Snowflakes fell from the sky gently, covering the ground in a cold, white blanket. Since the weather was now getting colder, Ava thought it would be a fun idea if we all went ice skating. We ended up going to the local ice skating rink in our town. The rink was set up in the biggest park we had in the city and there was a small shack that sold hot chocolate.
I pulled my jacket tighter on my body, shivering. "It's so fucking cold!" I exclaimed, my breath becoming visible smoke in the cold air.
Everett stood beside me, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "No one forced you to come out."
"You're so annoying," I grumbled. "I like ice skating, so that's why I came. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Nope," he said, popping the last syllable with his mouth before turning to me. He looked at me up and down. "You sure you're going to be okay?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if you've forgotten, but you're pretty clumsy."
I glared at him. "I'll be fine!" I said. "...Maybe."
Luka walked over to us with Ava trailing behind him. He resembled a child as he wore fluffy blue ear muffs and a giant puffy jacket. "Hey, you two!" he said. "You guys ready to go on the ice?"
I nodded. "Let's go!" I cheered. "I'm so excited! I haven't skated in forever."
Everett snickered. "You're going to fall."
"No, I will not!" I growled.
We made our way to the rink. Ava and Luka stepped on first, taking off effortlessly while holding hands. I watched, impressed, before gingerly stepping onto the cold rink myself. As I put both feet on the ice, I could feel myself lose balance and quickly grabbed onto the railing that lined the rink. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said. "That was close." Everett stepped on and skated easily in front of me. I furrowed my brows. "What the hell? How are you so good at this?"
"'Cause I'm not clumsy, unlike a certain someone," he said, smirking. I stared at him before he sighed, holding out his hand. "Come on. You can hold onto me."
"Gross, no," I said, shaking my head. "I'll be fine. Anyway, why are you bothering me right now? Isn't Savannah supposed to get here soon?"
He nodded. "Yeah, and until she gets here, I thought bothering you would be fun while I wait." I glared at him as a mischievous smile formed on his face.
"You know what?" I growled, latching onto his arm roughly, causing him to stumble on the ice slightly before regaining his balance. "I will hold onto you. Plus, knowing me, I'll probably fall a lot. Which means, you fall, too." I shot him an evil smile.
He just rolled his eyes. "Let's go."
Pushing us along the ice at a turtle's pace, I held onto his arm with both hands, moving my feet along slowly. We silently glided around the rink, Luka and Ava passing by us, waving at us with their free hands before speeding off. "Those two are impressive," I muttered, watching them skate together while still holding hands.
Everett chuckled softly. "Yeah, they are," he said. "I'm glad Ava has someone like Luka. He's a great guy. Unlike what's his name? Your ex."
I sighed heavily. "I knew at some point you were going to bring him up. His name is Jace." I shot him a look. "He may have been shitty with me, but he changed for the better."
"He still cheated on you," Everett said. "I don't care what he's like now."
I just grumbled as we skated along at the same slow pace, falling silent again. Looking around us, I noticed just how many people were passing us by. "You know, I think we can go a little faster," I said.
He looked at me. "Really?"
I nodded. "Yup. It's getting boring going this slow."
Laughing, he nodded his head. "Sure." He glanced at me. "Wait. Before we do," he said, halting us to a stop off to the side so we didn't get in people's way. He took his scarf off, which was a dark red color and chunky knit. "Here."
My eyes widened as he wrapped it around my neck and the bottom part of my face. I could feel the coldness of my face defrost from how warm it was. It smelled like him and I couldn't help myself but breathe it in. "Um," I said after a few moments. "Why?"
He stared at me. "You're face was getting red from the cold, obviously. Why didn't you wear a scarf in the first place?"
"I don't own one."
Rolling his eyes, he sighed. "Of course." He grabbed my hand, throwing me a smirk. "You said you wanted to go faster, right?"
I was about to say something, however before I could, he was already pulling me along. We were going pretty fast and I struggled to keep up. "Hey, you ass!" I exclaimed, practically squeezing his hand. "Slow down! I didn't mean this fast!"
At this point, he was skating by himself while pulling me along. My legs were stiff straight in fear and I was surprised he didn't say anything yet about how I was practically crushing his hand. "Everett!" I yelled.
Finally, he started slowing down, stopping us in the middle of the rink. I glared at him. "Don't do that ever again!"
He laughed. "Why? It was fun. The look of terror on your face was the best."
I pushed him, causing him to slide a little bit away from me. "I swear, when we get off this ice, I will murder you."
Throwing me a smirk, he crossed his arms. "If you can get off without my help," he said. "I'm way over here now. Will you be able to do it?"
Swallowing, I glanced at the gate of the rink, which was pretty far. I shrugged nonchalantly. "I can do it," I said cooly. "I don't need you."
Nodding his head, he started to slowly skate away. "Okay, if you're sure, I'll just get off now then."
"Wait!" I exclaimed, shooting my arms out in a gesture to stop him, which just made me lose my balance and I steadied myself, exhaling heavily. "I'm sorry. Please help me."
I narrowed my eyes at him as he tried not to laugh. "Come here then," he told me. "Try skating to me, at least."
"Fine," I grumbled. Taking a deep breath, I slowly skated myself forward, almost tipping off to the side. I held both arms out in an effort to balance myself and continued on, like a baby penguin. Looking up, I noticed Everett watching me with a warm expression in his eyes, causing my heart to race.
I looked down at my feet, unable to handle the feeling of nerves building up in my stomach. Breathing in and out slowly, I finally was almost in front of him, when a voice yelled out from behind me.
"Watch out! I can't stop!" The voice screamed.
I glanced behind me to see a girl that looked to be about twelve years old speeding towards me with a nervous look on her face. Before I could react, she crashed into me, sending my body forward.
Yelping, I braced myself for contact with the cold ice, eyes shut tightly, only to have them shoot open upon coming into contact with another body, who I already knew was Everett. He wrapped his arms around me as we fell down onto the ice, him groaning from the impact and me landing on top of him.
"Holy shit!" I yelled. "Everett, are you okay?!" I propped myself up on his torso and peered down at his face.
"Y-Yeah," he breathed. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "You didn't hit your head? Oh my god, you're going to die!"
"Nova!" he exclaimed, placing both of his hands onto the sides of my face. I blinked down at him. For a moment, we just stared into each other's eyes as we caught our breath from the adrenaline of the fall. "I'm fine," he told me. "The most I'll get is probably a bump."
I exhaled in relief. "Good," I said. "Thanks for catching me."
"Yeah."
"Nova!" Ava's voice yelled out. I looked up to see her and Luka skating over to us, worried expressions on their faces. "Are you two okay?!"
"Dude, that was insane!" Luka exclaimed. "All I saw was that little kid speeding off in your direction and then the next second, both of you are flattened like pancakes."
"We're fine, thanks," I said to them.
Ava nodded her head before pressing her lips together. "That's good. Nova, you might want to get up now. That position is kind of..."
I blinked as she pointedly glanced up and down before looking down myself. That was when I noticed that I was practically straddling Everett, who was also staring up at me. My eyes widened and I scrambled to get off of him, slipping on the ice as Luka stepped forward to help me up.
I cleared my throat as Luka helped steady me, and Everett pushed himself up onto his feet, expression unreadable as he ran a hand through his hair silently. "Uh, thanks, Luka," I said awkwardly before shooting a glare at Ava, who was fighting back a smile.
"No problem," Luka said to me before looking at Everett. "You okay, man?"
Everett nodded. "I'm good," he said, looking off to the side and his eyes widened slightly. "Savannah?"
My heart practically caught in my throat at the name. Turning my head stiffly, I noticed the blonde-haired girl skating towards us and skidded to a halt once she reached us. "Hey," she said, adjusting her pink knit hat on her head. "I saw what happened! Are you guys okay?"
"Uh, fine, never better!" I said and laughed exaggeratedly. Just how much did she see, I wonder?
"That's good," she said to me before turning to Everett. I watched as she reached a hand up and rubbed the back of his head gently, a weird feeling forming in my chest. "Is your head okay?" she asked him.
He nodded slightly. "Yeah, it's fine. Thanks."
She smiled. "Well, that's good news!" she said. "Anyway, let's skate together since I'm here now."
Pressing my lips together, the weird feeling in my chest grew larger, spreading through my body. I realized that I wasn't in the mood to be here anymore. I didn't want to watch Everett and her skate together while I pulled myself along the ice slowly on the sidelines. I breathed in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling slowly, plastering a smile on my face. "It's good that you're here. Everett won't be alone." He gave me a look as I took his scarf off and handed it back to him. "I kind of want to go home, anyway. It's too cold for me."
"Nova," Everett started, but I just shoved his scarf into his hands before turning away.
"Don't worry about me, I can handle getting myself off the rink myself," I said to him, throwing a small smile his way.
Ava looked back and forth between us before sliding up next to me. "I'll take you to your car!" she said, looping her arm around mine. "I'll be back soon, Luka."
He nodded and smiled at us. "Sure. Drive carefully, Nova."
I smiled at him. "Thanks," I said. "See you guys later."
Everett wrapped his scarf back around his neck and nodded silently, and Savannah smiled, waving goodbye to me.
Ava and I made our way off of the ice and I felt relieved to be on the normal ground again. We walked silently to the locker area where we locked our shoes up and I plopped down onto a bench, leaning down to take off the skates.
"Nova," Ava said as she opened up the locker we all shared. She pulled out my boots and set them onto the ground near my feet. "Are you okay?"
I laughed. "How many times are you guys going to ask that? I'm fine."
"Not that," she said sternly, causing me to look up at her. "I'm talking about Everett."
It was silent as I put on my boots and stood up, skates in hand. She closed the locker and walked with me to the area where we returned the skates. "What do you mean?" I asked. "There's nothing to be worried about, Ava."
She rolled her eyes. "Don't give me that shit, Nova!" she said. "I can tell that it bothered you when Savannah showed up."
"What does it matter, anyway?" I said, handing the skates to the bored guy behind the counter. "It's not like we're dating. We're just childhood friends. If you can call us that."
"A childhood friend who you love," she said, looking at me seriously.
My eyebrows scrunched. "What?" I asked. "The fuck are you saying?"
"Oh, come on!" She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "You think I haven't noticed? Everett might not have, but I did."
I just stared at her. "Even if what you're saying was true, there's nothing I can do. He's with her."
She sighed softly. "I don't think he likes her."
That made my ears perk up, making me want to punch myself for even being interested. "Why?"
"Because of you," she said.
I scoffed. "Yeah, okay." We reached the parking lot and I turned to her. "Enough with the crazy talk. I'll see you later."
Ava just sighed, waving goodbye to me as I got into my car and started the engine. I watched as she walked back towards the rink where Luka was waiting for her. Even though I told myself not to, I strained to see if I could find the tall guy with a red scarf amongst the crowd of people on the ice. When I did, I shut my eyes, my fingers tightening on the steering wheel. My mind flashed back to the moment he wrapped the scarf around me, and I could almost feel the warmth from it on my cheeks again.
Opening my eyes, I put the car in drive and drove out of the parking lot, onto the empty street towards home.