3Note; Sorry this took so long. I didn't expect for it to take so long. This one's a bit long. I need to write more. So either the next update will be a lot smaller, or it'll take a bit to add. Please review. :
The next day, Nicolette woke up sore and still exhausted. She stretched, trying to remember what had happened the day before. She reached over, making sure her iPod speakers had turned off at their correct time, and pushed off the covers of her heavy blanket. She wiped her eyes, yawning.
"Nic, your dad and I are headed to a fair for a few hours," her mom said, sticking her head in the door. "We'll be back later. Your friend is coming over for dinner, correct?" She made a face as she opened the door farther.
"Yeah, mom," Nicolette said. Slowly, the night's events came back to her mind. She wondered if he's still show up.
"Well, then, I'll make some dinner once we get back. Why don't you take Luke sight seeing today, huh?" she closed the door behind her. Five minutes later, the front door shut, and her parents left.
Nicolette groaned. Leave it to her mom to find something to do on a summer day in Indiana. "There's nothing to show in this place," she said to herself. She went over to where her phone was plugged in, and unplugged it. She turned it on and set it on her dresser as she opened the drawers. She pulled out a gray, sleeveless, turtleneck shirt-dress and pulled it on, after taking off her hoodie. She pulled on a pair of leggings and black flats. She headed to her bathroom to fix her hair and brush her teeth, forgetting to knock on the door.
Luke was already awake, downstairs, eating a bowl of cereal. He had been awake, talking a little with her parents. Carefully talking. They avoided his parents as a topic, most obviously. They prattled on about the area, what they'd been up to since moving. Work. Nicolette's friends. Telling him that he would be going to Nicolette's school when it started up again, they had already enrolled him.
He'd nodded and listened, remaining silent most of the time, though he wasn't particularly happy about the school thing. He spoke once, though, asking when his friends might be able to visit. This had set them off for a moment, but, keeping the conversation light and cheerful, they had just mentione d something about working it out. Luke had nodded.
They then informed him that they were leaving, but they were sure that Nicolette would find something for them to do. Show him around the area and introduce him to her friends or something along those lines. He had just nodded along, bent over his bowl of slightly soggy cereal. Finally, they left. It wasn't that he didn't like them or anything. On the contrary, they were trying hard, and, of course, they'd been like a second pair of parents his whole life. Still not his parents, of course. But still there. But it was harder now, now that they skimmed and floated over his parents, trying to keep things light and happy.
It complicated things, and he was glad to just be alone to eat his breakfast.
Nicolette pulled on her curly hair for ten minutes, loosening the curls up. She finally gave up and headed down the steps. She stopped when she saw Luke eating breakfast. She walked over to the cabinet and grabbed out her daily breakfast: a granola bar. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, quietly eating her granola bar.
She glanced at Luke, knowing that he probably wished to be alone. "You're up early," she said.
She finished her granola bar and her coffee and stood up. She threw the wrapper in the trash and the mug in the sink. She stretched, still tired. She silently grabbed her large bag and rummaged through it. She had shoved her iPod and Sidekick into it, just before she came down the steps. She found her silver ringed necklace and pulled it on, latching the back. She faced Luke, unsure of what to do.
"Eh, do you want to come with?" she asked awkwardly. Her mom had asked her to do something with him, she just didn't know what.
Luke had shrugged at her comment when she'd come downstairs, continuing to eat his now totally soggy cereal until it was gone. Not particularly good soggy, of course, but he'd eaten it all and now it was gone. So he stood up and walked over to the sink, where he was when she'd looked over at him, asking him if he wanted to come along, rinsing out the bowl.
After a moment he turned around, thinking about it for a moment. "Sure," he finally said with a bit of a shrug. "Give me a minute." He headed back upstairs to the room that was his now, looking around it for a moment before going over to the dresser that was now also his, opening the top drawer.
A moment later he was downstairs again, wearing the black hoody that he'd grabbed from his room, his cell phone shoved into his pocket. He didn't get so many calls, never did, but it was always nice to have it just in case, and now he did. "So where are we going?" he asked after a moment.
"I don't know. Mom wants me to take you sight seeing," she said. She walked out to the porch, and stood there. "There you go."
"We could just drive around. We could go to the store. We could even check out one of my friend's houses," she said slowly. She didn't know where to take him. Then she got an idea. She hadn't been to the place she thought of since they had first arrived in Indiana. She had tried going there many times, but the place made her sad. "Look, just get in the truck, and I'll take you some place."
She remembered how to get there, she just had to get herself to actually go there. Without crying. She sighed and climbed in the truck, not bothering locking the front door. Nobody wanted to break in-they were in Indiana after all. She waited for Luke in the truck, leaning against the steering wheel.
Luke nodded, following her into the car. The store was fine, driving was fine. He was sure that even meeting her friends would be fine. A little bit awkward, perhaps, but still, it would be fine. As long as it wasn't that boyfriend of hers, probably. But he was out of town in any case, so what did it really matter.
But then she was telling him that she was just going to take him somewhere. So he got into the passenger seat of the truck, fastening his seat belt and leaning back in the seat, forcing himself to relax as he always had to when he got into a car these days. Not the most conventional phobia to have, to be sure, considering the importance of cars in society, but he could deal with cars well enough. As long as he didn't have to sit in the back. That he still wasn't able to force himself to do.
So he took a few deep breaths and then looked over at her. "Where exactly are we going?" he asked, quietly, after a moment.
Nicolette sighed and started driving. She glanced over at Luke and smiled. "Jeeze, is my driving that bad?" she said jokingly. She stopped herself. Way to go, she thought. "Luke, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
She stared straight ahead, unsure of what to say. She felt terrible. She hadn't realized the affect of her words until they had come out of her mouth. She felt terrible, and could only guess how she had just made Luke feel. She cleared her throat, not wanting to say something else.
"Er, I'm taking us to a place I haven't been to in a while," she said slowly. That was true. She hadn't been there since they had arrived in Indiana. She had always wanted to go back, but the place held so many things that had reminded her of back home. She pulled into the right turn lane, and stopped at the light. It was a no right on red, so she just sat there, waiting for it to change.
"I'm taking us to the ice rink," she said finally. She couldn't believe she was going there, but she wanted to check it out. Since she hadn't been to one for a very long time, she couldn't wait.
Luke lapsed into silence, face closing into a blank, emotionless canvas that it so often was these days. Of course it wasn't as bad as it had been right at the beginning. Time with his friends and, yes, even time with Nicolette had softened that some, despite the mirrored shades and the reluctancy to smile. It had gotten a lot better since then. But now it was closed off again for the moment, as it often did at any mention of his parents, or anything like that. But after a moment he looked over at her again, taking in a deep breath.
"Don't worry about it," he said softly, slowly. He was still silent for the next few minutes, letting her talk for now. He didn't really know what to say, in any case. At the mention of where they were going, though, he looked over at her from where he'd been staring straight ahead at the road. The ice rink? Mostly he was surprised that she hadn't spent more tmie there. If she hadn't been there in a while, then she'd obviously changed quite a bit from what he'd known about her.
Back home, when she'd still lived there, it was a major part of her life. He'd just assumed that it still was, even with all of the other changes that had happened to them without the other. It just seemed like part of her. But he still didn't say anything, just stared at her for a moment, then looked straight ahead again.
Nicolette parked the car out in front of the rink and sighed. She unstrapped her seat belt, and pulled the keys out of ignition. She stuck them in her bag, and opened her door. "You coming in?" she asked quietly. She stepped out of the car and shut the door quickly.
Standing in front of the rink, she stared up at the sign. It had been almost four years since they moved here, and almost four years since she had last been near an ice rink. When she had been younger, her whole life had been about hockey and figure skating. The ice rink back home had been her second home. Then, when she moved here, she had wanted no contact or memories from her previous life. She became rebel Nicolette Stevens. She became anti-hockey and anti-figure skating Nicolette. Her parents hated who she had become, and sometimes, she did, too. But she would never admit it. Admitting it would show that she was wrong. And she wasn't ready to do that.
She sighed and grabbed her jacket out of the back of the truck. She pulled it on and walked towards the doors of the ice rink. She felt cold already; not sure if it was from the ice rink or the air around her. The cold had never fazed her before, but now, after being away from ice for so long, it bothered her. She pulled open the door and stepped inside. She heard music playing, so she walked further inside. On the ice were figure skaters, dancing to the music. She stood and stared, not sure of what she was doing there.
Luke couldn't help but show a little relief when the car stopped and Nicolette parked. Not that he didn't trust her driving, it was just that he didn't trust driving in particular. So when the car had stopped, he was out of his seatbelt and standing next to the car within a few moments, glad to be safely out of it. Then he turned and looked over at the building that she'd brought him to.
It was an ice rink. Back home...when she had still lived there, and before either of them were anything but kids that were so close of friends they were practically siblings, she had lived in the ice rink. Ate, slept, and drank it. But here, now, she looked uncomfortable. Particularly when they stepped inside. Not that he could really say that it surprised him much. A dull surprise, maybe, in the back of his head, but nothing shocking. They'd both changed a lot, apparently. He stood silently next to her and watched the other skaters that were there, glancing over at her only once, from the corner of his eye, when she shivered despite the jacket that she was wearing.
"Do you want my jacket as well?" he asked, not even looking at her as he spoke at her, but his eyes following the figure skaters on the ice from behind the mirrored lenses. "I'll be fine without it, if you do want it." He shrugged, now actually turning to look at her, and facing her so that she would have no doubt as to what he was looking at behind the glasses.
Nicolette slowly turned and faced Luke. She hadn't realized he had followed her in. "You'll be cold," she said quickly. "I'm alright."
She glanced back at the figure skaters on the ice and sighed. Her eyes followed their precise movements and dance moves. She listened to the beat of the music: Ashlee Simpson's latest hit, Little Miss Obsessive, and followed the skater's moves in her brain. She closed her eyes, letting the music come to her. She could see jumps in her head, as well as different turns and twists. As she opened her eyes, she realized she wasn't seeing their routines. She was seeing hers... That is, if she had one, she reminded herself.
She sang the song quietly to herself. She leaned against the front of the stands as the song ended and the parents in the bleachers clapped. The figure skaters gathered on the side of the ice, grabbing water bottles and what not. Nicolette felt tears come to her eyes as she saw them laughing and making up routines together.
She quickly turned on her heel and left. She flew out the door, hugging her jacket to herself. She walked to the back of her car and leaned against it. The tears finally fell from her eyes and settled on her face. She remembered hanging out with her old friends: Ramiele and Dai-Lyn, at the ice rink, making up their own routines. She finally figured out why she had decided to come here. Not to show Luke the sights, but to bring herself to remember what she was missing out on.
When Nicolette declined the use of his jacket, he shrugged in a rather 'suit yourself' manner and turned his direction back onto the ice. They were good. The skaters, that is. The routine was nice, they moved well. He glanced over at Nicolette only once to see how she was, only to find her eyes closed. And then he was looking back to the skaters again. Soon enough to song was over, and he just stood there silently, watching the figure skaters make their way off of the ice, talking amongst themselves, having a good time.
He didn't know whether he should say something to Nicolette or not, and lately he hadn't been particularly fond of starting conversations or even contact, really. But the silence stretched, and he looked over at her, wanting to see what was up, wondering if they were just going to stand here or if they wanted to go and rent skates or what. He felt a bit out of place, and wanted to know what exactly they were doing. But when he did look at her, he found her on the verge of tears. Obviously his next course of action was to ask her what was wrong. Except he didn't have the chance, because the next thing he knew she bolted, running out of the building.
He walked after her, of course, but walked slowly. He knew that sometimes you just wanted to be left alone when you were sad, and he respected that. But he reached her, where she stood crying by her car, soon enough, and leaned against the car next to her. "Are you alright?" he asked softly, looking over at her sincerely, not that she could tell behind the shades. She could probably tell, though. His voice was sincere in the question, after all. Because he knew that it was best when sincere, having been asked the question more than too many times himself. It was sort of nice to be on the giving end, rather than receiving, of a bit of sympathy.
Nicolette nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have come here, you know? I shouldn't have brought you here with me. It was stupid."
She stood straight and wiped the tears away from her face. She smoothed down her tunic dress and sighed. "I'm sorry about that," she said, not facing Luke. She felt embarassed. "Honestly, Luke, I haven't been around here forever. I haven't even watched ice hockey or figure skating on TV." She turned and leaned against the back of her truck, facing the arena's front doors.
"I know Mom and Dad are worried about me," she said, glancing at Luke out of the corner of her eye. "Have they said anything to you? About me, I mean."
She sighed and shook her head. She knew her parents wanted her to get help. They had made that quite clear when they had given her the number to a shrink or whatever they had called him. That plan hadn't worked out too well. Once the guy had kissed her, it was all down hill from there.
"Because seriously, Luke, don't listen to whatever they say. They're just crazy," she said, turning her attention back to Luke.
He didn't speak when she talked about how she shouldn't have come there. He let her talk, and didn't care that she wasn't looking at him as she did so. He was looking at her, and that was all that really mattered at the moment. But when she asked him the direct question, he shrugged, thought a moment, and then answered. "No, they haven't said anything. I think that they're still tip-toeing around me until they can figure out exactly what's wrong with me," he said very matter-of-factly, as if he were simply comenting on the weather than admitting that her parents quite possibly thought that he was, at the very least, a little bit mentally upset.
Then he lapsed into silence for a moment until she spoke to him again, and then he said, very, very softly, "Well, they just care about you. They aren't crazy, they just care." Not only was his voice soft, but his tone. And then he cleared his throat, stood up a bit straighter, and shrugged. "It's alright. Do you want to go back inside, then, or just go somewhere else?"
"I'll go inside," she said quickly. "Face my fears, I guess you could say."
She pulled her jacket tightly around her and headed back inside. She glanced at Luke and smiled softly. "What is wrong with you?" she asked bluntly. "Seriously, you're weird."
She laughed quietly at the statement, wondering if he would remember. When they had been friends before, she had told him numerous times how weird and crazy he was. There had been one time, though, when they had been at a party together. Mariah, the popular girl at the time, had asked Luke to dance and he had said no. Nicolette had just glanced at him and said matter-of-factly, 'Seriously, you're weird.'
The night had been fun and they had enjoyed it together. It had been an inside joke between the two of them for years. They would just glance at eachother and say it at the most random times. She pushed the door open as she remembered it and sighed. Things had changed a lot since then.
"Want to rent some skates?" she asked. The figure skaters had gotten off, the ice had been cleaned, and public skating had opened.
Luke nodded at this and, though he didn't say anything, agreed with it. She should skate. It was something that she had loved to do so much, so much that it had been a part of her, back before. She should do it again, if it meant that she could be reconnected with something that she had loved so much. Maybe when they got back to the house (though it was feeling more and more like the place that he actually lived, he still couldn't think of it as home), he would show her the autographed photo from her that he still had. That he had hung up in his new room right next to his all important pictures of his friends.
When she asked him what was wrong with him, all of his muscles, particularly those in his face, stiffened. Then, however, when she finished with telling him that he was weird, he relaxed again. And a small curve of a grin that was easily recognized as his own grin, a bit weaker, smaller, and out of use, perhaps, but his own grin, came to his lips. So he kept walking with her, feeling better. Quite a bit better than he had in a while because it meant, really, that even though things were as horribly awkward as they were still, there was a little bit of a chance that they could be close friends again. Maybe not as close as they ever could have been, had she not moved, but still close. And that made him happy, even though part of him didn't want it to.
"Sure," he replied to her question, reaching into his pocket to find a worn out wallet. It had been a while since he had skated as well, though he still had gone to the rink from time to time with his friends, and he didn't know how good he would be, but it would be fun, to skate with Nicolette. He found himself even enjoying the day a little bit.
She shook her head at his wallet and walked up to the window. She glanced at the person inside and smiled. "Two, please, and yes, we need skates," she said. The person behind the window punched something into the register and handed over two tickets and an arm bracelet that could be cut off.
"Twenty dollars, please," he said, his voice dripping with boredom.
"I'm Nicolette Stevens," she said slowly, passing him a ten, while taking the tickets and armbands at the same time.
The guy's mouth dropped open. "You're like, a legend," he said, accepting the ten. "Have a good time." He nodded at Luke in a you're-so-lucky kind of way, his mouth still open in shock.
Nicolette had won many awards and titles when she was younger and still figure skating. She handed Luke an arm band and a ticket and walked to the skate window. "Figure, size six, please," she said, handing over her ticket.
Luke followed after her as she moved over to where they could rent skates, his focus down on his wrist where he was putting the armband on. And then, just barely audibly, he spoke. "You're, like, a legend," he imitated, getting the exact note of awe that the ticket salesman had used, thought Luke's imitation was higher than the guy's real voice, clearly making fun of both him and Nicolette. For a moment his mouth quirked up even further on one side, his grin stronger, and then he looked up from his wrist (armband now firmly in position) and to the girl in the skate window.
Any evidence of what had just happened was gone, his face straight and his eyes secure behind the glasses. Handing his ticket over to the girl, he named his shoe size and then took the skates when she handed them over, looking down at them for a seond before looking to Nicolette again, his face still calm and emotionless. "Where to?" he asked, looking around at all of the benches that were situated around the building for skaters to sit and get their skates on.
Nicolette faced him, her skates in her hands. "Excuse me?" she asked, her eyebrow raising. "I couldn't hear you, sorry."
She nodded her head towards a bench on the far wall and sat down, pulling off her shoes and her skates on. She laced them up tightly, sighing. They weren't as tight as she knew she could tie them, but she just wasn't in the mood for tying them her best. She leaned against the wall, crossing her legs slowly. She wasn't sure if she could do this. She pulled out an iPod bud and stuck it in her ear, pushing the play button on her music. It always made her calm, and it didn't fail her now. She glanced at Luke and smiled shortly. She wished they were back home home and not here in Indiana.
She stood up, looking down at him. "Ready to go?" she asked, trying to force a smile out. She hadn't skated for a long time and she wasn't sure if she was ready now.
When she asked what he had said, Luke just looked up at her and silently shook his head, his face completely calm and emotionless. There may have been a slight spark of amusment in his eyes, but that was impossible to see behind the sunglasses, so it wasn't as if that mattered in any case.
Then he was following her the area with benches in it, and sitting down on the bench across from her. Soon enough he was pulling off his own shoes and pulling the skates on, tying them tightly. He wasn't nervous like Nicolette was, and he could tell that she was nervous because of the use of the iPod. Obviously some things hadn't changed, whatever was going on with the both of them right now. When she looked up at him and smiled, Luke nodded back.
He had never been the skater that she was, didn't have the natural talent, but he wasn't too bad if he didn't say so himself. And he'd kept up practice, for the most part, as well. Or at least he'd been going back home as a thing to do with his friends even after she'd moved, so he wasn't nearly as out of practice as she was, in any case. So he wasn't nervous. And even if he hadn't skated in his entire life he wouldn't have been nervous like she was. Because skating wasn't his thing. It was hers, though, and part of him knew what she was through. So when she asked if he was ready, he nodded and stood up as well. "Yeah, I'm ready," he said, a little bit more warmth in his voice than the usual monotone.
Emily's Hideout; Hope you enjoyed this chapted. It's quite long, to be honest, just like last chapter. Hopefully I'll get some new chapters up soon. I haven't forgotten about this story! Please do enjoy, though. Review if you can. That'd be awesome. Thanks, guys.