"So he didn't accept the bar?" Aph asked for the fifth time as we stuttered and stumbled out of Spanish like a rusty electronic.

"Yeah, and then he left.." I said.

"Well if he gave up the legendary MelodyBar™ all rights reserved by the way, then he has no right to your very expensive and important time"

I snorted at her sudden announcer accent but shook my head, "No I think I accidentally treated him a bit like I treat Ty"

"Oh.. So, yeah I'd run away t— owh! Okay, okay my bad.."

We laughed as we walked to the cafeteria. But then I realized, I'd had a really shitty day today.. And I didn't exactly enjoy Calculus all too much.

"What do you say we skip the rest of lunch and head three hours uphill?"

Aphrodite squealed, "God I was waiting for you to say that, yes yes yes we need to go" then she paused and cleared her throat guiltily, "I maaay be running away from homework.."

I was tempted, really really tempted to stay just so she could suffer. But I'd already made up my mind.

"Ugh cause I got exempted from a witches detention, god knows I didn't hit my head, I feel like being nice, so yeah let's go"

.

.

.

"Next time please let me drive.." I moaned as I flopped out of the car onto the floor, barely holding myself from kissing it.

"You're just dramatic, I'm an awesome driver" she gushed as she looked at her almost in the sidewalk attempt at parallel parking.

Crawling towards an electricity pole I used it to pull myself back up to my feet.

I was about to say something to her, tell her how ridiculous her parking was, but then I decided it wasn't worth the oxygen.

Two minutes later I was making the worst decision of my entire goddamn existence. And don't even ask me how Aphrodite managed to rope me into it.

I'm still trying to work it out.

.

.

"So you're hiring for two?" the lady at the hiring office asked cheerily.

I shook my head but Aph smacked me on the ass and spoke for me, "Yes please, and do it for like a few hours?"

The lady laughed and nodded, "Sure now could I have your si—" Aph suddenly cut her off.

"Do you know who the hot skater that comes here and draws a huge crowd is?" she asked, jumping straight to the point, ignoring my mortified expression of embarrassment on her behalf.

The lady startled with a frown, "Um, I'm sure if you gave me a better description of said 'hot skater' I'd be more of a help..?"

Aph spoke before I could throttle her.

"About, this tall," she jumped and waved her hand at a ridiculous height, "Buff looking, always in hoodie and—"

"Mask?"

I was startled when she added the final piece of the description. "Uh, y-yeah that's the one, he's always wearing a mask, yeah"

"I do know him, yes, do you need something from him?"

I cleared my throat, trying to fight my blush.

I am finally killing Aph tonight. That is it.

The little shit must have felt my murderous aura because she let out a nervous squeak and moved slightly to the side.

"Do you know when he's gonna drop by next?" I asked.

For a moment I thought she'd say she can't share information with us, but then she started going through some files on her computer.

So I took it as a sign to be hopeful.

"Ah, it says here on the system that he's rented the rink for the next—"

"I'm sorry, did you just say rented the rink?" I gasped, "Like the entire rink? Like the whole thing? L-like.. All of it?"

"Yes?"

"Wow.." Aph and I sighed in unison.

.

.

I closed my mouth quickly and cleared my throat when I realized what kind of impression we were giving the poor lady.

"Do you know his name?" I asked, blushing from her obvious relief.

"Ah, from what it says here.. His name is.. Uh. huh.. Strangely he hasn't put an actual name, rather what looks like a stage name?"

"A stage name?"

"Calis..? Caulis Ater..?"

"Could you give us the spelling please?"

"Uh sure, C.. a.. u.. l.. i.. s.. A.. t.. e.. r. Now anything else? Or can I finally get your sizes and give you your skates??"

.

.

"Hold my hand— Hold it.. Aph, Aph please! Please help me!!" I yelped as I reached towards her desperately, letting out a cry of anguish when our fingers grazed but didn't catch.

"Nooo!!" I wailed as I splat onto the ice like a baby giraffe fresh out of the womb.. The 'o' stretching on and on as I spun around in circles like the dumbass I am.

I heard Aph snorting on the floor next to me and joined in.

I mean, what else could we do other than laugh at my completely atrocious ice skating skills? I mean I could cry of course because.. My ass is in tears.

But like what's the point..

Squirming to the railings we used them to drag ourselves back onto our feet and for an entire hour we just practiced staying on our feet.

Okay so it took an hour and a half but.. Details.

"How did he do it??" I groaned as I struggled to my feet after completely stacking a jump that was no higher than one eighth of an eighth of a millimeter.

"How did who? Oh.. Shit yeah now that I think about it. He made all those gravity defying jumps and twirls look like child's play.. What the fuck.."

And so of course on that obviously detrimental note, we simultaneously decided to attempt to either land a jump or twirl on ice by the time we were to leave.

Or so we had thought.

.

.

"I'm done, I can't do it. I really can not do it.. I feel like I've fractured my entire skeleton twice over.." I wailed as I slumped over the rails.

"Oh no you do not.!" Aphrodite grinned as she yanked me back on to the ice, ignoring my yowls of displeasure.

"If I'm on the ice, then you sure as hell are too.."

Or so she had thought.

.

.

"Okay yeah no we're done, fuck this shit. I'm never Ice-skating again" Aph snapped when she struggled shakily to her feet after failing— not for the first time— another jump.

I sighed in relief and crawled to the exit.

Once we'd politely returned the skates and slipped into our shoes, we collapsed onto the bleachers.

"What had she said? The spelling. What was it?" I asked as I pulled out my phone.

"Uh, C.. u.. a.. l.. i.. s.. A.. t.. r.. e? I think? Yeah something like that.."

I typed it in and pressed search, waiting till the shitty internet allowed me to see any results.

Once it was in I tapped the 'did you mean' thing that obviously had the correct spelling and waited again.

It went through and I gasped.

"What! What is it!? Show me too you pig!" Aph snarled, snatching the phone from my frozen hands.

"Holy.. Shoot. There's no way right?"

"It's definitely him.. No doubt about it. Read that small description.. It makes it really freaking obvious"

"Blah blah blah.. Little is known about Ater other than the fact that he is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous figure skating competitors, blah blah, having only lost two competitions in his entire frame of competing. Ater is what most people in the line would call an Enigma. Only a few, if any at all, have ever seen his entire face.. Blah blah blah"

We both looked at each other in shock. That was definitely him. The skater we'd seen. It was one hundred percent the same person.

"Nah there's no way sorry" we said in unison before breaking into a fit of nervous laughter. If it really was the same person, well let's just say we..

Oh my god.. I groaned in my head as I remembered the fact that slapping him hadn't been a bad dream.

But then neither had the thank you..

I cleared my throat when I felt my face start to go red, forcing myself to get back onto the right track of mind.

"Oh? It says here that he'll be performing soon!?" Aph whisper screeched, pointing frantically at an article she had opened.

"Really? Does it say where??"

"Uh,.. Ages.. Timings.. Gender roles.. Pairings.. Scoring.. Blah blah blah.. Ah! It says that they'll be performing.. Here?"

We both gaped at each other before desperately trying to see if we made a mistake with the address or the location or.. Anything literally.

But we hadn't.

"Well call me an attention hungry bitch but I'll be—" a sudden announcement cut Aph's already concerning monologue off.

'J U S T    A    R E M I N D E R    T H E    M A L L    I S    N O W    C L O S E D.   P L E A S E    M A K E    Y O U R    W A Y    T O    T H E    E X I T'

We both gasped in surprise. I guess time really did fly when you were having fun?

With a sigh I got up and pulled Aphrodite's heavy ass with me, laughing when both our stomachs rumbled at the same time.

"Burgers and chips?" I asked with a nudge.

"I mean I shouldn't," she grabbed at her soft tummy with a pout which quickly turned into a devious smirk that most likely matched mine, "But then again I definitely should"

Okay let me put this straight.

The two of us are pretty slim, curvy as well. I mean my figure is nowhere near as hour glassy as Aph's but I'm still up there in the hour-y range.

Anyway. Not the point.

The point is that we are not rabbit food enthusiasts and do in fact cherish having some meat on our bones. Not fat, mind you, flesh.

Meaning we don't look like walking skeletons..

Look, okay. What I'm tryna say, is fuck dieting and 90% celery based bodies..

I mean come on, eat some goddamn deep fried chicken! Add that extra chicken salt on your chips if that makes you happy bro.

Like shit. It's not gonna kill you to enjoy life..

.

.

"Oh no no. I am driving. You are staying far far away from the steering wheel.." I growled as I snatched the keys from Aph's sad hands.

"Wow.. what a meanie.." She grumbled with a pout as I pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah yeah miss speeding 10k/s over the limit.."

"Oi.. that was a mistake.."

"Yup. sure it was"

"I swear on my life that it wasn't on purpose!"

"Stop getting so defensive I believe you"

"No you don't"

"Yeah you're right I don't"

"Goddamnit Elodie you can be so ann—"

"We're here~"

"Double patties, large fries and a small coke.. Please~"

I just laughed.

.

.

.

Three hours later I'd dropped Aph at Tysons, called Lucky to see where he was and if he was coming home or not and managed to sneak back into the house.

Okay well I did almost all of that, I'll let you guess where my streak ended.

If you guessed, 'sneak back into the house', you're absolutely.. Correct. I was going to say incorrect to throw you off but. I honestly see no point.

The moment I tiptoed into the house and closed the door, I heard a sour laugh emit from the other side of the dark hallway.

Mom.

Of course it was.

"Good morning to you too mom" I mocked as I attempted to push past her and to the stairs leading up to my room.

But she snatched my wrist painfully and pulled me back to stand in front of her. "Watch your tone young lady and answer my questions"

I flinched from the pain in my wrist, "Mom that hurts"

But she wasn't listening anyway.

"Why are you coming home this late? And where is that boy! I haven't seen him all day and neither had I seen you till now!" she snapped angrily. "Why are you both always out!?"

I swallowed tears and forced myself to look at her, "Because we don't want to be in the same house as you for longer than we have to!"

And then the tears did fall.

Hard and fast, as if they'd been waiting for a long long time for release when really they haven't like come on, I literally just cried yesterday.

I watched through my tears as hurt flashed through my mothers eyes and she snatched her hand away from my wrist, cradling it as if she was in pain and not me.

Then she opened her mouth as if to say something before shutting it again and glancing at my eyes as if trying to figure out if I was being serious.

I was so done with her stupid, fucking habit of avoiding the truth. With a scoff of disappointment I turned and stormed to my room, locking the door behind me.

Launching myself into my bed I cried into my pillow.

I didn't get it. It was just 11:40! I'd been out for much longer than that before! I'd come home later than that! And this wasn't Lucas's first time staying at Antonio's either!

Why did she have to act like this was all something new to her! Why did she have to act like we've never done it before!

Why? Why.? Why..! Why.! Why! I groaned, punctuating each question with a weak tap on the soft mattress of my bed.

Finally after catching a glimpse of my face in the mirror, my tears immediately came to a stop.

Because if there's one thing that's more humiliating than slapping a guy in front of a teacher.. It's catching yourself ugly crying in the mirror.

That shit is humiliating enough for even the most emotional crybabies to stop crying.

Once I'd cleaned my face and fixed my appearance I sat down on my bed, checking the time I was glad that it was still only 12am.

Sniffing one final time I opened my phone and went onto Instagram, and once again, without even realizing it, I'd managed to find myself on Cole's account.

And this time my finger was hovering over the follow request button.. Do I want to follow him? What if he ignores my request? Would he even notice it?

I laughed at myself, who cared if he did or didn't.. Hahaha.. Ha..

Okay no if he doesn't that would be really embarrassing. But like it'd be worse if I followed and then unfoll— my metal banter was suddenly cut off when I sneezed.

"Ah, that felt nice.." I sighed because that was a sneeze that needed to be let go for the past..

Oh of course it happened. Of course. Just like in those bloody books and movies. It really happened and now he's gonna see it.

*follow requested*

I was officially screwed.