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“Shut it,” Shaun snapped from down the line, and I mimed zipping my lips, then turned to Kenji and mouthed “later.”
“Okay, guys.” Dieter did a head count. “There’s twenty-one of you, so split up into threes, and we’ll work on some…” His voice was lost in the melee of us grabbing friends, and I happily let myself be dragged into the Soren/Felix show. It amused me that Shaun ended up with Kenji in his three, after Kenji skated to his side. Shaun eyed him with confusion, and I saw him raise a hand to ask Ten for help, but he dropped it quickly when Kenji stared up at him with his best anime wide-eyed pout. It didn’t help that Shaun was over average height, already up there and over six-foot in his skates, whereas Kenji was like me, slight and pocket-sized, although he was not rocking the pink like I was.
We hustled up and down the ice, taking shots on goal, just enjoying every second of the feel of skating on the pristine—professional—ice, stopping for Railers-endorsed energy drinks, then laughing at Ten as he tried to pirouette with Trent, who’d joined us on the ice. Trent was a former Olympic skater, but there was nothingformerabout his moves. I couldn’t wait for Kenji to connect with him, only for some reason, Kenji was switching between heading for Trent, and hiding behind Shaun. Something was wrong there, but I was having way too much fun to analyze Kenji’s shyness. Soren, Felix, and I were, by far, the best line out there. Well, I thought we were, but when it came to the end of the messing about, and we got serious—or as serious as we could get as enthusiastic school skaters—it was Shaun with Kenji and a bemused Gavin Neely who seemed to be the most connected. Like me, Kenji was fast across the ice, and even though he was a figure skater, he also had some hockey moves, which involved puck handling and skating fast to avoid everyone else—pretty much the same as me.
In hindsight, it was mostly Shaun who carried that line, and none of us were surprised when he got the man-of-the-messing-around-with-NHL-stars award. Ten had spent some time with him, chatting, working on his corner work, and I was pleased for Shaun. He worked hard and deserved everything that he got.
Jonah leaned over the boards, his elbows resting on the side, and I caught drive-by kisses as I skated lazy laps to cool down, then came to a stop in front of him. His camera was up, and he caught a series of action shots as I drew closer, and then, a final one of me right up in his face.
“You looked so sexy out there,” he murmured and tugged me closer, which was easy given I was on skates, and then, kissed me soundly right there in the practice facility.
“Not as sexy as you taking photos.”
Some ass sprayed to a stop next to me. “Now who’s kissing when they shouldn’t be!” Felix taunted and rubbed an icy glove in my face, which led to the epic training facility showdown that made the day the best of my entire life.
When we left, it was Jonah who spotted Kenji talking to Trent and taking a photo for posterity, but I didn’t see one figure skater talking to another, but Trent talking and Kenji subdued and backing away with his arms crossed over his chest, defensive. I immediately went over, but Kenji must have sensed he had an audience because he nodded at Trent and then, left, his skates padding on the mat, disappearing into the locker room.
“Hey, are you friends with Kenji?” Trent asked, and I nodded. I didn’t know him that well, but he was a nice guy, and I’d be glad to be his friend, if only to exchange tips on dye colors.
“Will you do me a big favor?”
I was suddenly shy of the Olympic champion asking me for a favor. “Sure.”
Trent handed me a small card with a scribbled number on the back. “This is my personal cell, okay? But you can always get to me through Ten’s boy, Soren, if you need me.”
“Okay.” This wasn’t weird at all. I glanced down at the card with its brilliant rainbow on the other side.
“Promise me you’ll… look… if he needs help…”
“With his skating?” I completed as a question.
“With anything. I’m going to look into some stuff, and I… just be a good friend, and keep that number.”
“Sure.”
Trent gave me a weak smile, then pointed at my hair. “403 quartz or 404?”
An Olympian was askingmeabout hair color? Best. Day. Of. My. Life.
ChapterNineteen
Jonah
It wasfunny in that odd way, not that ha-ha way, how I suddenly looked forward to going back to school.
For the past few years, school had been a place I would have rather avoided, choosing to spend my time in the school paper’s dark room, or slinking around taking shots of students living their high school dreams. My dreams had always been just making it through another day of being an outcast, or, and this was even worse, being a jerk to other people. Like other people had been to me, which was a totally fucked up way of coping with my differences.
Walking into Chesterford on the first day back from winter break, I felt like a different man. And in many ways, I was. One of the best people on the planet had given me a chance at redemption. The same person who was now walking at my side, his fingers meshed with mine as he chatted animatedly with Soren, Felix, and Shaun. Tyler was super talkative today. I wasn’t sure if he was happy to be back at school, or if it had something to do with Trent Hansen talking hair with him. He’d gushed about that for days and was still gushing.
People in the halls looked at me differently. Lots of them smiled, or waved, or nodded as I passed by with my posse. Oh man, I used the word posse. My father was rubbing off on me. It was like those commercials about turning into your parents, only I was living it. Next, I’d be breaking into the Tootsie Roll dance in American History class. Why were my folks so weird?
“Hey, we have practice today to get ready for the game with the Ephrata Gators on Thursday,” Tyler said as Soren peeled off to find Chelsea for some gamer group thing. Felix and Shaun stopped at their lockers, leaving me and Tyler to make our way to homeroom. “If it’s okay with your folks, my mom is going to pick us up at Hot Pot Noodle after our usual post-practice gluttony. You want to come? We can noodle-kiss again.”
Like I would pass up another noodle-kiss? “Yeah, I’ll meet you there. We have a newspaper meeting right after seventh period, which is gym for me, so I’ll just shower, do the meeting, and then meet you at the rink?”
“You are theperfectboyfriend!” He rose to his toes, kissed me so hard my head swam, then jogged off to shove his hockey gear into his locker and head to homeroom. I watched him go, smiling at the spring in his step. Tyler seemed so much happier. Maybe, just maybe, I was a part of that glowing bounce he now had.
* * *
