Moving to Baysdale (on hold)

Chapter Eight

Ellie's POV

My eyes felt heavy and swollen from crying myself to sleep last night. I slowly force my eyes to open and peer out my window, it's still dark out; I groan while rolling over to grab my phone.

4:47 am – my phone shines nearly blinding me. I groan again, burying my head deep into my pillow wishing last night was all a dream. I couldn't even think about my kiss with Jayden because it was ruined by Stephen and after today, Jayden would probably never talk to me again.

I roll out of bed and look at myself in the mirror, the straps of my tank top lightly fall across my tan skin and drape across the two giant handprint bruises that fall on either side of arms. I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head like it's getting rid of the memories of last night. I let a few tears fall while I through on a pair of black leggings, a matching sports bra and Nike hoodie that is my older brother, Dan's; once he got to big for it, he gave it to me and it's one of my favorite pieces of clothing, it always makes me feel safe, which is probably why I always wear it when I know i'll be seeing Stephen. 

I take one last look at myself in the mirror, my bruises now hidden making me feel more confident and I let the feeling rush through me, "I can do this" I whisper to myself before grabbing my headphones and running out the door.

--

It only takes 10 minutes to get to the rink, I glance at my phone.

5:20 am – I know the boys don't start practice until 7, so at least I have time to skate before the series of event that will be coming shortly after. This is for my dad and Jayden I remind myself before stepping out on the ice. After a few laps around the ice, my body starts warming up; even though you are on literal ice, it's still pretty easy to work up a sweat. I whip my hoodie off and continue to skate around for a while finally forgetting everything that is causing me stress. As fast as the despair left my body, it returned when I see Jayden across the ice staring at me; immediately our eyes lock and my breath hitches, god he looks good. He is wearing dark blue joggers with a cream colored hoodie that hugs his muscles in all the right places, I quickly collect myself and am prepared for the show of my life.

"I'm having a déjà vu moment" he chuckles as I skate closer to him and I immediately feel mesmerized by his smile. 

"You stalking me as I skate around, yeah me too" I flirt back. Wait...I can't flirt with you. Stupid Ellie, I silently scold myself.

I finally am in front of him but before he can come up with a witty response, I see his eyes graze over me but stop suddenly on my shoulders. Fuck...remembering I just whipped off my hoodie a few moments before he arrived.

I nervously laugh, "this is why I shouldn't skate in the morning, just falling all over the place"

He continues to just stare at me, not saying anything but just staring at my bruises. After waiting a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, I skate over to the bench and throw my hoodie back on, but when I turn around I run into a hard chest and I feel both of us fall both on our butts. I look in front of me and see Jayden rubbing his side, his cheeks flushed, we both look at each other and immediately burst into a fit of laughter. We must've laughed for 10 minutes straight before finally stopping. I glance at my FitBit and the time shines 6:45 am.

"The rest of the team and my dad should be here soon" I mutter glancing in his direction.

"Are you going to tell me the real reason you have those bruises before they show up then?" he replies sternly,

"Listen Jayden, last night..." before I could finish a few guys walk into the rink including Stephen. He immediately looks at me and walks around the rink and gets to the bench. I am still on the ice with Jayden giving a wall barrier between us that at the moment and I am so grateful for. Okay, Ellie, you can do this.

"Hey baby" Stephen says, placing both hands on the short wall of the rink leaning in. I immediately see Jayden tense and for a split second we lock eyes, pleading through my eyes that he will understand what I am about to do.

"Babe" I say touching Stephen's hand, "Hi, you're here" I give a fake smile. Stephen takes my hand from on top of his and pulls me in, but since I am not ready for it, my body slams against the wall and I wince in pain, causing Jayden to tense even harder.

"I'm pretty sure Carrigan told you to stay away from her...last night" Jayden says coldly to Stephen, not taking his eyes off of me.

"Well...Jayden...Ellie wants me here, don't you Ellie?" He says still gripping my hand. I ignore the tightness in my hand and the throbbing of my side, I take a deep breath, look at Stephen's stupid cocky grin and sigh.

"Jayden, Stephen and I got back together last night"

"You what?!"

I finally force myself to look at Jayden and he looks shocked and then in an instant his eyes go dark, like he just realized something.

"You're the reason she has bruises all over her arms?" Jayden hisses and just like clockwork, my dad and most of the other guys including Carrigan, Kyle, Tyler and JD all walk in.

"Please guys, let's not do this right now, you both have practice" I plead still looking at Jayden. I know I need to leave as my dad thinks it's a distraction if I stay too long during practice. "and I need to go"

Stephen looks around him and notices my dad has headed off to the locker room but the rest of the guys are staring at the three of us anticipating what will happen next.

I begin to skate off before I hear Stephen deliberately cough, I turn look at him, taking a deep sigh before skating back over to him and kissing him in front of the entire team.

It's official, I am publicly back together with Stephen Carter. The literal devil.