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“No, it is not over,” he ordered.
“Let go,” I demanded in a low voice.
He looked me up and down and just smirked, almost as if saying,and what are you going to do about it?
In my defense, I gave him a warning. He did nothing about it. So, I took that as the permission I needed to unleash.
In a quick motion, I dropped my crutches, wound up, and punched him square in the face. His nose immediately started gushing blood, but I didn’t give him a second glance. All I cared about is that he released Claire’s arm.
I nodded for Claire to leave.
She rubbed her forearm and looked shaky, but she listened to me for once. She quickly turned to walk back to the locker rooms.
Jacques wiped the blood from his nose and looked like he was ready to cry. “That’s aggravated assault! I will sue you! You’ll be in jail!”
Now I let out a harsh laugh and looked at him like it was funny. “Oh, Jackie boy,” I said, shaking my head. “Touch her again, and you’ll be fucking sorry.”
Igor and his coach walked into the lobby then. His coach ran to him on the ground and started comforting him. Igor jogged to catch up to me. I was moving fast back to the locker rooms to check on Claire.
Within seconds, I could feel Igor fall in step by my side. “What happened?”
I stopped and gave him a serious stare. “He grabbed Claire roughly and wouldn’t let go, so I roughed him up. It was defense. There’s security footage if you want it. All she said was that she was done with the tryout. He didn’t like that.”
He shook his head in disgust. “Doubt it will be necessary. He won’t want to stick around after being rejected. He’ll probably want to lick his wounds back at his home rink.”
“Good.”
Igor paused for a moment, then stuck his hand out to shake mine. We locked eyes and I could tell he wanted to say thank you, but he was still wary of me. He knew who I was. He knew me as Claire’s rival. He probably didn’t know that I was in love with her.
Wait…
I blinked for a couple seconds before returning the handshake.
Love.
I was still in love with her…
I silently watched Igor stalk off toward the lobby, then turned my attention to the large number five drawn on the locker room door in chipped paint. I felt a goofy grin slide onto my myself. I’d always wanted to go in this room after her when we were younger, but I never dared to enter the figure skaters’ locker room. It was always after a stupid interaction that I regretted… My brain flashed back to a moment in the workout room the summer before high school.
I dropped down from the pullup bar, but Claire was still going. Her body was shaking and she was turning red, but she was still pulling herself up, showing that she was the clear winner.
The guys mercilessly sang out insults, teasing the shit out of me for losing to a girl.
‘She’s not a normal girl, look at her arms,’ I tried to argue. I avoided looking at her. She’d be able to tell how much I liked her if she saw my face right then– it felt fire truck red.
But… after the teasing died down, I did look around the room for her.
And that’s when I caught sight of her blonde ponytail. She was walking at a fast pace with her head down toward the exit.
Had what I said upset her? Why? That was the biggest compliment I could think of. She wasn’t a normal girl. She was better.
I ran to the workout room stairs, ignoring the guys all shouting at me… but by the time I caught up to her, she was already pushing her way into locker room #5. And I couldn’t follow her in there…
I kicked open the door and crutched inside.
Claire obviously thought I was just another figure skater because she didn’t even look up. She sat there with her head in her hand.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry…” Her eyes met mine and my heart stopped for a second. She looked beaten. I wish I could take all her disappointment away. I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that asshole.”
