Fresh off the Ice

Aftermath Awkwardness

Monday morning came and I dreaded it. The whole situation with Mark and Kace left things so awkward with Kace. This was my chance to clear the waters with Kace but she had no clue what to say.

I walked in the doors of the rink looking around to see if I saw him anywhere. I wanted to see him so I could explain but also didn't mind not seeing him since I was really nervous.

I warmed up and got on the ice, stroking around the rink getting my head into skating mode but even so Kace still was on the back of mind.

I'm half way through my lesson and doing my program. I come out of the spin and can feel my legs loosing their strength with the force I've put through in the first half of the program. I take a deep breath and skate with my jelly legs around the corner to set up for the next jump.

I must not have been skating fast enough because I hear my coach yelling, "Skate, skate, SKATE!"

I push my tired legs and breathe. After gaining speed to slow my body movements to prepare for the jump and think of controlling my tired body so I can ace this jump even in my tired phase. I land the jump and let out a sigh of relief.

"Move chesa!" My coach yells not even acknowledging the element I just aced that was left in the past. In the now, I was getting ready for my last jump which is a double Axel- double toe- double loop combo. My coach is standing right near the area I'm suppose to jump. I set up get ready and go. I have a split second to think when I land the double Axel to push up to the next jump and once that one is landed I quickly push up into the third but can feel the air position isn't quite right as I come down from the jump I turn out of the landing and swing my body forward putting my hand on the ice to save my butt from hitting the ice.

"DANGIT" I think in my head. I quickly finish my program with my last spin having my coach scream at me to spin faster and sit lower which I know he's just taking his anger out on my failed combo jump.

I stand in my ending position not moving anything except for my heaving chest.

My coach skates by and just points down the rink, "Go."

I know what he means and start to skate around the rink as fast as I could through my protesting tired body. This was done after a program to get your stamina up. I was on my second lap when my breathing came back to normal and I was able to return to my coach.

I stand there getting an earful of what I did wrong. I was so use to my coach abrupt way of 'teaching' me that my eyes kind of wondered and I saw Kace walk past on the other side of the barrier. I watched intently and when his eyes met mine. I half smiled and gave him a little wave despite that I was suppose to be listening to my coach. His eyes flashed with something I couldn't quite make out but he didn't respond the way I would have wanted him to. His face remained neutral and he made no move to wave back. I was totally enthralled in his reaction I didn't hear my coach trying to get my attention. As Kace looked away I turned back to my coach seeing he was quite angry.

"Chesa listen when I'm talking to you!" My coach angrily yells at me. "No wonder you are horrible skater and are just getting worst. You are distracted by boys."

I flinch at the insults. That one hit the heart no matter how much of shield I have around it. The rest of the session was full of insults like 'You never listen', 'You're not even trying' and 'you don't have the discipline to do this'. With those insults flying like freebees to the heart the rest of my session was a hard one. My butt was defiantly going to bruised tomorrow.

...

As I came out from the tough practice I see Kace sitting off to the side of the out side of the rink with what looked like a school book on his lap. He was in such a serious mood and with there awkward moment earlier I proceeded with caution over to sit next to him.

He didn't look my way completely as I sat.

"That must be something very interesting for you not to look up at a babe like me." I state trying to get his attention.

It worked as he looked up at me with a very serious look which was unusual for him.

He clears his throat and looks back down at his book, "I have a science test tomorrow."

He continues to 'ignore me' and goes back to studying.

I decide to get to the point, "Look I'm sorry that Mark was rude to you the other day."

"It's fine. Who you have as friends are none of my business."

I look away on the ground. "I wouldn't say he's a friend." I mumble.

Kace finally looks at me then with a confused and painful look on his face, "Oh... Boyfriend then."

Horror takes over my eyes as they meet his after he states that, "Heck no!"

This bring a surprise amused smile to Kace's face, the look I'm more use to. It's infectious so it makes me smile and even let out a small giggle.

I look down at my shoes again when looking at each other gets too long, "I mean I don't think my parents would mind but if I where to choose we wouldn't even be acquaintances."

I look at Kace and by the look on his face I knew what he was going to ask next.

"Then why were you.."


"..on a friend "date" with him yesterday?" I finish for him. I put finger parenthesis around the word date. I let out a sigh, "Because my dad basically, well no defiantly, demanded me to become friends with him since he had an interest in me and was important person in my dad's business plan."

"OH..." was all Kace had to say.

"Exactly." I shifted my weight and just stared in front of me enjoying sitting next to the present company.

"So my sister liked you." Kace finally said.

I turned to him and smiled, "Really?"

He awkwardly took his hand and scratched the back of his neck, "Ya, and she said you were very pretty."

I giggled and decided to tease Kace, "I hope you agreed."

By the Kace's face I think my question surprised and stumped him, "Ya...I.. I mean you looked different. I mean good, just different." He stumbled trough.

It was more serious answer than I anticipated but the butterflies in my stomach made me giggle at his compliment, "My mother's outfits usually get that response. She's... how do you say.. experimental with her outfits and I'm usually the model."

"That explains a lot." Kace answers.

"You be surprised how much my parents can explain why I'm so messed up."

Kace touches my arm to make me look at him, "Hey, if it's one thing I learned parents don't make up who you are. Only you can decide that."

I looked deep into those eyes knowing he has a story somewhere behind those beautiful brown eyes.

"What are your parents like?" I ask for any hint of a story.

Kace glances away and I can see a bit a venerability coming through from my question but as his eyes come back to mine a wall was put up.

"Let's just say I'm not studying this science for fun." Though he tried to hide it well I could see a small bit of sadness come through, "I mean seriously who cares about photosynthesis?"

He covers up previous venerability with a joke and smiles my way. I let it go knowing sometime in the future I'm going to figure out what his story is.