Shredding Ice

chapter ten

Harding only answered because she called three times in a row and it made him worry. She usually only called twice if he missed the first call, just to check if he had do-not-disturb on. Which he did, a lot.

"Hello?"

"Harding! Hey, Love!" Vonte sounded almost surprised he had picked up. They hadn't spoken in nearly two weeks. "How are you doing? I miss you."

He looked around, making sure he wasn't bugging anyone in the library. He figured he was far enough away to talk without being a bother. "I'm fine, Voe. I miss you too."

"You're whispering. Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Uhm, kind of. Well, no. I was just studying."

"Is it chem again? Do you need help?" Vonte had graduated as a chemistry major at the end of his last semester. She was helping him a lot at the beginning of this one, but now he was relying on Felix and Jackie.

Harding shuffled through his homework. He'd been working on it for hours; he needed the points after he nearly failed the test a few days ago. "No, it's okay. I've got it."

"You have? Good! Good, I'm glad." After a moment she let out a big sigh. "I really do miss you, Harding. A lot."

He felt the moths circling his stomach. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, don't do that. It's not your fault at all, it's just been... hard between Sylas and I. But I promise we're working on it."

Harding pursed his lips. It was weird for him when they brought up the arguments. Sylas and Vonte had been together a lot longer than he had been with them. They got together seven years prior, when they were just sixteen. They had a few partners too, but even in those break ups, Sylas and Vonte stuck together.

Harding had been with them for not even a year, and now they were fighting. Sometimes he felt like it was his fault.

"Maybe we could all get dinner some time soon?" Vonte suggested. "I can make your favorite, and maybe Sylas can make that berry tart you love?"

He felt a small smile creep onto his lips. It sounded nice. "Yeah, okay. But you're not cooking, Voe."

She laughed, and his moths turned into butterflies. "I'm not going to get better if you don't let me try."

"Well you can try on food only you have to eat."

She laughed again, light and airy. "Yeah, yeah, okay. You can cook. I'll talk to Sylas and see when he's free. You still have a game this Saturday?"

Harding's lips pursed again. Sylas and Vonte hadn't been to his games in a while; they were apparently afraid of distracting Harding with their fighting. He thought they were right, but he still would've liked them to come. "Yeah. Will you be there?"

"Yes, I promise. Maybe we can do dinner after if you're not too tired. Send me the details?"

"I will. It's supposed to be a home again, but not at our rink. At the one we're practicing at right now. I don't think they're filming because of that." Harding was shushed by the librarian shelving books nearby and he realized he was getting louder. "Uhm, I'll text the address."

"Perfect. I can't wait, Love."

Harding flicked the corners of his papers. "I have to tell you something. Before we hang up." He smoothed out the top paper he accidentally creased.

"Alright, what's up?"

"I was actually going to see Sylas today. Stay over at the house." Vonte and Sylas moved in together during their junior year of college, but recently she had been staying with her sister. They had needed space. "I wasn't going to hide it. I was going to tell you later today, after I was done studying."