I walked out of my house with my skates in my bag and shuffled inside Brook's car.
"That took long." Brook grumbled as she started the car.
"It almost made Kyle piss his pants." Mikey added, teasing Kyle.
Kyle only rolled his eyes. "Are you okay? Your cheeks are red." He gently put the back of his hand on my cheek.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it was just hot in my house." I said, gently tugging at my warm coat.
Kyle nodded, and we were driving to Rockefeller Center. We pulled up, and despite the season almost being Christmas, we got a parking space. Spy advantage, I was willing to bet. The streets of New York City was busy as ever, with concrete covered with trash and tar and the honking from cars all around, but I loved it. The excitement in the city was contagious, the skyscrapers glinting at us with their lights and the famous Christmas tree twinkling as if covered in pixie dust. I wasn't likely to forget this scene: Brook and Mikey walking ahead, laughing at each other like the adorable siblings they are, with the sky turning purple on the edges but the majority of it still a dreamy pastel pink, and the enchanting city lights surrounding us as Kyle, the boy I loved so much, grinned back at me, as if he understood exactly what I was feeling, because he was feeling it too.
Kyle outstretched his hand, and I grabbed it, our cold hands fitting together to warm each other. I wasn't someone who loved holding hands, but with him, it was different.
"Ready to go skating?" He asked, and I nodded.
"Hell yeah." I replied, feeling like a kid again. I hadn't skated since I was, I don't remember, in 6th grade? But I've always loved it. I couldn't do spins or tricks, but just gliding on the ice made me feel like I could glide a million miles an hour, forever.
I looked up at Kyle, his blonde hair curling by his ear and nape, his beanie covering up the ruffle atop his head. I leaned up and twirled my finger with the hair by his ear.
"Your hair's the longest I've ever seen it."
"Yeah, I need a haircut." He said, tucking the strands by his ear.
"No, I like it this way. Long and curly." I said, and he smiled at me.
"Yeah? Well then I won't cut it only you tell me to."
"I have that much control?" I said, feigning my shock with a hand on my chest.
He smirked. "Of course. This," He pointed to his head, "is all yours."
"Then this," I said, holding up a bunch of my hair, "is yours too."
"I like it long as well, shiny and long." He said, grabbing the back of my head and planting a swift kiss on my hair. "Just don't dye it, I love your hair color. Reminds me of a milk chocolate truffle with caramel filling."
I giggled and took the ends of my hair and shook it, as if it was waving. "Aye, aye, sir." I said in a high-pitched voice, like my hair was talking.
Kyle laughed. "You really are brilliant."
I continued with my hair-talk: "Why thank you sir."
He chuckled again, and walked more purposefully to the skate park. "Come on."
After all of us had gotten our skates on, Mikey and Brook ran past and immediately started speed skating across the rink. I watched them, impressed at their incredibly fast movements and abilty to dodge civilians so effectively, and turned back to Kyle, who was trying to walk in his skates.
"Come on, slow poke." I teased, and stepped onto the rink. The feeling of the smooth ice under my feet caught me off guard for a moment, but I steadied myself, and remembered the times I had gone ice skating in my childhood. I started gliding, and just as I turned around to see where Kyle was, I heard a loud thump as someone tall fell over, right smack onto their butt.
To my biggest surprise, it was a familiar, way-too-handsome, teen spy that had fell over.
"Oh. my. fucking. god." I said, trying to hold in my laughter. "Kyle, don't tell me, you don't know how to skate?"
Kyle looked visibly angry as he continued sitting, literally freezing his ass off.
"Oh don't be so cold about it, well, I guess you can't help it!" I said obnoxiously, and Kyle's gloved hands turned into angry fists at his side.
"Shut up." He grumbled.
"I'm sorry, I'm done teasing." I said, my hands up in mock surrender, as I continued trying to stifle my giggles.
Kyle started to get up, but on his unsteady skates, he fell again, this time on his frontside.
I burst out laughing again. "How do you mess up that badly?"
Kyle was pissed, beyond pissed now, and I was treasuring this moment when Kyle had something he couldn't do. He was always the one teaching me things, I wanted a chance at that too.
"Come on, I'll help you get up." I said, as I reached down to give him my hand. Still glaring and shaking with anger, Kyle reached out to take it. But as he took hold of my hand, he yanked me down, and I yelped as I fell into him.
"You dick!" I exclaimed, trying to stand up but failing miserably in a tangle of his legs and slippery ice.
Kyle was laughing hysterically, and it was my turn now to look at him broodingly. I flipped him off and stood up, much better than he did FYI, and watched as Kyle struggled to get up. Once he finally did, I burst out laughing again.
"Who knew Kyle Foust had a physical sport that he could not do!"
"I never had a chance to do kiddy shit like this." He said defensively.
"I don't think an Olympic sport is really childish, Kyle." I said in a 2nd-grade-teacher voice.
I turned around and started skating backwards, just to annoy him.
Kyle rolled his eyes and started skating forwards, clearly watching the people around him do so, and controlling his legs and body so well it was obvious he was very athletic. Shit. He was picking up so quickly. He looked like he'd skated at least a few times before, not a mere few seconds. Maybe I should stop picking on him—
"A bit slow, aren't you?" I mocked, because he hadn't caught up to my backward skating yet.
A flare of competitiveness and anger shot in his eyes as his entire body stiffened.
Nope. I just couldn't keep my trap shut.
Kyle suddenly started skating unbelievably quickly, I couldn't imagine he'd never skated before. My eyes widened a fraction and I let out a small yelp as I turned around and started skating away quickly, dodging the little kids and the couples, muttering apologies along the way.
I got caught behind a particularly slow couple, who were giggling and holding hands and taking up all the space imaginable, and I couldn't move around them because there were other people in the way. I finally ended up basically ripping their hands away from each other, yelling "excuse me!" and making my way past them.
Apparently I wasn't fast enough, because a pair of big hands grabbed me by my waist and whirled me around. "You little bitch," Kyle breathed, but he was grinning. He held me firmly with his hands, and his face was tilted downwards, our foreheads almost touching.
"I saw what you did to that couple, you fucking mood-breaker." He said, chuckling into our little space.
"I didn't have a choice!" I defended, "desperate times call for desperate measures."
"Well, I think it's safe to say I'm the faster skater." One of his hands moved to my head and knotted itself into my hair, the other still stationed at my waist, keeping me close to him.
"Fuck you and your athleticism." I grumbled, but finally couldn't help but laugh as out lips met. It wasn't really a kiss, more like a laugh-kiss, because Kyle and I were laughing too hard to have a proper kiss.
"Hey, lovebirds." Mikey said as he sped past us, making us break apart and Kyle flip him off. Brook shot past after him and gave me a not-so-discreet wink.
After racing past couples and families and having a dance off that turned out more to be who could stay upright for longer for a solid hour and a half, we were all slightly tired and ready to leave.
Just as we were skating towards the exit, someone hurtled into me from behind. I skidded forward and lost balance, falling in a very ungraceful manner onto my hands and knees. I knew there was going to be a nasty bruise there tomorrow.
"Hey, asshole! Watch where you're going!" Kyle yelled to the guy who bumped into me, starting to chase after him.
"Kyle, it's okay." I said quickly, not wanting to start any drama. "Help me up." I lifted my hand up for him to take. His eyes softened and he reached down to take my hand, but I yanked him down when I had a firm grip on his hand.
"What—" He statrted as he tumbled onto the ground. I let out a loud screech of laughter and stood up quickly, dodging his lashed out arm.
"Payback's a bitch!" I yelled as I skated out of the park. I saw Kyle stand up slowly as he shook his head in defeat, skating back towards me in an unrushed manner with his hands placed carelessly on his hips and a smile on his lips.
* * * * *
"Here," Brook said as she gave me a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
"Thanks." I mumbled, placing my lips on the top of the mug as the steam unrolled onto my face.
We were all gathered in the lounge, with Mikey and Kyle playing Call of Duty and Brook and I comfortably curled up in bean bags. I was in my fluffy pajamas, and my wet hair was piled up into a messy bun. Brook, on the other hand, was wearing a black tank top and bright red shorts that said devil's ass right across her butt. It was so like Brook to wear something like that.
"So," Brook prompted, leaning in to signal that she wanted to gossip. "Did you and Kyle do the nasty yet?"
I coughed so hard I almost spit out my hot chocolate. "What? No!"
Brook looked genuinely surprised. "Really? But you sleep in his room like every night."
I sputtered, not knowing what to say. Everyone who knew me in the Office must have been thinking the same thing. "Well, we haven't. He hasn't even seen my tits yet. Just my bra."
Brook gasped. "Holy shit! Poor Kyle!"
I frowned. "He seems okay with it."
"Of course he's okay with it. He'd never rush you, he's not that thirsty. But he sure as hell wouldn't mind it."
I blushed. I couldn't think of showing my breasts to anyone. That was so...revealing. "Well, have you had sex?"
"Yeah, a few times. A few people." She lowered her voice, "my first time was with a guy. Worst thing ever."
"What do you mean?" I asked, my curiosity peaking.
"Well, you're not gay so you probably won't understand it. But everything about it was just gross. Plus it hurt like a bitch. He was gentle enough, but it didn't help that I wasn't turned on at all." She shivered, recounting the time. "But you won't have trouble with the getting turned on thing. I've heard he's good with that."
I bit my lip. She was talking of his past experiences. "Has Kyle—"
Brook sighed at my unfinished sentence. "Not really my place to talk, but yeah. You can't really blame him, he's fucking hot, even I know that, and no one's really there to stop him. Plus he's almost 18."
"Right." I was expecting it, there was no way Kyle could be a virgin, but still. I didn't like the idea of another girl touching Kyle the way I do, and even more.
"Don't worry about it. He may not be a virgin, but he's never cared for a girl as much as he cares about you. You're special to him. A blind person could see that."
I smiled gratefully. "Thanks."
"No problem. And also, I was worried, and Kyle also talked to me about this, saying he didn't think it was right for him to talk about it...."
"What?" I urged when Brook faltered.
"We both noticed you lost a lot of weight lately. Are you alright?"
I looked down at my lap. This conversation again. "I'm fine."
"The thing is, it doesn't seem like it. You can gain that weight back quickly, but we can't just continue to watch you turn skinnier and skinnier."
"I'm okay." I repeated, though not completely sure.
"This isn't about being skinny for Kyle, right? Because that would be wrong in so many levels."
"No!" I gasped immediately."No, that's not it at all."
"Then what is it?"
"I...with all that's going on, you know, the constant surveillance, a freaking villain group after me, the last thing that seems important to me is eating. Or going to school. It just seems ridiculous that I need to stop working, working, working, just to....sit down and eat spaghetti."
Brook nodded. "I know what it's like. I've been through it too. When I had a huge case and so many people were dying in it, and I had the majority of control. But the thing is, if you don't eat or drink or take care of yourself, you're going to be so much more tired and have much less energy. And especially with this case. We're protecting you. If you're not healthy, or even dead by the end of all this, we'd have done everything for nothing. So eat, okay? Take care of yourself and love yourself for all of us working on this."
I nodded. I hadn't thought of that. "Thanks, Brook." I reached out to hug her, and she held me tightly. I felt tears swell up in my eyes.
"You're literally my best friend. I have no other friends." I said, laughing-slash-crying.
Brook guffawed. "Same here. Well, except for Kyle and Mikey but they're more family."
******
So sorry for the late update! (ooh that rhymes)
I've been having writer's block I might not be updating very quickly, but I've been getting a few ideas of what's to come. I'll give you a hint: Roselle will be appearing soon!
Anyway, thanks for reading! What did you think of the Brook/Cass moment? Let me know!
Love you all xxx