's a date." I smile warmly back at him.

"Great, I'll come pick you up on Sunday. Oh and ask your sister if she wants to come along, Chifuyu's been worried about her."

"I will!" I wave to him as he rides off. Once I get inside the house, I make my way towards my sister's bedroom. Shikha is curled up on her side on the bed, clutching Baji's leather jacket against her chest. "Shikha? Are you ok?"

I sit myself on the edge of her bed, "No...not really...hearing from mom got me feeling tense."

"That heinous bitch is going to jail, there's no lying her way out of it this time." I pat her back, "I mean it, the police caught her at the scene of the crime there's no way for her to get out of this."

"Sometimes I think the only way I could feel safe from that woman is when she's dead and buried." Shikha's voice is uncharacteristically cold and distant. This odd change in demeanor disappears as soon as it came, and she softens. "I guess you're right, I'm probably overthinking everything."

"By the way, I was wondering if you'd be interested in going ice skating with me, Mikey and a couple of our friends?"

Shikha finally sits up and faces me; her eyes are puffy and red, before she can even answer me I pull her into a hug. She lets out a breathy attempt at a laugh, "My eyes are still red, huh? Sorry for worrying you."

"No, don't say sorry for such a thing. I care about you and that is never something to apologize for." I say as I tightly hold onto my sister.

I feel her shoulders sag as she lets out a sigh, "Sure, I'd love to go ice skating with you."

I smile to myself, hoping that maybe just maybe I can drag Shikha out of her mother's looming shadow.

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The outdoor ice rink is practically packed to the brim with couples huddling together. Mikey, Draken, Chifuyu and I naturally acclimate to the ice; having a good sense of balance is necessary when it comes to motorcycle riding so maintaining our balance on the ice came easily to us. But...the same could not be said for Emma and Shikha.

"You better not even think about letting me go Draken!!" Emma begs the much taller boy as she clings onto him for dear life. 

"Why did you even want to go to the ice skating rink if you were this bad at it?" Draken deadpans at his skating partner.

"Because ice skating is absolutely essential to winter romance! Get a clue!" She huffs at our painfully oblivious friend.

Meanwhile Shikha is clinging to the wall, too scared to leave its safety. Chifuyu would try to coax onto to the ice with little success. As Mikey and I continue skating around arm in arm, someone catches my eye. A lone skater who keeps to herself on an empty space of ice. Unlike everyone else, she doesn't have a partner and her focus is entirely somewhere else. I become captivated by this ginger haired girl as she closes her eyes for a moment; she lets out a wintery breath of air before opening her eyes. She moves with grace and purpose across the ice. Judging by how she moved, she had to be a professional skater. She has this aura of passion and skill about her that kept me drawn in.

Mikey notices that I've stopped to stare at the lone skater, "She's pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah, she's amazing! Who is she?" I gasp as I watch her do a small jump on the ice.

"I don't know, wanna watch for a bit?"

"Hmm...I wouldn't want to weird her out or anything." I answer, despite being unable to take my eyes off of her as she does a single axel jump. Cheers erupt around us as she gracefully lands back onto the ice.

"I'd say you aren't the only one watching at this point." Mikey smirks back at me, amused by my interest in another sport. "Didn't know you were into ice skating."

"It's not that...it's more like as a fellow sportsman I can appreciate the beauty of another person's passions in something physically demanding." She performs a double axel perfectly. "We both put our bodies on the line for a high unlike any other. For a performance that can both be immortal and fleeting."

She goes for another double axel and stops after the landing; staring down the ice rink, her mind is far away from the cheers of the surrounding crowd and maybe even the rink itself. I know that focus and fierce look on her face; it was the look of someone attempting something truly remarkable. Slowly she moves across the ice gaining momentum and maybe even courage for whatever she is going to try next. She's gaining speed and jumps spinning longer than a double axel. It becomes clear what she's trying to do, a triple axel. But something goes wrong and she falls on her ass.

"Ouch ouchie! Damn it!" The small ginger haired girl curses.

The crowd starts to dissipate and I start to move towards the girl still sitting on the ice. I offer her my hand, "That was really amazing, are you trying to go pro?"

She glances up at me and cracks a wry smile, "Something like that...and thank you by the way." She takes my hand as I pull her back up to her feet. "You have a good center of gravity, do you skate often?"

"Oh I race motorcycles so I have to have a good sense of balance or else I'm screwed. I'm Chieko Hori by the way."

"I'm Sora Aoki."

At this moment, something was stirring; what, who could say? Unbeknownst to us, this winter was going to be a tragic one for both me and my new friend.