We decided to go out for coffee and drinks, which was loosely translated into a party in Bianca’s vocabulary.
I knew that the hockey team had a huge party tonight, just down by the lake, but I didn’t want to go. It’d been going so well, avoiding him for the last couple of days, and between my practices and school, I’d managed to see him only once in passing.
“We’re going,” she countered, sliding inside the booth.
“No, we are not.”
“Come on, dude. This might be one of the last parties this year. Live a little.”
“B,” I moaned. “You know why I don’t want to go. He’s gonna be there, and I really don’t want to see him. Besides, I have a competition tomorrow and I can’t screw up.”
True to my words on that day from hell when I fucked up my entire practice, I’d managed to pull it together. I felt better, more secure in myself and the routine we chose to go with. All those pesky thoughts about Noah, and… other things, seemed to have evaporated. At least while I was on the ice.
Reality was completely different from my time on the ice. Every single night, I stared at my window, seeing the light coming through from his. Every single night, I battled myself and the urge to go to him, to talk to him. To apologize for pushing him away, when it wasn’t his fault that I wasn’t okay with myself.
“You’re not going to screw it up,” she argued, rolling her eyes at the same time. “You’re a machine, Sophie. I’ve never seen anyone do those things on ice. It’s like you’re defying the laws of gravity.”
“Stop it.” I snorted.
“I know that even if you go to a little party, you won’t fuck it up tomorrow. It’s only seven right now. We don’t even have to stay that long.”
“Bianca, we both know that with you, we always stay late. I need to be in bed by ten tonight. I’m getting up at six tomorrow.”
“Then we’ll take your car instead, and you can drive home by yourself if you don’t feel like waiting for me.”
“And what? Leave you all alone?”
“We both know I won’t be alone.” She smirked. “Come on. It’s been ages since we went to one of the parties, and you’ve been avoiding everything and everyone lately, including me.”
“I have not.”
“You so have, Soph. But I get it. Most of the people we hang out with are kind of mutual friends of both of you. I guess that you somehow decided that all of them belonged only to Noah.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? When was the last time we all hung out together?”
The carnival was what popped into my head. That freaking night when everything went to shit.
“Okay, all right. You have a point, but I still don’t want to go.”
“Sophie,” she groaned. “Please, please, please, please, please,” she pleaded, taking a hold of my hands on top of the table. “I promise you, we don’t have to be where he is. That lake is ginormous. You know that there are always several groups of people we could hang out with. Noah is not the only person in this town. Besides, there might be some other guys you could hang out with.”
She wiggled her eyebrows, a sneaky look I knew all too well passing over her face.
“Bianca. What did you do?”
“Me?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Nothing.”
“B?”
“What? I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m gonna shave your hair in your sleep.”
“You bitch. You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.” I smirked. “What the fuck did you do?”
