This is a short, long overdue update! I hope you guys enjoy it!
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24.
A pair of dark eyes scanned over my face as Aiden attempted to see if my words were sincere or not. The corner of his lip curled into a sly half smirk. His expression showed no signs of hurt, so I doubted my words had any effect on him.
"You wound me." He held up a hand to his heart, feigning I'd hurt his feelings. The tone of his voice was his usual arrogant self that I was accustomed to, but there was a glimpse of a softness in his eyes that made question how he really felt.
I narrowed my eyes. He had to have been playing some sort of game with me.
"You really don't like him, do you?" Kelsey's question pulled me from my glare on Aiden and I turned to face her with a soft smile.
Aiden chuckled. "You don't know the half of it."
"What did you do to make her hate you?" Dylan asked, crossing his arms over his chest. A humorous grin filled his face.
He mocked everything about figure skating to start, I thought to myself.
Aiden just shrugged off the question as he looked down at me with a sly smile. "I joined the rink."
It was a valid answer.
I tried my best to contain my amusement from his answer, but I couldn't help the corners of my lips that twitched upward into a smile. I was quick to advert my eyes as Aiden smirked seeing that I found humor in something he said.
"Was that almost a smile, at something Aiden said?" Brendon teased; his elbow nudged my side lightly. I looked up at him with a glare, my lips quick to fall to a frown.
Shut up, Brendon.
I lifted my gaze back to the three cousins. It felt like I had to explain myself on why I didn't like Aiden. If I didn't, I was worried that Brendon was going to give them the wrong idea. Or worse, that they would think that I was some stuck-up figure skater.
"It's more complicated than him just joining the rink," I began, shooting a glare over at Aiden to which he just grinned. "I have an issue with people that belittle my sport and since the first conversation that I had with Aiden; it was clear he didn't respect figure skating. He flat out told me that he thought it was easy."
Aiden bit his lip, attempting to fight back a smile. He thought that this was funny. Despite everything that had happened between us over the past month of working together, he still found it easy to disrespect me and my sport. Of course.
Luke and Dylan both seemed taken back by my explanation. Their eyebrows raised as the gave Aiden a curious expression. Kelsey on the other hand frowned. She was not on the same wavelength as the boys.
"You." Luke nodded his head at Aiden, his brown eyes narrowed on him cautiously. At this point Aiden was smiling sheepishly. "You, of all hockey players, told her that figure skating was easy?"
I was confused. Aiden was the worst kind of a hockey player when it came to disrespecting figure skating. He had no filter. No issues with being blunt and rude about his lack of enthusiasm for the sport. It made no sense that Dylan and Luke would be surprised that he acted any different.
"Don't let her fool you," Brendon cut in, taking the attention off of Aiden. "It was a mutual thing. Zoe was just as disrespectful about hockey as he was about figure skating. So much so that they almost got themselves kicked out of the rink for fighting. Lucky for them that Mark didn't want to lose his best figure skater or his new hockey player. Mark and Lance came up with a punishment for them where they have to learn the basic of the other sport."
Kelsey couldn't help but laugh at that. Her eyes eyed me skeptically as if she wouldn't expect my small frame to ever handle a game of hockey. "You are learning to play hockey, and Aiden has to learn figure skating?"
"Just the basics," I mumbled. "But yeah, unfortunately."
That bit of information was the final straw to send Dylan and Luke both into a fit of laughter. I furrowed my eyebrows, dumbfounded by how amused the two boys were about the punishment. It wasn't a funny concept that a hockey player and figure skater didn't get along.
"Out of curiosity," Dylan broke his laughter long enough to ask. "How has Aiden been doing with the basics of figure skating?"
Dylan locked his eyes onto Aiden, to which Aiden grinned. Something weird was going on. He too found equal amusement in the conversation. Dylan, Luke, and Aiden all appeared to be in on some kind of inside joke. A joke that Kelsey, Brendon, and I were all left in the dark on.
"Something tells me that he hasn't fallen on his face as much as you probably expected him to," Luke commented.
I felt self-conscious all of the sudden. How would Luke have known that Aiden didn't fall much? In fact, he had never fallen.
"He's never had an issue," I begrudgingly admitted as I dropped my eyes to the ground. Every exercise that I had shown Aiden he had already know how to do. It was clear that he had done it before, but I just assumed that he got help from a fellow skate club member.
Dylan let out a soft chuckle, his eyes back on me. "And prior to this whole punishment thing, how much experience did you have with hockey?"
I let out a huff of air. "None."
"Awe Aiden, that's a bit cruel don't you think?" Luke teased. I lifted my eyes from the ground. What was cruel? "Poor Zoe doesn't know, does she?"
At that comment Aiden decided it was time to defend himself. Although judging from the smile currently on his face, he wasn't at all flustered or concerned about the situation at hand. Unlike myself.
"She never asked."
I narrowed my eyes onto Aiden. I never asked what?
For a split second I contemplated not asking him to clarify. Right now, as it stood, the two of us were headed in the direction of actually being friends. I large part of me admittedly liked that. If whatever Luke and Dylan were implying Aiden had hidden from me was catastrophic, it would ruin any chance of us ever being friends.
The logical side of my brain knew that I needed to know. Based off how his cousins were talking, this had something to do with how he had already grasped the basic of figure skating.
"What don't I know, Aiden?"
I turned my body to face Aiden fully, looking up at him with a weary expression. Aiden's chocolate eyes were soft, giving off an apologetic gleam. He lifted his right hand, rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Whatever it was he hadn't told me, it was currently making him lose his confident edge.
"Tell me," I pushed, crossing my arms over my chest.
Aiden swallowed. It was an obvious sign of nerves. Why was he so nervous?
"When I was a kid," he took in another nervous breath. "Before my mom let me play hockey, she insisted that I took several years of figure skating lessons."
No. No, he had to have been lying. There was no way that Aiden had taken years of figure skating lessons. That would have mean that he had been playing me for the last month. This whole time that I was forced to learn hockey, he had already known all the basics.
But then it did make sense. Aiden had never once struggled with anything figure skating related. He wasn't phased by the skates with a toe pick, he could easily do everything that I had thrown at him with little to know prep.
This was all just a big set up. Lance had to have known about his son's background in figure skating. He would have known that this wouldn't have been a real challenge for Aiden. It was all a big set up. I was the only who was truly being punished.
A sudden queasy feeling filled the pit of my stomach making me feel nauseated. My arms dropped down to my sides as I stumbled backward. "I have to go," I mumbled. I turned on my heel quickly, ready to book it.
"Zoe, wait." Aiden grabbed a hold of my arm, but I was quick to jerk it away and bolted for the arena doors. I was in no mood to stay and chat. I'd been humiliated enough.
The last thing I needed was to stay there and hear all about how Aiden had played me. I knew that it was impossible for him to have picked up on everything so easily. I couldn't believe that him and his dad played me.
Risking a quick glance over my shoulder, I could see that none of them were laughing anymore. Their expressions had all turned apologetic. They must not have expected me to care. They must have thought that I would find it funny. Or maybe they thought that it would make me mad.
I wasn't mad. I didn't find it funny. Of all things, I just felt hurt.