The Ice is Slippery

4

There was a light blanket of snow covering the road and sidewalk. Little snowflakes were held gently in George's hair. His breath was visible in the air. There were a few other people out walking, but the usually busy street was empty otherwise.

Clay had texted George his address earlier and turns out they lived only a few blocks away from each other. It took about 10 minutes for George to walk to the other's house. It was a light brown, three story house. As he walked up to the door it actually hit George that he had found his soulmate. He realized that he was at his soulmate's house. His hand felt heavy as he lifted it to knock on the door.

The door began to open and George tensed up a bit.

"Who the hell are you?" A young girl who was probably around thirteen answered the door. She had long dirty blonde hair and sea green eyes, although they looked yellowish to George. She seemed a little annoyed.

"Umm, I'm George. Clay invited me over." The boy took in a sharp breath.

"Oh, hi!" The girl's attitude brightened immediately, "I'm Drista, Clay's sister. He was telling me about you earlier. He's waiting for you downstairs."

George blushed a little. Clay had told his family? "A-alright. Could you show me there?"

"Sure," Drista moved out of the door to make way for George and shut it behind him. She wasn't that much shorter than him, maybe a little under four inches shorter.

The interior of the house was boring to say the least. Classic "white family" decor was placed throughout the rooms and fake candles were lit near the entryway. It was homely but in the worst way. Drista opened the door that led to the basement which revealed a short, carpeted staircase. There was soft music coming up the stairs. George thanked Drista and walked down into the basement.

Clay was sitting on the couch staring mindlessly at the movie playing on the tv. He hadn't noticed George yet. The brunette boy walked over to him and waved his hand in front of his face, bringing him back to reality.

"How'd you get in my house?" Clay seemed a little confused.

George chuckled a bit, "Your sister let me in, weirdo. Whatcha watching?" He took a seat next to the blonde.

"Uhh- Alien."

——

Nick didn't even knock, he just opened the front door and walked in like he lived there. On his way to the basement, he briefly greeted Drista and gave the cat, Patches, a treat.

"Hey, lovebirds. How's the date?"

George spun around to face Nick, "We are not lovebirds and this is not a date."

"Are you sure?" Clay said in a flirtatious tone while leaning a little closer to George. The brunette pushed him away, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, I'm sure." The blonde pretended to be hurt.

Nick could tell that there was something going on between them that George wasn't ready to accept, but he just laughed it off, "Anyhow, are we gonna talk about what happened at the rink or are we actually gonna study?"

George started picking at his cuticles. The other two seemed eager to get to the point of the visit. George didn't know why he was so nervous. The last time he had picked at his fingers like this was when he got caught kissing his friend in elementary school.

Clay spoke up, "Yeah, we should- uhh- we should talk."

"Alright, let me go get some water real quick," Nick set down his bag and headed back up stairs.