"I need space." Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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Jacky
The ice rink wasn't as busy as Jacky had expected, given how excited Billiana had been. They walked in and only had to wait behind an annoyingly affectionate hetero couple before they could get their own skates, and there were plenty of lockers to stash their shoes and seats to sit in to put the skates on.
Jacky was given a pair of black hockey skates, which was fine with him, but when Billy was given the same, he handed them back and said, "Oh no. I need a pair with a toe pick." Not knowing what that was, Jacky left to get a head start on putting on the skates. Tying shoes with one hand wasn't easy and he didn't want to hold anyone up, or worse, have someone decide they needed to help him.
The feat was made more difficult because his usual method involved trapping one lace under his other foot to hold it tight, which was not something he wanted to do with blades.
A shadow loomed over him. "Need some help?" Braedyn asked.
"I'm fine," Jacky snapped. Great, now he had an audience. He was still on the first skate lace. The problem was how tight he knew skates would have to be to give enough ankle support that he wouldn't immediately fall on his ass, and it was hard to get that amount of tension with the one-handed tie. He finally finished skate number one. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Braedyn staring at him. Braedyn didn't even need to look at his own laces to tie them, the fucker.
Billy and Liliana arrived, just as Braedyn said, "I could just tie the other—"
"I'm fine!" Jacky snarled.
"Oh, honey." Billy put a hand out to Braedyn. "Don't you worry, he does this every day. Albeit with more swearing."
"Fuck off," Jacky said.
"See?" Billy's phone buzzed. Swiveling in his seat to look at the entrance, Billy said, "Stavros is here!" He waved.
Beside him, Braedyn hunched for a moment before pushing himself off the bench. "Cool. I'm gonna go hit the ice."
"Wait for me!" Liliana linked her arm in Braedyn's and they clomped away.
"Do you think it's working?" Billy asked in a low voice.
Jacky tugged on his laces. He was most definitely going to roll an ankle. "Sure."
"Really?"
Another tug, and Jacky sat up, collapsed against the back of the bench. "I don't know, dude. You'd be better off not playing games with him."
Billy stared at him, eyebrows furrowed. "But that's not fun." Switching gears, he spun to face Stavros. "Hi!"
Rolling his eyes, Jacky stood up and clomped toward the ice.
There were already too many people on the ice. He stepped aside while a big group of giggling girls piled out there, one of them immediately falling and taking half her friends down with her. Pulling out his phone, he texted Ryan. I'm about to step on the ice... Wish me luck.
