Thin Ice

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LUKAS POV

As much as I didn't want to tell her I was sticking up for her, I knew she wouldn't let me leave until I did. I knew that when I looked deep into her eyes that she was determined to get me to say something, to just open up to her.

That's how Juliana Ortiz expects everyone to be to her.. an open book.

That's another reason I hate Juliana.

She thinks the world revolves around her and she thinks she needs to know everyone's business because she believes that everyone's business is her business.

Now she probably thinks I'm madly in love with her or something close to that which is fucking stupid but her ego is too damn high for her to believe anything other than that.

"Hey, are you good?" Alex asks while lacing his skates up.

I snap out of my trance and regain focus. "Yeah," I reply bluntly. I pick up my skates and line my finger on the blade and realize how dull they've gotten. I know it's been a while since I've sharpened them but I didn't think they've gotten this bad.

"You've just been silent all day, even at school. I just want to make sure you aren't nervous about the game on Saturday or something like that," he mentions.

I completely forgot that the big game is only two days away and our team can't stop running into each other. It's making me think that we might actually lose for once.

"I'm not nervous, although you just reminded me how close the game is," I respond while grabbing my other skate.

He chuckles. "Yeah I just reminded myself too," he pauses. "It's not that I don't have faith in our team, it's just the fact that I feel like we don't know how each other play and move. Does that make sense?" he begins.

"Yeah I get it. Coach tried to help us do that but I feel like it didn't help too much, like we were just playing a fun game," I agree.

We sit and think for a moment and move around in each other's silence.

How could we make our team improve in less than two days? Especially whenever the team just likes to fuck around.

"Figure skaters!" Alex speaks up.

"What?" I question him.

"I mean figure skaters have great technique.. have you seen Jules or Faye skate?" he adds on, grinning.

"No. I don't pay attention to them," I reply. My smirk turns flat as I dismiss his suggestion.

"Well you should, they're amazing," he answers.

Where were you going with this?" I question while standing up with my skates.

He rises up, taking a few steps towards me."Figure skaters have to know how each other move if they want to skate together. Have you ever seen Kiara or Jules or Faye or any of them run into each other, even when they weren't paying attention to their surroundings?" he quizzes.

I think about it for a moment, he has a point. Figure skaters never run into each other, they always know where everyone is. I wonder how they do that?

I shake my head. "Like I said, I don't pay attention to them so I wouldn't know," I lie.

"You don't pay attention to Jules, I know you've seen the others skate," he adds on.

I begin to come closer to the locker room door. "Just get to the point," I ignore him.

He follows behind me as we travel into the lobby. "My point is, we invite the figure skaters to come teach us how they understand each other so then maybe the team can improve," he finishes.