Love, Hate and Hockey Skates

Ten

I sat down at the island bar while Ace grabbed two beers and cracked them open.

"What's your fancy?" he asked and opened the fridge. "I could make chicken alfredo?"

"Won't that take awhile?"

He shrugged and started grabbing the ingredients. "For me, it won't take long."

"How did you get so good at cooking?"

He lifted a brow. "I thought we were asking questions about our past, not just mine specifically?"

"Okay, I can take a hint." I pondered a few questions. "Why was I the only one you picked on, and why so harshly?"

"A lot of the friends I had were guys from the hockey team, and my Dad made sure to go out of his way to get on good terms with them. It made them feel better when they snitched on me for not following my father's pristine guidelines for the perfect life. If I showed interest in a girl like you, one of them would've definitely told my Dad, and like I said, I was an idiot and I was scared. I cared more about myself than I did my feelings for you, which is why I never believed them at the time."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, if I really cared about you, how could I let myself do that? I should've just stayed away from you, but I was too selfish, and I wanted to always be near you. Some of the guys started catching on and taunted me to make fun of you, the weird girl who haunted the halls, as they said. Eventually, I did because it felt like the right thing to do, but I always felt disgusted with myself."

"So, you liked me but couldn't date me, but were too selfish to leave me alone, so you picked on me..."

"Ha, yeah. It sounds terrible when you say it like that."

I narrowed my eyes. "Because it is terrible."

"So terrible that you can't forgive me?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

"Do you think you're worthy of forgiveness?"

He frowned and slumped. "Not really, but I'm hoping I can be. I've enjoyed hanging out with you, and I know you've enjoyed it a little too, right?" He winked.

He wasn't wrong, I had been enjoying the time we spent together, and it almost made me forget our past. I was notorious for never moving on from things, and I didn't necessarily like that about myself.

I had to start somewhere if I wanted to get over that.

"I suppose I can, if you also agree to give me rides to school and back." I grinned.

He nodded. "That seems pretty fair." He cracked open another beer and raised it. "Cheers to a new friendship."

"Cheers to that," I said and hit his beer can with mine before we both took a big swig.

We fell into a weird silence after that as Ace continued to cook and I fiddled with the cap on my beer can. "You know, you really made high school hell for me," I muttered.

"I know, I beat myself up every day for the way I acted back then. I let my Dad dictate my life, and I still am."

"Why would your Dad not let you like me? Was there someone in mind at the time?"

He shook his head. "Although I had my suspicions about what was happening with you, my Dad had his own suspicions of your Dad, he was skeptical of your family ever since you and your Dad had moved here."

"My Dad was a saint to everyone except me, how could anyone suspect him."

"Well, he once worked in the same garage that my Dad used to get his car worked on until the day he met Mr. Thatcher and realized he was pissed drunk while working on my Dad's Mercedes, the one I have now, actually. He fucked up the whole interior and it started a fight between them, then he learned he had a daughter in the same grade as me and he warned me away from you."

That didn't surprise me. Lots of parents warned their kids to stay away from me, but it was because of the way I looked, no one ever knew of the horrors my father committed.

"How long did that shit go on for?" he asked. "How long did he beat his own child?"

"You better grab me another beer, because that is a long and dreadful story."

~*~

I had dove into the story of my mother and the day she passed away. I relived the moment the police had come to the door and the way my father had broken down in front of them. I was surprised that not once did I cry when I retold the story.

"That's why you wore that heavy make-up and those oversized hoodies?" he asked, his face stark white and stone cold.

I nodded, unable to speak anymore as my head spun around with the room.

"For fuck sake," he muttered and threw a spoon into the sink. "If I had just taken the damn time..." he continued muttering to himself.

"It's a little late to be beating yourself up now, I made it through, didn't I? I got out of there on my own and came out better than ever," I said and flourished my hand in the air.

The alcohol was definitely hitting me, I wasn't the best drinker and beer disagreed with me, apparently. Ace was on his third can and was still focused on the food and what I was saying, he wasn't even swaying.

"You shouldn't have had to do that on your own. How did you get out?"

"I saw a flyer for free dance classes one day, went to check them out and turned out it was an underground club that offered dance competitions for money, so I competed and made a decent amount. At least enough to get me my apartment, and then the rest went into getting into school."

"What do you want to do after graduation?" he asked.

"I want to open my own studio, be my own teacher and teach whatever style of dance I want to, be free to do whatever I want with my lessons and classes."

"There are tons of great places around here, maybe we could go and check some out. Manifest the idea into the universe as most would say," he said.

"I don't think I'll have the money for that anytime soon, it's why I've been competing more often, but I can't make half of them because of class."

He frowned and placed a bowl of food in front of me. The steaming noodles called to me, and I dug in.

"What if you had a drive, would you be able to make some of them then?"

I stopped eating and stared at him. "Are you offering to be my chauffeur?"

"Yeah, why not? I had a lot of fun, I wouldn't mind changing up my routine a little bit, life has been getting pretty boring recently." He smirked.

"Well, okay, if you really don't mind. Don't blame me if I take advantage of you," I giggled. Oh crap, it was really getting to me.

Ace leaned across the counter as his smirk widened.

"I would never blame you for taking advantage of me, sweetheart."