Love, Hate and Hockey Skates

Fifteen

"So, how did you convince my Dad to let you stay here?" Ace asked.

"I gave him a fake name, my name is Bella by the way, and I just put on the sophisticated charm and pulled a few sympathy cards, now you just have to seal the deal. I suspect he knows how much of a playboy you are, who knows, he might be more concerned about me than you."

He rolled his eyes. "I stopped that shit in high school, it's a different scene here."

"You're telling me you haven't slept with a single girl here?" I scoffed.

"That isn't what I said, I just don't have mindless sex anymore. It's boring."

That made me feel disappointed. I wasn't sure why I was hoping I was the first since that would be weird for someone like him and too far-fetched for me to expect.

But if not, who was it he slept with? Was it more than one, less than a few?

'Ugh, why do I care so much? This is driving me insane.'

"You can ask me who it was, she isn't here anymore," he said.

"It doesn't matter to me." Lies.

"Suit yourself, I'm going for a shower. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen."

I waited until I heard the shower running in the bathroom, then screamed into a pillow. Was I the only one feeling like this? There was no way I was the only one affected by our relationship. How was he able to talk about his other sex partners so casually?

It also made me wonder, which just drove me more insane. Was she given the chance to date him, or was there a relationship like ours? Did his father approve of her? Did they sleep in his room, and that was why he never slept with me in there?

Since I arrived, I'd wondered why he never slept with me in his room and always used the room he deemed as the guest bedroom. It made me feel sick to think that he was still holding a candle to her and didn't want to sully their memory with me.

It's obvious now that I wasn't going to stop driving myself wild until I figured out who she was and what their past relationship was. But I didn't feel like I was in any position to do so.

'Fuck, I'm in way too deep.'

~*~

I was bothered by our last conversation for the next week, I couldn't help but distance myself a little from Ace during that time and he had taken notice, but I wasn't sure what to say to him.

There was no reason for me to be as angry and upset, but I was and there was no way to explain that to him without practically confessing that I fell first. We both made it clear that we have bigger things to focus on than a complicated relationship and keeping it to just sex was enough.

But now my feelings have gone back to that, and I felt like I was the only one. It just complicated things more. Not to mention, his father had approved me staying at the apartment as long as I paid toward the rent and hydro, and my apartment was no longer available.

There really was no turning back.

I tried my best to distract myself with the one thing that could distract me – dance.

I placed 3rd in the last competition and got a little bit of money, but not enough for my new rent price and expenses. I had another competition at the end of the week and needed to practice even harder than before. This competition was smaller than the other, but the prize money was still sizeable for 1st place.

It was also my best excuse for avoiding Ace. I said I had to practice and spent most of my time at the school in the practice rooms. Usually, there was never anyone there, but today there was a girl I recognized from one of my classes.

She is a meek-looking girl with a small and scrawny build. She doesn't have good posture when she stands and she tends to be too loose with her limbs when dancing, but overall had grace in her steps and determination at the very least.

"Oh, hey, sorry. I didn't know anyone else used these rooms," she said when she spotted me.

"It's okay, the room is big enough, don't mind me."

She peered at me, then her eyes went wide.

"Hey, you're that girl!"

"Uh, what does that mean?" I frowned.

She shook her head frantically. "Nothing that I said! It's just, I heard some talk that uh, you're quite friendly with the hockey team. The captain in particular..."

"Now, I'm curious to know what that means." I glared and dropped my bag. "Tell me everything you've heard."

Despite the girl being a nervous wreck, she told me how some of the other girls in our class saw how I would wait outside of the arena and chat with all the players, but I was really close with Ace Huxley, the known playboy. It was rumoured that I was tossed around between the players.

In the end, all I could do was sigh in frustration. I wasn't sure if this was worse or better than high school, or just the same. It felt like that same pettiness the girls in my old school would partake in. I shouldn't have assumed things would've changed here.

"Do you believe any of those rumours?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I don't even know you, I'm not one to blindly believe anything about a person."

"Well, you're one of the rare ones, then. What's your name?"

"Sylvia. Your name is Isla, right?"

"How did you know?"

"We're in the same class, I remembered hearing it and thought it was really pretty," she smiled a cute dimple smile.

"Thanks. Do you mind if I ask you something? You said Ace is known as a playboy, but the Ace I know said he hasn't been mindlessly sleeping around and has only slept with one girl here."

"Amber," Sylvia said with confidence. "He was probably talking about Amber."

"Who is that?"

"She was in our class, but she was accepted into Julliard last year. She was obsessed with Ace and used to chase after him everywhere. She went to every one of his games and always made signs that said weird romantic things. It was really cringe."

"And he slept with her?" Why in the hell would he give in to a psycho like that?

"Well, it's rumoured that yeah they once slept together, but it was only ever confirmed by Amber herself. Ace Huxley has never confirmed their relationship, and then she left, and it was never spoken of again. It was a pretty big thing at the time, everyone knew what was going on between them and it was almost seen as a soap drama."

"Glad I missed that screening time," I muttered.

"If you don't mind me asking, are the rumours of you two true?"

"What rumours, if we're sleeping together?"

She nodded; her dark brown eyes lit up behind her black-rimmed glasses. What was I supposed to say? I didn't want to be labelled as a slut anymore than I apparently already was.

"No, we just live together, I'm renting a room in his Dad's apartment."

Sylvia seemed disappointed, then looked confused. "So, then why is Ace saying the opposite?"