Conspicuous Secrets

Chapter Thirty-One

After a short while, I pulled into the skating rink parking lot and parked beside of Holden. As we climbed out of the car, I saw a surprised look on Holden's face. "Um, what is this?" he asked, sounding a little mad. "You let her drive the Charger? You've never let me drive that stupid car!"

Kason smiled at how annoyed his best friend was. "My car isn't stupid."

He pouted as Marla, Jaxon, and Aria climbed out of the Jeep. "Well, I've always wanted to drive that stupidly beautiful car."

I grinned. "Sorry, Holden."

The blonde boy stuck out his bottom lip. Rolling her eyes, Aria grabbed her boyfriend's hand and dragged him inside the skating rink place. Marla and Jaxon followed closely behind them with amused looks in their eyes. My eyes fell on Kason who was standing in front of the Charger. I moved toward him and his arm fell around my shoulders as I reached him. As his smile reached his eyes, I found myself copying his expression and trying to hide the fact that I was internally screaming. I loved that smile.

#

It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't good at ice-skating. Walking on the ice was hard enough as it was, much more so when you are supposed to be gliding elegantly on blades across the ice. I didn't feel embarrassed though. Kason was just as bad as I was. Somehow we ended up hand-in-hand not so gracefully making our way around the rink. I wasn't complaining about my lack of skill, considering it got me in the situation of holding hands with Kason.

Aria, however, skated like a baby deer trying to find its balance. Holden was doing his best to help her, but it seemed as though he wasn't having much luck. Jaxon and Marla were both surprisingly great at ice-skating and were skating around the oval ice, with a couple of prodigy figure-skating children.

One moment I was filled with confidence in my skating ability, then the next minute Jaxon and Marla skated closely around us and I lost my footing. Instinctively, I grabbed onto Kason and ended up taking him down with me. Wrapping his arm around me, he twisted as gravity pulled us down and he broke my fall. The moment we were piled on the ground, a laugh escaped my lips as a pained groan escaped his. "I'm so sorry," I told him, still smiling as I climbed off him.

He shrugged with a grin and attempted to move his wrist that he had already hurt twice before. "It was bound to happen sooner or later." I slowly but surely made myself back onto my feet and then helped him stand the best I could without pulling on his injured wrist. I was feeling bad about his wrist since I was the reason he had hurt it twice more than originally, but I knew if I mentioned it then he would wave it off, so I didn't.

"I'm bleeding everywhere!" a familiar voice cried behind us.

Looking over my shoulder, I spotted Aria on the ground cradling her knee, which was speckled with blood. Holden was crouched down beside her and I watched him roll his eyes like she was exaggerating. "You just scraped your knee on the ice. You're fine." Her big green eyes looked into his and she pouted like a child. They both seemed to make that expression often. He ignored the childish action and pulled her to her feet. "...and I think we're done for the day..." he said, observing his girlfriend's dropped mood. His gaze found me and Kason beside him and we nodded in return, agreeing. We had been here over an hour and my ankles were only getting weaker, so I didn't have a problem with cutting this activity short.

Kason and I made our way to the rink exit, slowly followed by Holden and Aria. As we reached the edge, I walked to the nearest bench and collapsed on it. My ankles were killing me. Skating definitely required strong ankles, which I apparently didn't have. As Kason waved down Marla and Jaxon, I took my skates off and waited for my friends to join me.

By the time I stood and walked my skates back to the counter where I got them, Marla had joined me. As she placed her skates up on the counter and handed them to the worker, I glanced back over my shoulder. Kason was already staring at me. I immediately looked back around and set my skates on the counter.

"Why do you always look away when he's staring at you?"

Marla's words made me look back at him. The tall boy had a hand on his chest and was laughing at something my brother had said. Taking a deep breath and releasing it, I spoke the words that I knew were true. "Because it takes courage to look in his eyes and not fall in love with them."

Marla followed my gaze and looked at him. "Maybe falling in love with him isn't such a bad thing," she told me.

I looked at her. "It's a scary thing."

"Scary doesn't always mean bad, though," she replied.

***

Thanks for reading:)

And yes I'm sorry the schedule is still a little whack. One of my best friends passed away over the weekend, so I'm struggling to balance everything. Hope you understand.

The next chapter is exciting and will hopefully be up later tonight or in the next day or so...Really this time.