AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t turn away until I feel a pain in my side. I flinch and turn my head towards Shane, who’s nudging me sharply with his elbow.
“I take it she’s off limits, then?” he asks with a wry grin.
“Huh?” I reply.
“Your girl,” he says, nodding towards Phoebe.
Your girl. There’s a flutter in my chest, hearing Phoebe described that way, and a strange sort of chill dances down my back.
“She’s not my girl,” I answer.
She’s far from it. We’ve never even been friends.
Maybe we could’ve been. Hell, maybe weshould’vebeen. We grew up together, and we’ve always had the ice in common. We did very different things on it, but we both shared a passion for skating.
But, from the very beginning, it seems like we’ve been at each other’s throats. I hardly even know how it started; it’s buried so deep in the past.
But whatever it was that made our relationship start off that way, that’s how it’s stayed, all through elementary school, middle school, high school, and every time we’ve seen each other since.
Up to now.
“Okay,” Shane shrugs, looking over my shoulder towards Phoebe. “That means she’s fair game then?”
Now there’s a different feeling in my chest; a tight, hot tension that spreads to my stomach and makes my muscles coil.
“Sure,” I force myself to say, even though the word feels like sandpaper on my lips. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
For some strange reason, I walk out of the rink feeling like a liar.
3
PHOEBE
“Let’s try to think of some positives, Phoebe,” my best friends and roommate Casey says as we’re sitting in the living room, sipping our first glass of wine of the evening.
“I’m tired of trying to think of positives,” I grumble.
Casey holds up her index finger. “No, you’re tired of beingtoldto try to think of positives. But you haven’t actually done it yet. I think it’s time. Seriously. Let’s really make a list of things that qualify asthe bright sideof this whole situation.”
“This whole situation? You mean being in a car wreck that ruined the future I worked my whole life for?”
Casey’s face looks sympathetic, but there’s a sternness to it. “Yes. That’s what I mean. I know it sucks. I know it really sucks. We’ve talked about it a lot.” She’s right about that. Casey’s more than a friend, really; she’s like family. She’s been there for me through this tribulation from the very beginning, being the shoulder I needed to cry on. She’s also a close enough friend to know when I need a little bit of tough love. “We also know that you need to move on. Thinking of the new doors this opens in your life, instead of just the ones it closes, will help.”
I take a sip of my wine; a bigger one this time. “Alright, let’s hear one.”
“You can eat as much as you want without having to worry about your scrawny ex Blake being too weak to lift you up in your pairs routine.”
I recall all the skipped meals, all the nights going to bed with my stomach growling, all the times Blake asked if I shouldreallybe ordering an appetizer when we went out to eat.
“Ha!” Casey laughs. She knows me well enough to read the expressions on my face, even when I don’t say anything. “That’s a positive. Admit it.”
“Okay. It’s a positive.”
It was definitely a positive when I had a cheeseburger for lunch today, from one of the food trucks on campus. I even had an order of fries with it. Something I wouldn’t even dream of if I were still trying to stay as light as possible for my and Blake’s old routine.
“Onepositive,” I add, not willing to cave to complete optimism just yet.
Casey tilts her head, her expression softening. “Come on. There’s one obvious one youmustnotice right now.”
