13.
Nerves swirled in my stomach as I jogged to catch up to Chris. As if by fate, he had happened to still be at the rink after my practice with Aiden. Which of course, Aiden still hadn't had any major struggles with figure skating.
On a last-minute whim I decided to go ahead with my plan to ask Chris for help. It'd been almost a full week since my punishment with Aiden has started. I sucked at hockey. I was not comfortable stick handling, I could barely control the puck slowly, and I still wasn't a fan of the hockey skates. But Aiden however, he didn't seem to share the same uncomfortableness from switching sports that I had. I didn't just want to level the playing field, I needed to.
"Hey, hold up a minute!" I called out to Chris. Aiden had gone straight to the locker room, so I knew I had to do this quickly. "Can we talk for a minute?"
Chris stopped in his tracks, turned on his heel to face me. His eyebrows were raised, a sly smile on his lips. "You're willingly talking to a hockey player?" He gasped, clearly teasing me, and held a hand to his chest. "I'm honored."
The urge to roll my eyes at him was too strong for me to ignore. "Yeah, yeah," I mumbled, waved my hand dismissively at him. I broke to a walk a few feet from where Chris stood.
"What's up?" He held a friendly smile. That was a good sign. He didn't look annoyed by my presence.
My plan slipped from my mind as I stood there, taking the time to studying his features. In all the years that we'd trained at the same rink, gone to the same school, I had never noticed how genuine of a guy Chris seemed. He was tall, but lean, and though I had always thought hockey players were destined to walk around with permanent smug expression, Chris's face was always soft.
I violently shook my head, pushed out the thoughts threatening to dismantle my hatred of hockey players. I could feel the heat as it rushed to my face. Chris couldn't hear my thoughts, but had to have noticed me staring.
"Is everything okay?" Chris cocked his eyebrow, head tilted to the side.
"Yeah," I breathed. "I'm fine."
My eyes scanned the hallways, checking to see if any of his teammates were lingering around. The last thing that I needed was for one of them to overhear what I was about to ask Chris. Especially Aiden.
I didn't see anyone, but I felt it was better to be safe, than sorry. "Can we talk outside?"
Chris seemed to have picked up on my paranoia, his eyes scanned the hallways as if he was trying to figure out what I was looking for. He chose to not ask about it. Instead, he gestured towards the door. "After you."
Once outside, I released a large breath of air and shoved my hands into the front pockets of the light jacket I was wearing. "Wow. Okay," I muttered. My eyes fell on Chris's for a brief moment before I dropped them to the ground. "This is a lot harder than I thought it would be."
My thoughts began to race. Chris was the captain of the hockey team. It was insane that I was about to ask him for his help. Why would he want to teach me hockey to gain the upper hand on his teammate? Thinking about it now, I was realizing just how stupid of an idea it was.
"What is?"
I sucked in my lower lip, held it with my teeth. My eyes were lasered onto the Nike symbol on my slides. This was it. I'd already started the conversation, so I might as well have finished it.
"I have a favor to ask of you."
Chris didn't say anything at first. It was quiet for several impossibly long seconds before he started to laugh. I instinctively looked up from the ground and was met with his amused grin. "What could possibly have happened for you to ask a hockey player for help?"
My brows furrowed. "Who said anything happened?"
He didn't hesitate to answer. "Maybe the fact that you actually asked me for a favor?" Chris leaned back on heels. "I mean the last time we talked; you weren't exactly happy that I started a conversation."
"That was different," I grumbled. "I was in a bad mood for several reasons."
"Right, of course. So, you would have happily had a conversation with me if you hadn't been hungover?"
I sucked in a harsh breath. Chris wasn't stupid, he knew that I still wouldn't have wanted to talk to him. I couldn't blame him for being suspicious. Technically something had happened, or he was right, I wouldn't have talked to him.
He's just teasing you, Zoe. It wasn't a secret that I tried to avoid the hockey team.
His grin didn't fade as he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his sweatpants. He rocked forward on his toes, back to his heels. "So, what's this favor?"
I took a breath.
"I need your help to learn hockey."
Chris's smile fell, replaced quickly by confusion. "Isn't that Aiden's job? I thought that was kind of the whole point of your punishment."
"Technically. That's why I need your help though."
I went into detail with Chris, explaining to him what had happened with Aiden earlier in the week. I explained to him why I was hoping to learn some tips and tricks about hockey so that I could use them on Aiden. If he wanted to trick me into a bet, well, I figured two could play at that game. I told Chris my theory of Aiden getting help from someone else, explaining how highly unlikely it was that he had never been on a pair of figure skates. He had to have gotten help elsewhere.
Minutes of silence seemed to pass. Chris's face held an unreadable expression. He looked deep in thought, but about what, I didn't have a clue. Each minute that passed made my anxiety grow. I needed him to give me answer. Or, at the very least, say something.
"So?" I finally asked, letting my impatience get the best of me. Good or bad, I needed to know his answer.
Chris snapped his eyes to mine, instantly filling me with dread. His expression was blank. I still couldn't tell what he was thinking.
I swallowed a hard lump that'd formed in my throat. "You're going to tell him."
Finally, his eyebrows shot up; the first expression I'd seen from him in minutes. He shook his head, let out a soft chuckle. "I didn't say that." He pulled his right-hand from his pocket and ran it through his hair. "But you do realize how childish this sounds, right?"
I sucked my lips in, held my breath. Letting out that breath, I looked down. "So that's a no?"
Chris chuckled. "You are awfully persistent."
I glanced back up at him, a hopeful smile rested on my face. That was not a no. "So?" I pressed once more.
A lazy grin fell onto his face, and I knew that his answer was yes without him having to verbalize it. On impulse, I leaped towards him and engulfed him in a giant hug like the two of us had been friends forever.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am going to owe you big time!"
After several seconds, my thoughts finally caught up to my actions and I quickly jumped away from Chris. Heat rushed to my cheeks, surely turning me into a tomato.
"Sorry." I smiled sheepishly. "I didn't mean to do that."
At this point, I expected Chris to have thought that I'd gone insane. But he didn't say anything. He just smiled, and I couldn't help but smile back.
"I'll help you," Chris said. "I'll teach you a few things about hockey so that Aiden can't embarrass you too much." The smile slipped from his face, quickly being replaced with a disapproving from that reminded me of a parent about to scold their child. "Just know that I think this whole thing between you two is both stupid and immature."
I rolled my eyes, but I knew I couldn't argue. It was immature. Aiden and definitely could have handled things between us in a much more mature manner. And I knew I was being childish to want to get even with Aiden. But, if Aiden was going to trick me into making a bet that he knew he was going to win, I had no choice but to get even. Aiden needed to be knocked down a peg or two.
"Tomorrow you two are working on hockey?"
I nodded.
"Give me your phone."
I raised an eyebrow to which Chris chuckled. "I need to give you my address if you want my help to prepare you for tomorrow," he explained, still smirking at my hesitation to hand over my phone.
"Right," I muttered as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket to hand to him.
"Don't worry, we'll will make sure that you are ready."
I furrowed my eyebrows. Who was we?
The confusion on my face only made the grin on Chris's face grow. He didn't offer an explanation before he turned and started in the direction of his car in the parking lot. Looking back over his shoulder he called out, "Meet me at that address in an hour!"
I felt myself nod in response as a sense of dread began to swirl in the pit of my stomach. Suddenly I wasn't feeling so good about getting help from Chris if there was a 'we' involved. I didn't know anyone else on the hockey team and as much as I wanted to put Aiden in his place, I did not want to deal with the whole hockey team.
I was not physically or mentally prepared to learn from the whole hockey team.
"Turn right in three-hundred feet," my GPS said.
Reflexively, I flicked my right blinker on. My car slowed with my foot pressed gently to the brake. I turned onto a two-lane highway that would take me away from the suburbs and into the country. The farther down the road I drove, the farther apart the houses sat from each other.
"In one-thousand feet the destination will be on your left."
Again, I flicked my blinker and began to slow down. Slowly, I pulled into a long dirt driveway that led to, what I presumed to be, Chris's house.
Unlike my house that was a carbon copy of all my neighbors, Chris's house was a cute, older two-story farmhouse that had gorgeous off-white wrap around front porch. The house sat on what was likely several acres of land. There were no barns or pastures of any kind that I could see, so I guessed that his family didn't have any farm animals.
I threw my car into park and turned it off. I was in awe of the property. It was so unique in comparison to all of the houses in town. You could tell by looking at it that it had a story different from the neighbor house I passed. In a subdivision all of the houses looked almost identical. I liked that this house was different.
The front door swung open suddenly to reveal Chris. A cheeky smile covered his face when he saw me sitting in my car. He started walking in my direction.
I swallowed. Was it too late for me to change my mind about this?
Chris stopped next to my car, knocking his knuckle against the window lightly. "Are you going to get out?" He called out.
No, was my initial thought, but I knew better than to say that. I was the one who had asked for his help. I needed to get over myself and just deal. Even if Chris had invited the other hockey players I would survive.
I took a short breath in, nodded, and quickly unbuckled myself before hopping out.
"Your house is nice," I complimented. "It's different from all the houses in my neighborhood."
Chris smiled, offered a small shrug. "It's not a subdivision."
He turned on his heel and began to walk in direction of the backyard. I shuffled my feet, quickly falling in line behind him.
"Shouldn't we be at the rink?"
Chris chuckled, shooting me a look over his shoulder. The clueless look on my face humored him as he shook his head laughing as he turned his head back around. "Do you do all your figure skating training on the ice?"
No, I did not. There was a lot of training done off the ice that prepared me for when I laced up my skates. From running, to stretches, to ab workouts, there was a lot I could do off the ice. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Thinking about it, it made sense that hockey players would practice off the ice too.
"Point taken," I mumbled under my breath.
"There's a lot of tips and tricks that I can give you off the ice that will help you for tomorrow when you get back on the ice with Aiden." He stopped abruptly, causing me to practically crash into his back. He turned to eye me with a smug grin. "Besides, you want to keep this a secret from Aiden, yeah?"
I pierced my lips into a tight line. "Right."
The backyard was large, neatly trimmed grass with a brown wooden fence that lined the trees. Pressed up to the back of the house was a large grill next to a sliding glass door. A large picnic table sat several feet from the grill. A trampoline and over ground swimming pool occupied the back corner of the yard.
What really caught my eye was the red hockey net that was pushed up against the backside of the shed. I couldn't help the smile that pulled my lips. It made a lot more sense about how Chris was going to help me work on the same things Aiden was supposed to.
"You have a hockey net at your house," I stated the obvious.
Chris's gaze followed mine in the direction of the net and he grinned. "Sure looks like one, don't it?"
"Do you really think that you can help me learn something that will actually help me with knocking down Aiden a peg or two?"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Don't worry Zoe, we will help you learn everything you need to be able to shoot a goal. That will be something to rub in his face."
My stomach dropped. For a moment I had forgotten that he had mentioned a 'we'. Now more than ever I was worried that he really had invited his teammates. Slowly, I turned around to where Chris was gesturing someone over. A wave of relief wash over me when I see a girl and not one of his teammates.
The girl was tall with a lean from. Long black hair was pulled into a ponytail, with a white headband keeping the fallen hairs out od her face. She wore a blue tank top, black athletic pants, and sneakers, so it was a safe assumption that she was an athlete here to assist Chris. She must have been the 'we' that Chris kept referring to.
There was no chance of this girl being related to Chris. The two looked nothing alike. Chris had a rounder face, brown hair with slight curls, and dark blue eyes. Whereas she had very sharp features, dark black hair, and deep green eyes. If there were siblings, one must have been adopted.
"It's nice to meet you, Zoe. I'm Riley." The girl stopped in front of me, held out her hand for me to shake. She offered a warm smile. "I'm Chris's girlfriend."
For the briefest second, I let my surprise show in the form of silence and my obvious hesitation to shake Riley's hand. I wasn't sure why it caught me off guard to learn that Chris had a girlfriend. It would have been more shocking if he didn't. Chris was a total catch. Both attractive and genuinely nice; a rare combination.
"It's nice to meet you, Riley," I finally said, accepting her outreached hand.
"You know I've heard a lot about you." Pulling her hand away from my own, she crossed her arms over her chest. Her deep green eyes eyed me cautiously. "You are quite infamous with the hockey team."
I chuckled softly, titled my head in the direction of Chris to where he shrugged it off, but confirmed to me that it was true. It was not surprising to find out that the team spoke poorly of me considering our past. It was however a little surprising that they mentioned me at all. Until Aiden our paths never really crossed.
Chris walked up to us, swung an arm around Riley's shoulders. He placed a soft kiss on her lips in greeting before he turned his attention back to me. "Riley plays for the women's traveling hockey team in the city," Chris explained with a prideful smile. He looked at Riley with pure admiration and my heart melted. It was sweet how he was looking at her as though she was the only girl in the world.
"You play hockey too?" I asked Riley.
In my head I knew that girls played hockey the same as guys, but I had never met a female hockey player before. All the hockey players at the rink were boys considering that our rink only had a boys' team.
A grin swept over her face, and she nodded. "Heck yeah! I play right wing."
I blinked. I knew that was a position of some kind in hockey, but I didn't have a clue what that entailed. Not wanting to feel like a complete idiot I nodded, offering a curt smile as I understood.
Both Riley and Chris laughed at my obvious lack of knowledge. Chris snickered, "Maybe Aiden should have started with the positions in hockey."
Riley rolled her eyes and elbowed her boyfriend in the stomach. "Be nice. Zoe is new to hockey. Give her break." Riley's face softened as she looked back to me. "Right wing is a forward position," she explained, offering more gibberish. "One of my biggest responsibilities is to score goals and to pass to my teammates to help them score goals."
That made it make a little more sense, but I was still lost. Hockey had a lot more depth to it than appeared from the surface, and none of it made any sense to me. It was all too confusing. So many different positions, and styles of shooting. And don't even get me started on the coordination it took to actually move the puck where you want it.
In theory hockey looked simple. But as I was forced to dissect all the little pieces of the sport, I was beginning to realize just how clueless I actually was. It gave me no hope for being able to beat Aiden at his own game.
I was screwed.