The Slopes

Chapter 3

"What did you mean? When you said you could break him again." I ask curiously.

"You wouldn't understand." He whispers. He looks down and I can see his eyes fill with tears.

"Try to explain. Please. For me." I whisper as I reach under the table to hold his hand. As I find his hand, he doesn't flinch. Instead, he looks at me and nods.

"A couple years ago, I was out there on the slopes. Gabe walked over to me and punched me in the face. It was out of nowhere. I was angry and I punched him. We fought for about 15 minutes. Before I knew what had happened, he was rushed to the emergency room. We got the report and it turns out, I broke his arm, shattered his knee, and fractured his ribs. I was proud but also shocked. I was proud because I had respect from him, but I was shocked that I did that much damage to someone. Ever since then, he's respected me. When I overheard him and his buddies talking about how you broke up with him, he has been acting differently around me. He's been wanting to hurt me more than ever." Luke explains. I'm speechless. I didn't know that Luke and Gabe had fought before. Gabe never mentioned it to me.

"I didn't know any of that. Gabe said the injuries were from an accident while snowboarding." I say. I look over at Luke to see that he's staring at Gabe. I nudge him a little. He doesn't move. I look at his face and see that he's giving Gabe the death stare. I finally stand up and get Luke to stand up too. He needs to get back on the slopes. I drag him out of the lodge and finally ask, "What was that all about? I don't know why you hate him all of a sudden." He looks at me and I can see fear and anger in his eyes.

"Kas. He's cruel. I heard him and his buddies talking today. They were watching you on the slopes. They want you back on their team just to kick you off again." He explains to me. I feel tears spring to my eyes.

"If you want to show him that you're stronger and that you won't take crap from him, beat him at his own game. Not here. Not now. But out there on the slopes. You are better than him. You can easily win. Race him." I say. He nods and goes inside to get Gabe. I sit on the bench at the bottom of the hill while they go up to the top. They stop at the top and I see Luke glance at Gabe and then look straight at me. They race down the hill and I see that Gabe is going towards Luke. Luke notices too and he speeds up. Luke is in the lead by 2 seconds. They make it to the bottom and I announce, "Luke wins!" Gabe glares at Luke, but Luke just shrugs it off.

"Come on, Kas." Luke says as he puts an arm around my shoulders. I lean into him as we walk back to the lodge. He stops a couple feet away from the door to the lodge. I look up at him and he locks eyes with me. We are so close that I can hear his heartbeat. "Kas. I've been watching you for the past few weeks and I realized that I have strong feelings for you. I just don't know if they are positive or negative yet." He whispers to me. I secretly hope they are positive because I have positive feelings for him. I can't control myself and I say, "Let me know when you figure it out because mine are positive." I blush and look down. He touches me cheek and I look back up.

"Does this mean they are positive?" Luke whispers. Before I can ask what he means, he leans forward and kisses me. I stand there in awe. I nod. He puts his arm around me and we walk into the lodge.

As we walk in, everyone starts cheering. I look at the TV and see that there is a video of Luke and Gabe racing down the hill.

"I had no idea that the race would be on TV. How- Gabe. Gabe hired the news people to record. He was hoping that he would win, but you beat him. It's all over the news." I say, noticing the surprised look on Luke's face. I lean into Luke and we walk back over to Liz. Liz looks at Luke and then at me. Then I see her eyes shift to Luke's arm around my shoulders. I look down and try to explain. "Liz, there is something you need to know. Luke and I are-" I stop for a moment. "Dating." Luke finishes for me. I look at him and we lock eyes.