Kiss My Ice

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14.

I had somehow managed to leave Chris's house feeling somewhat confident about my abilities to knock Aiden down a notch.

Chris and Riley were both surprisingly patient with me, taking the time to break down everything into little pieces for me to understand. I learned a lot. They broke down the whole sport, not just shooting the puck or pass it, but the different penalties and some basic slang terms. Riley explained to me all the different positions. There was a total of six players for each team out on the ice at any given time. Three forwards – left wing, right wing, and center. Plus, two defensive men and the goaltender.

The most important part of yesterday's lesson was of course the shooting. A key component to hockey that I was desperate to learn in order to rub it in Aiden's face. My whole plan to trick him into a losing a bet revolved on me being able to shoot a goal.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself. The clock on my car's dash read 10:04. I needed to get inside; I was already late. Traffic in town had been surprisingly heavy.

By the time I grabbed my duffel bag from the backseat, got inside, changed into my practice clothes, and made it out onto the ice it was 10:21. I was more than twenty minutes late for our practice, and yet, Aiden was nowhere to be seen.

A sigh of frustration slipped from my lips. For five minutes I skated around ice aimlessly before I noticed Aiden was sitting on the bleachers, lacing up his skates. I couldn't say much considering that I too was late today, but this was not Aiden's first offense.

"I know I'm late," he grunted, not bothering to look up from his skates as he finished lacing them. He must have heard me skate up. "Something personal came up."

There was an annoyance that rang in his tone, but it wasn't the usual annoyance that I was accustomed to hearing. This sounded more personal. I had a feeling that for once, I wasn't the cause of his bitter mood.

I held my hands up in defense. "Hey now, I didn't evening say anything."

A sigh left his lips, and I was quickly met with a pair of dark eyes. He narrowed them. "Yet."

Aiden didn't just look annoyed, he looked down right pissed.

He stood from the bench and walked onto the ice, pausing briefly as he turned to me and added, "you didn't say anything yet."

I remained frozen in the same spot as Aiden began his warmup. A part of me felt bad for him. What was it that had put him in such a foul mood?

Curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I couldn't help myself as I turned on my skates and sprinted forward to catch up to him. We may not have been friends, but I couldn't help that I wanted to know what his problem was. The logical side of my brain told me to ignore it, that I shouldn't care whether he was okay or not. Afterall, we weren't exactly friends.

For once, I didn't listen. "Hey, are you okay?"

Aiden came to an abrupt stop in front of me, resulting in me having to do an emergency hockey style stop to avoid hitting him causing ice to spray up onto him. I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

He raised his eyebrows as his chocolate eyes met mine. This time they weren't filled with as much hatred as before. "Since when do you care?"

I sucked in a short breath, letting my teeth clamp down onto the insides of my cheeks. That was the million-dollar question. Why did I care? A logical answer would have been that it was hard to work with someone who was in a bad mood. But in this specific case, I knew that wasn't why I was curious. This time I just felt bad. From the dark, brooding look in his eyes and, on his face, I could tell that there was a lot more going on than just a small personal incident. It had to have been something bigger.