Trailing Stars (Trailing Stars #1)

Chapter 8

I hold my breath as I turn my head. Clara's already kneeling next to me, holding her hand out. Not Morgan. Never Morgan. Never again.

There's a crease between Clara's eyebrows as she pulls me into a sitting position. She looks me up and down, checking for any injuries. She pauses when she meets my eyes. Her eyebrows furrow even more.

"Are you okay?" she repeats.

I nod, letting her pull me to my feet. "I'm fine."

She frowns. "Are you sure? You're crying."

I blink the tears away, running my hands down my jeans. "I'm okay. Really. I've fallen a lot worse than that before."

Clara starts to argue some more, so I do a double axel, sticking the landing this time. I skate backward around Clara to further prove my point. She gives me an exasperated look, but the corners of her mouth tug up.

"Okay, I get it," she laughs. "One fall isn't going to break you." Her smile slips. "But maybe you should stop skating for today. We can do something else. Even listen to Nathan read his terrible poems to us."

I laugh, letting her take my hand and drag me off the ice. Nathan is on his feet, waiting right by the exit. I'm sure he saw me fall, but if he did, that means he also saw me prove to Clara I'm fine. That doesn't stop him from taking my other hand and helping me sit on the bench.

"Never do that again," he says.

A laugh escapes me. "I don't fall on purpose."

"Still." He gives me a meaningful look. "Don't do that again."

His tone makes me pause, my laces halfway undone. I meet his eyes, and I see an urgency in them. They weren't even that urgent when he was falling himself. It's jarring to see someone care that much about me.

Nathan barely even knows me. But if he cares this much... I wonder what that says about me. I know it says he's a genuine person but after just a few days of hanging out with me? Do I really seem that fragile? I don't even think I have the right to feel fragile. And even if I am, I don't have the right to have someone as sincere as Nathan care like this.

I inhale and turn back to my skates. "I'm okay."

I feel both Nathan's and Clara's eyes on me like they're waiting for me to break down. I focus on taking my skates off and putting my shoes back on. When I go through the entire process without breaking once, Clara finally switches her skates out for her shoes. Even then, I catch her stealing glances at me right up to the moment we return our skates and step outside, the cold winter air cutting into us.

"So what do you wanna do now, Mona?" Clara asks. "Up to you."

"Hopefully, something that doesn't get anyone hurt," Nathan mutters.

I don't think he means for me to hear that, but even if I hadn't, I feel like it'd be easy to assume what he said based on the intense way he's still looking at me. Like I might fall right now and break the moment I hit the ground.

"We can head to the park," I suggest.

Clara straightens. "We could, but we could also go back to Poems and Tales. Less chance of dying from hypothermia that way."

Nathan side-eyes her, taking his keys out of his pocket. "Is that likely to happen?"

I shake my head. "Not unless you fall in the lake or something."

Clara's eyes widen. "Is that likely to happen? Has it happened to you?"

"Oh, no." I tuck my hair behind my ear. "Not to me. A friend."