Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

XLV

When Juliette entered the hall, the cold slammed against her face. Her heart skipped a great, that feeling.... She took a deep breath and gave Delilah a smile when Delilah was excited. There was no time to think about the past, she had to move away those feelings and those thoughts. But she wasn't feeling comfortable, she wanted to turn around and leave as quickly as possible.

"Hello and welcome to the States," the instructor greeted the group. "My name is Harry, and I will be your instructor for the next couple of hours." It was an adult, someone who would be competing at championships. "This is my colleague Sam, she will be helping us today. I'm honoured to give a masterclass to you all..." The man began with a small story about speed skating.

Juliette chewed on the inside of her cheek and listened to the man. He somehow looked familiar, just like the woman who was standing next to him. This was not what she wanted, far from that. This was the last thing she ever wanted to do. It was hard for Juliette to stay positive, or act like she was enthusiastic. She did this for Delilah - who couldn't shut up about this for weeks - and for her team, not for herself.

The masterclass started with a warming up, followed by a dry training.

Delilah was doing an exercise for her balance, but she fell. Her eyes found Juliette's, and they both burst into laughter, causing Juliette to lose her balance as well.

"I can't do this," Delilah giggled. "I can barely sit on a stool, let alone this."

Juliette wheezed and gasped for air, and grabbed Delilah's arm. "I can't." Tears formed in her eyes, good tears.

"No offence to me, but what the fuck am I doing?" Delilah stopped laughing and focussed on the exercise again. Juliette was sitting next to her on the ground, trying not to laugh. But when their looks crossed, they both burst into laughter again.

It made Harry stop his exercise. He looked annoyed at the two young adults, who were giggling like two young girls. He hoped they would do the exercise right since he saw potential in one of them. One woman barely had to make an effort to do the exercises. However, he was wrong.

"Don't mind them, those two are the giggle queens," Liam mentioned Harry, trying to prevent reputation damage.

"The children," Peter sighed and looked at them.

☐

A couple of hours and many speed skating exercises later, Harry and Sam were convinced the group was ready to compete against each other. The skates went on, and they skated a lap with each other, just to get to know the ice.

Juliette, on the other hand, tried everything to avoid going on the ice. She had to go to the toilet when the 'formation' lap started. Every trauma played in front of her eyes, every emotion was back, the pain was back. She could hear her mother yell at her, she could feel the pain of the bruises all over again.

But I have to do it for everyone. Juliette got back to the hall and sat down on a bench. She unpacked her bag and removed her trainers. The speed skates appeared back on track again. Juliette tightened her jaw and looked at it; the speed skates... Her eyes fell on the back of her right skate, and her face softened. When Juliette had to compete in Heerenveen for the championship, her friends couldn't be there to support her. It gave Anthoine the brilliant idea to do something. He wrote the first letter of his name on the skate with a golden marker, just like Pierre and Sara. J.A.P.S.

'Juliette, Anthoine, Pierre and Sara. So we are still with you,' were Anthoine's words.

"Merde," Juliette whispered and felt the tears burn in her eyes. She put on the skated, regretting it straight away. Her team was watching her, she couldn't randomly leave. A fake smile grew on her face, and she dried her eyes. She got up from the bench and skated over to the group.