Caufield's girl

Chapter Ten

Until now, I didn't even realize the distance we had already managed to skate. It took me a while to adapt, but eventually I was able to keep up, so we made a quick stop. When I get the hang of it, he teaches me how to do swizzles and how to stop properly. "Decent job." He states impressed with my performance. "Okay, I think that's enough. Why can't you just give me the necklace now that I've skated with you?" I make a proposal, but he doesn't accept it. "Not yet. First, you have to skate on your own all the way through the rink. I wouldn't wanna miss the best part." He says this while skating to the other end of the hockey rink, so I don't even have a chance to protest.

"C'mon. I'm waiting!" His voice echoes through the whole arena as he pulls the necklace out of his pocket and lets it hang from his hand in the cold air. I pull myself together, and I try to do my best to avoid dropping to the ground and breaking my limbs. I skate cautiously, just as he told me a few minutes ago, and my only motivation to do this is the necklace and the fact that this will be over soon. I'm almost in the middle of the rink when I think for a second that I'm losing my balance, but I manage to stand my ground and continue without falling. "Okay, maybe I'm not that bad at this." I conclude when I start to skate again. "There you go. Yeah, that's it! Just a little bit more!" He cheers for me when I'm almost at the end.

"Woah, okay. Maybe I'm not that miserable after all." I just stop concentrating on the fact that I'm on the ice, and I lose my balance all of sudden. My first instinct tells me to grab the nearest thing, which in my case was Cole. I immediately grab the hem of his hoodie, and I almost pull him down with me; fortunately, his hands stop me from hitting the ice as he still stands in one place without losing his balance at all. "I've got you." He says this while he's slightly leaning over me, as I am looking directly into his hazel eyes. The smell of his musky cologne mixed with the scent of an aftershave overwhelms my senses. I can feel his hot breath on my face as he tries his best not to drop me. Being this close to him clearly isn't good for me at all, because my judgment is clearly clouded. Maybe, because of the cold, I can't find another explanation.

After a few seconds, he pulls me up so I can stand on my feet again. "Thanks. Well, maybe I was exaggerating earlier. I suck at this." I confess blushing from embarrassment. "Nah, I've seen worse. You were pretty decent. A solid average." He tries to sound polite, even though we both know I fucked up. "Oh, I almost forgot. Your reward." He pulls out my necklace from his pocket. "Would you mind?" he asks as he circles around me so he can put it around my neck. "Yeah, please." I let him attach it in the back. "Thanks." I say politely.

"So, what's the deal with the necklace anyway?" he asks curiously. "It was a gift from my dad. So, it's pretty special. He died two years ago, and this is the only thing that I have left of him." I say it hesitantly. I didn't mean to open up that much, but it just slipped out of my mouth. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't know." He apologizes. "Oh God, I acted like such a dick; I'm sorry, I..." He regrets his previous behavior, but I cut him off. "It's fine; you couldn't know. And plus, I acted like a bitch pretty much the whole time, so I kinda deserved it. So now we're even." I admit, hesitantly realizing that maybe I wasn't fair to him most of the time.

"So, why don't we just start over? Without lies?" he suggests. "Yeah, I guess I'd like that." Great, so in that case... Nice to meet you; I'm Cole from Wisconsin, and I'm a hockey player." He sticks out his hand and lets it hang in the air. I only manage to laugh at his pathetic gesture, but I decide to play alone. "Nice to meet you, Cole. I'm Sophia from Boston, and I'm a university student." I say as I shake his hand. We both laugh as we skate back to the tunnel leading to the locker rooms.

When we're back in the locker room, we both get out of our skates and put on our sneakers. "Actually, today wasn't that bad, I must admit." I say it out of the blue as I get up, holding the pair of skates in my hand. "Glad to hear that; actually, you can keep those if you want. You know that the Canadiens skate a lot, don't you?" He responds. "No, thanks; I'm good. I'm not planning any skating in the future. Tonight's been more than enough." I don't accept his hot offer. "Okay, whatever, smartass." He shrugs and takes them out of my hands as he returns them wherever they belong. He reappears in the doorway. "Hey, you wanna see something else?" he asks, waiting for my response.