Kiss My Ice

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3.

A trail of soft white powder followed behind my skates as I glided around the edge of the ice.

I kept my eyes closed, letting myself feel each movement. An inhale and then an exhale. I had to let out all of my negative energy.

Mark had given me an extra hour of private ice time for this afternoon – free of charge. I think he felt bad about me having to give up my morning slot. Scratch that. I know he felt bad. It wasn't his fault though, and I knew that.

Though I would have been lying if I said I wasn't okay with the free extra ice time.

This extra hour on the ice was exactly what I needed to clear my head before everything changed tomorrow. I needed to get in a good practice to hopefully put me into a positive mindset. A mind set where I didn't feel like strangling anyone.

I opened my eyes and forced myself into a faster skate. Maybe if I could manage to land my triple – even a messy one – I would have felt a whole lot better about losing my morning practice.

With my speed right I scissored my arms, swung my right leg back and push off the ice to propel my body up into the air gracefully. I kept my arms tucked to my chest as I spun two and a half rotations in the air before my skates hit the ice. A landing as effortless as the take off.

A satisfied grin lifted my lips. It felt good to land a double with such ease. It gave me some hope that maybe, just maybe, my triple wasn't as far off as it felt.

"I should have guessed that you were a figure skate." A deep, vaguely familiar sounding, voice echoed from the other side of the rink. The grin fell as I snapped my head in the direction of his voice, curious to whole it was that was disrupting my private ice.

"Oh?" I asked as I started to push myself towards him. The guy's voice didn't just sound familiar, he looked familiar too. It wasn't until I was up at the edge of the ice directly in front of him that I remember where I knew him from. Those damn eyes.

"And that surprises you?"

Her shook his head. I recognized that same toothless grin from before. "Not in the slightest."

I bit down on my tongue so hard that I thought I could taste the blood. Maybe I was just jumping to conclusions, but his response bothered me. He didn't say anything that would count as being offensive, it was just the way he said it. Something in my gut twisted as though it was done in a mocking manner. And being that I knew he was a hockey head, it would not have shocked me.

"Zoe!" Mark called from the top of the bleachers drawing my attention towards him. He had popped his head over the top railing, shooting me a wild grin. "I see that you have already met Aiden."

Mark looked ecstatic to see us talking. The polar opposite of how I felt. It was not a good sign that Mark knew Aiden and worse, made it seem like he had wanted us to meet.

Despite the dread that was gnawing on the inside of my stomach, I forced the best smile that I could muster onto my face as I looked up at Mark. "We met at the Coffee House earlier this week."

"What a great coincidence." Mark was oblivious to my fake demeanor. "So he must have already told you about how he's joined the hockey team."

My face deadpanned. Nope, we had not gotten that far in our new budding friendship.

I couldn't say that it really shocked me all that much considering I knew had played hockey from the back of his hoodie. Hockey State Champions. It shouldn't have come as a shock that a champion had joined the hockey team at the same time the rink got a new sponsor. Of course Mr. Gray would want to try to bring in new hockey players to help out the current failing team.

"He must have left that part out," I grumbled bitterly, letting my annoyance get the best of me. I knew Mark didn't approve of any hostility, so I was quick to recover a smile. "How did we get so lucky." I said it as statement, rather than a question. It took everything in my power to not sound like I hated the news.

Obviously I did.

"There are some very big things in store for this rink's future." Mark's smile grew, crinkling the corners of his eyes like it always seemed to do. How was he such a happy man? "I'm glad that I get to have two such amazing athletes to train here."

Mark's eyes darted between Aiden and I once more as he stood above as grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. Then he left us without another word. Laughing to himself as he walked away.

I narrowed my eyes and watched him as he walked away. That was weird.

Aiden chuckled, making me remember that he was still there. I turned to him with my lips pierced in a thin straight line. "Is he always that happy?"

"Pretty much."

I skated a few feet closer, stopping only when I reached the rail. I propped my forearms on the rail, narrowed my brown eyes onto his tall frame. When I first saw him at the Coffee House, I was admittedly, very attracted to him. And now, taking the time to look at him again, I couldn't deny that he really was attractive.

How had I not noticed he was a hockey player the second I laid eyes on him? I mean the guy practically screamed 'hey look at me, I'm an athlete'. He had the right build with his height, broad shoulder, muscles, and very likely abs. He even had that same smug expression that every hockey player I had ever met seemed to share.

"Enjoying the view, are you Zoe?"

His unrefreshingly cocky comment earned a not so lady-like snort from me. What was it with a guy just assuming that a girl is checking them out if they look at him for longer than two seconds?

I mean yes, technically in this situation that was kind of true. I did appreciate that he was easy on the eyes. But that didn't mean I was enjoying the view, as he said.

"Puh-lease," I snapped, shooting Aiden a glare that would have killed him if a look was capable of such a thing. I crossed my arms challengingly over my chest. "I'm just trying to figure out why Mark Hansen is so excited to have you here."

Aiden shrugged. A toothless smirk fell onto his lips and leaned forward in my direction as if he were accepting my challenging. "Maybe because I was the number one center in the state of Massachusetts."

He said it so confidently like I had a clue what a center was. I presumed that it was likely a position in hockey.

"Sweety," I said, my tone condescending. I pressed all of my weight into the railing. "Was? Now that looks bad on a resume. What happened, did someone realize that they had a glitch in the system when they saw your name?"

In a split-second Aiden's demeanor had gone from challenging, to down right pissed. His chocolate eyes turned icy. "Funny." He growled lowly and took a step toward me. "If I hadn't been forced to move, I would still be number one."

A devilish smile played on my lips. I waited a second, watching the annoyance build on his face at my presence. "I'll pretend that I believe you."

Aiden's jaw clenched. Now it was his turn to try and kill me with daggers. If looks were able to kill, I would have just died a thousand deaths from the daggers shooting out of his eyes. I had a sneaky suspicion that if were legal for him to hit a girl, he would have been on the ice by now.

But it wasn't, and I had clearly just won.

I picked myself up off the rail, giving a small push against it to help propel me into a slow skate backwards. It was obvious that I had hit a nerve with Aiden. He was peeved. To the point that he his cold eyes were still locked onto me giving me the coldest glare I had seen in a long time. He may have been mad, but I was felt quite pleased with myself.

I shot him one last grin before taking off into a fast sprint. It was time to pour a little salt into his open wounds.

A large smile pulled the corners of my lips up and I glanced over my shoulder in his direction. I lifted my right hand up to my lips; blowing him a kiss as I lifted up my left leg and my smacked my hand down onto my butt to let him that he can kiss my ass before I would let him and his new hockey team take over my rink.

Zoe 1. Aiden 0.