On Thin Ice

24

"Weird. I'd have thought your Dad would've taken you. He's taken Josh," Alex nonchalantly replied, causing a squeezing pain in my chest.

I knew my father must've taken Josh before, but it still didn't hurt any less to realize Josh had gotten that bonding experience with Dad and I hadn't.

"Alex," Fox snapped in a warning tone.

I sighed. "My mom had a way of making sure I could never do anything fun," I admitted.

"Man, that sucks," Alex said. "Hey," he poked my shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Are you finally boinking Trevor?" Alex asked, "Fox said he saw you kissing him."

I turned my eyes back to Fox and my face hardened into a glare. His jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the road in front of him.

"How often are you going to ask me that?" I asked Alex in an annoyed tone, my glare still set on Fox.

Alex shrugged. "Every so often until you tell me you are."

"Well, I'm not," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and looking straight ahead.

"Okay, I'll ask again in a few days," Alex replied, moving back to the back seat.

"You're so annoying," Ian told him.

Alex just shrugged again and smiled. "It's my specialty."

"And I wasn't kissing him," I clarified, looking toward Fox. He still looked tense, like he wanted to be talking about anything but this.

Fox scoffed and looked at me briefly with an annoyed, incredulous expression before turning his eyes back to the road.

"I saw you," Fox responded, almost angrily.

"I wasn't kissing his lips!" I nearly shouted.

"Woah, kinky," Alex added with a chuckle to which I turned around to shoot him a deadly glare before turning back to Fox.

Ian let out a loud groan. "Does it even fucking matter?"

"No, it doesn't," I said in a final tone, signaling I was done with this conversation.

Fox turned the radio up and the two of us rode the rest of the way to Boston in silence while Alex and Ian spoke in the backseat.

I couldn't get over how much Fox confused me. At one moment, he was doing nice things for me and I was swooning over him, but then at another he was inexplicably angry for no reason. At this moment, he was quietly steaming in his seat like a flame and if I got too close I would get burned.

Eventually we made it to the arena and Fox parked in the parking garage, Josh parking next to him.

"The traffic wasn't too bad," Josh commented as we all got out of the cars.

Fox just nodded and hummed in agreement, walking ahead of the group. I shook my head at him in annoyance as the rest of us followed him toward the arena.