I remembered just how much I'd actually missed school when my first Monday back, finally ended.

"Me-lo-dy!!"

I turned around just in time for my best friend to fire herself at me at full speed. Now, I'm normally strong enough to handle that, don't get me wrong.

But this girl is a 5'5'' piece of compact energy, and if you've never been struck by lightning— I hope you never do— then this is a perfect substitute for the same amount of pain.

I barely managed to hold the two of us up as she squeezed the life out of me, "Okay okay Aphrodite. Aph. Aph I can't.. Breath.. APH I GET IT!"

I shoved her off me with all of my strength and she stood there looking at me with the most wounded expression a human could muster.

"Wow, so you hate me, you do not love. You are evil incarnate. You must perish. You did not accept hugs. You are heartless, cr—"

A smack on the back of her head silenced her. I looked up to meet my other best friend's eye, and relayed as much thanks as possible, which was a lot.

"Tyson! You fat oaf!" Aphrodite yowled from her dramatic sprawl on the floor.

"Shut up Dite" He said affectionately as he helped her up. I pretended to gag at the lovey dovey-ness of it. But really I found it adorable.

They had such an enemies to lovers, love hate kinda relationship it filled my fangirl heart with the satisfaction of seeing my otp ship work out.

"Okay love birds we're gonna be late."

.

.

I was excited to say the least. We were going up to grans area, because it was Aphrodite's birthday the day after tomorrow, and so gifts.

Gifts were the epitome of necessity.

Plus The Mall always has some great sales in it.

Of course the rink was just an added bonus, and definitely not the main reason we were going two to three hours to get to a mall.

.

.

Kinda was.

I sighed dreamily as I pictured myself on the rink, gliding across the ice with a dancer's grace, perfectly timed choreo and a certain skaters arms at my waist—

I snapped out of it when Aphrodite shook my shoulder, "Your face is going red. Are you thinking dirty thoughts? I want to know!"

The last part was rewarded by another light tap on the forehead. "You're allowed dirty thoughts of no one but me." Tyson mumbled.

I laughed, "No no, I wasn't thinking anything like that. I was just thinking about the ice rink. And a certain boy on the rink. To be specif—"

"The guy that ran away from you when you tried to talk to him? The one you've completely fallen for without even the slightest idea what he sounds like, let alone looks like." Tyson sighed.

I stared at him with a startled expression, "What? No! Psh.. No.. Yeah." I finished with a mumbled shut up.

"Oh stop, it's cute, plus we both kinda ship it." Aph mumbled, rubbing her forehead.

Blushing furiously I shoved her laughing ass away from me. Like I cared whether they shipped it or not.. 

I'm lying. I do care. And am very proud of this approval.

.

.

"WAKE UP" Aphrodite howled in my ear.

I could've sworn I spat half my organs out onto the floor of Tysons car. I could practically see my heart beating on top of the pile.

Shaking myself out of the shock I snarled at my best friend. The moment she registered the rage on my face, she pelted out of the car.

Or tried to at least.

Because I grabbed the scruff of her neck and pulled her sorry ass back inside, and then rained all hell down on her ears.

Or again, tried to at least.

"Oh no you both do not." Tyson snapped when he came back from— I noticed a ticket in his hand so the ticket booth.

See this is when having a 6ft wrestler-ass looking dude as a best friend can be kinda terrifying. 

See, you tend to question all your life choices when you're dangling in the air suspended solely from your arm.

"Ow ow ow ow okay okay we'll stop! We'll stop! Truce Tr— SOMEBODY HEL—" he slapped a hand over my mouth with a panicked expression and I smirked.

Him covering my mouth meant he let Aph go.

He seemed to realize a few seconds too late when he felt the intimidating aura floating around behind him.

I watched him gulp and cackled wickedly.

.

.

"I don't want to see you three loitering around in the parking lot again, you hear me?" The security guard growled.

I whimpered in relief because at least he hadn't banned us from The Mall.

We all promised on our lives that we wouldn't scare the other shoppers with our antics again and made our escape.

.

.

Let's just say Tyson ignored us from then.

.

.

It'd been a few days since I last saw the rink. So me being me I completely ditched my friends and bolted to the center.

I checked the time and it showed 6:25.

Every time I saw The Skater the time would be approximately around this. So there was a slight slight chance he may be here to—

"Are you looking for that young man?" A little old Asian lady asked.

Cue the credits. That's the end of my story. This heart can't take that many scares in a day. No sir. The credits are rolling rolling.

"N-no You must have me mistaken for someone else.." I gasped.

She stared at me skeptically and then pointed to a place behind me, and it took all my willpower to turn around like a normal person rather than the fangirl that was begging to be released.

"Oh what a surprise! I might as well watch him skate! What a coincidence that he appears at this particular time. What a world! Hahehaho." I drifted off awkwardly.

The lady smiled and walked away mumbling something about being young again.

I was about to take my place when someone yanked my collar. I was already too wired to stay quiet and a screech tore itself out of my mouth.

Oh shit.

I covered my mouth before anyone besides the two very pissed people behind me registered where the sound came from.

Trembling, I turned around.

"Truce?" I begged weakly under the severity of both their glares. Then the two of them shared a look and broke into grins.

"You are so smitten." Aph cooed and I slapped her on the shoulder.

"Shut up Aphrodite.!" I hissed then I pushed past them and perched on my front row seat. This time, I was more excited because I wasn't alone.

My friends would see exactly how good he really was.

But where was he? I glanced around until my eyes rested on his figure on the other side of the rink, lacing up his skates.

He managed to make tying laces look hot.

"He looks hot," Tyson mused. Both of us shot him with suspicious looks.

"What? shocked that I'm not blind??" he huffed.

Then I went back to watching him. Although I'll be honest, I was scared too, because the last time I'd seen him he..

I blushed remembering the whispered 'thanks' then shook myself out of it. He had been pushing himself too hard that time.

I prayed he wouldn't do that this time.

I looked at him, but again, he was in his usual attire, hoodie, mask and sweatpants. I was still staring at his head when he suddenly looked up.

He caught my eye and— slapped a hand on his face.

.

.

To say I was offended would be an understatement. But I had no pride. So I stuck my tongue out and settled even more comfortably into the seat.

He stared at me for a second then sighed. Like he threw his head back and sighed loud enough for me to hear him from the other side of the rink.

My friends were speechless, but hey, so was I.

And then, it was like he suddenly heard music that no one else could hear, and he started to skate.

I wish I could say he put extra razzle dazzle into his routine but he didn't. It was like he'd forgotten we were there. Let alone the rest of the audience.

.

.

We walked through the shops in a daze. Which was nothing new for me, but both Tyson and Aphrodite looked like they'd seen a creature out of myths.

Aph couldn't stop making twirling motions with her hand and Tyson kept measuring his height as if he expected to grow another three inches out of the blue.

"I understand now.." Aph said as she picked every second item off the third rack in every store with a sale. A tradition that'd started all the way in freshman year.

"Yeah.. But did you see the guy's height? I felt like he was about to smite me.." Tyson whimpered. Pitiful wasn't a good look on him.

I punched him on the shoulder and he went back to normal.

.

.

A few hours later we'd finally finished shopping and once Tyson'd dropped me home, I dragged myself to my room and next thing I knew I was laying in bed.

"Elodie. Come out for a second. I need to speak to you and your brother." my mother's voice drew me out of my sleepy haze.

And then what she said registered with a chill down my spine.

Just like that. I decided that I was done with her attitude. Absolutely done. And if she so much as 'tsked' at Lucas, I was gonna rain hell upon her. 

Verbally of course.

Rubbing the sleep out of my system, I dragged myself to the door and followed my mother into the lounge room where Lucas was already slumped on the couch.

He wouldn't meet my eyes and I knew she had said something to him again. I whipped my head around and glared at her.

"What did you say to him?" I said with barely constrained anger.

"Watch your tone young lady. And keep those glaring eyes on the floor!" She snapped with a haughty scoff.

I felt some of my sanity float away as a laugh escaped my lips. "Oh okay, and why the hell should I listen to you?"

"W-Whoa Elly, don't.. Don't worry about it!" Lucas hissed from the couch. I could hear the worry in his voice and it hurt.

"No Lucky I'm bloody sick of her attitude!" I said, not facing him, "She has no right to talk to you like you're worthless!"

"Elodie Harrowood. You sit down right no—" I cut her off.

"No!" I yelled but was only rewarded with a pissed off glare.

"Right. First of all, young lady, you are stepping out of line. Secondly, this boy.. as sick as I am of his lack of results, it has nothing to do with you!!"

She put her hand up to silence me, "I've heard all of the shit you both pull out. I honestly don't understand why you insist on standing up for him!"

Oh god, the audacity this woman stores in herself!?

"He has seldom shown satisfactory results and the only reasons I can think of are, one; the fact that he spends all of his free time playing outside and two he's always out with that scoundrel Antonio doing fuck all!"

She was on a role. But that was the last thing I was letting her say.

"Shut! Up!" I yelled, "Stop spitting all this unbacked bullshit okay!? Just fucking. Stop. You are the one we are FUCKING sick and tired of!"

I put my hand up to silence her.

"Why do I stand up for him?? Maybe because YOU fucking DON'T. And When dad tried? You KICKED HIM OUT OF THIS HOUSE"

I laughed when she opened her mouth. "Do not try and justify your shitty attempt at being a mother okay? Have you ever considered, maybe he's smarter physically than academically?"

She closed her mouth with a glare.

"I didn't think so. So let me just fill you in on all the things you've ignored, starting with the fact that he received a scholarship to the state of sports high school" I smiled.

"He also has a streak of highest results in US. History— Forgive me, one of the useless subjects.. Plus he has won award after award for his sportsmanship and chivalry."

I turned my gaze to my twin with an encouraging smile, "Lucas is the most talented person in the world to me. He is my role model and if you chose to not see it. Then fuck you."

With that I stalked past my mother, pulled a very afraid looking Lucas off the couch, grabbed my keys and stormed out of the house.

.

.

And that's the story of how I ended up crashing at my best friend's house at 12 in the morning, with my sobbing twin brother in tow.

That's one of the many reasons as to why I love Aphrodite so damn much. She took one look at my brother and me, swore at my mother in Greek and ushered us inside saying she'd make hot chocolate.

"Thanks Aph.." I whispered, after Lucas had fallen asleep on the couch. "Sorry for waking you up. But I had to get him out of there before she—"

"It's okay! This is why I'm your best friend.! What right would I have to that title if you didn't feel comfortable enough to call in at such ungodly hours and crash over?"

I stared at her for a moment before bursting into tears. Aph cooed at me and then wrapped me in a hug, one that I'd really needed I guess. 

.

.

"Wow you three look like absolute cow pat." Tyson snorted. As me, Aphrodite and Lucas dragged ourselves into the hallway.

Lucas flipped him off and left to find his friends while me and Aph stuck out our tongues at him. He knew we'd cried ourselves to sleep but still had to be a butt about it.

"..... guy comes all busted up ..... Drunk.. oh!? ...... this'll be good ..... pity he's ...... handsome as hell"

I flipped my head back to watch the two girls walk by.

I'd only heard a snippets of the conversation, but it was all something I'd heard before, plus I think all of the similar rumors have been about the same boy.

From what I've garnered, he's hot as hell. Messed up in the head. Comes to school busted up constantly. Never stays in class.

Now, I hate judging people by what others say, but this boy had officially piqued my interest. I wondered if he was in any of my classes.

.

.

Of course he was..

Walking into class my eyes fell on a boy in the middle row.. He had his head down on one of his arms and the other hung off the table. 

Even with his face hidden he looked terribly intimidating.

Though I'll admit, I wouldn't have noticed him had the other students not been pointing at or staring at him.

"Who's that?" I asked one of my classmates as I slid into my seat at the back. "Why are we pointing and staring at him?"

"He's shit face drunk, and only been here a week." a girl next to me said. 

But the girl next to her laughed and said, "That's our schools newest freak.."