Frozen Heart

Chapter 1 ~ "I Don't Date"

Nik

"Let's do one more set before we go home." Alex suggests, taking a drink of water before taking his spot on the leg press again.

I nod and lean back on the one beside his and start my set over again. I hate leg day, one more set always feels like one too many. But that's why Alex and I hit the gym together, because we push each other to keep going. 

It was six a.m, the gym was usually more empty around this time so this was when we both liked to come. I liked working out, I liked how it made me feel.

"Nice man." Alex says, swinging his legs over the side and giving me a high-five. "Ready for the first day of school?"

"Sure." I shrug, standing up and walking with him back to the change room. "It's just like every other year."

"Except it's senior year, one more year of this hell-hole and we can get out of town." He insists, wiping off with a towel. 

Ever since I was ten years old, I've been looking to leave. I'd dream about moving out of my house and never coming home. And now we were finally close to that goal.

"Amen." I sigh, opening my locker and finding my gym bag. "Practice was brutal last night, I'm beat." I mumble and he chuckles with a shrug.

"It's nice when we have those late practices, dad's asleep when we get home." He insists and I nod raising my eyebrows at just how true that was. "Did you hear him yelling at Sasha this morning?"

"No, what was he saying?" I ask, feeling my heart sink. 

"I don't know, something about her jumps being lazy or that she'd put on weight." He mumbles and I drop my bag out of my hands onto the bench. 

"He told ninety-eight pound Sasha that she was getting fat?" I ask angrily. 

Poor Sasha was holding up dad's dream all on her own. No question she was much better than Alex or I ever were, but she was getting close to crumbling under all of his pressure. Once Alex quit too, Sasha took it all on. She just didn't know what she was getting into.

I knew this was important to her and that she wanted so badly to improve and do well, but she couldn't take it all. Dad was incredibly strict on her, he never let her go out, eat the things she wanted to, or have any fun. She hardly even had any friends.

Alex and I on the other hand were as free as the wind, nobody cared where we went or what we did. Nobody really has since we were about twelve.

"What a monster." I insist, running my hands over my face. "Does he want to lose her too?"

"I don't know what he's thinking honestly." Alex mumbles and I nod with a sigh. "But it looks like it's going to be another rough year for her."

The two of us shower quickly and get dressed, heading home before school. The gym was some of the only time that I got where I wasn't thinking about anything. That and ice time with my coach, the same one I'd had since I first started. He was one of the only people who believed I could do anything I get my mind to.

Going home was never fun, I always had to walk on eggshells everywhere I went. Mom might love us both but she often didn't show it. She was concerned about trying to keep the peace and get through every point of tension passively. We walk inside and see mom, loading the dishwasher. 

"Good morning." She says with an easy smile.

"Hey mom." Alex says as we both pass the kitchen and head down the hall to the laundry room to dump our sweaty clothes.

"How was the gym?" She asks as we both come back to the kitchen to make breakfast.

"Good." I say with a shrug, opening the fridge and taking out an apple. "How was Sasha this morning?"