𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨 • 𝗔. 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗦

𝐹𝑂𝑈𝑅𝑇𝐸𝐸𝑁

[n a r r a t o r]

Alexis had felt victorious as she set herself back into her dorms. No once did her smile fall from her face as it only grew stronger from the moment they left. They had taught them how to play, play for fun. And not only to win but to enjoy it.

She had forgotten what it felt like to be in the game just for it, itself. She forgot what it meant to be on the ice. She had missed this feeling, although it felt at that moment it would last forever it hadn't. Only to be replaced with that same persona she had before.

Every time she entered the practice rink she felt her shoulder tighten and the ropes attached to her body pull her down further. As the weights that covered her piled onto the girl until she could no longer breath.

Adam. Who was watching her from afar stayed silent. As he watched her body flow with the gentle music that floated in the thinness of the air that no longer suffocated him.

His blue eyes could not bare to look away as her moves and rhythms felt so angelic and ethereal to watch it was almost painful to look away. She was the meaning of perfect and he envied that.

He envied her, he would give her every last drop of his whole self to be half the person she is. Not needing to worry about what people thought of you, or not needing to wish for power or praise as she has been handed that on a silver platter the singular moment she walked through those doors and claimed the rink hers. As people fell at her feet and covered her in worship.

It was so hard to hate her and so easy to love her. She is someone you can't hate, because you know they had done nothing wrong to you, but you still feel that sudden drive to hate them. Like there's this grudge about them.

And that grudge for Adam Banks was jealousy. It had overtook him. And covered it's lethal poisons over his palpable body. As his insides screamed for mercy. It had washed his brain in its acids with only thoughts that would be damned from any normal persons mind. Yet every time a thought would skim his mind of Alexis Stansson that all would turn to dust, and disappear.

It was she who casted this feeling and it was she who removed it. It was so confusing yet simple.

Anyone could tell you that Adam hated to love her and Alexis loved to hate him. They'd do anything and everything for each other, knowingly and unknowingly as this feeling is too controlling and demanding it is something you can't refuse. But if it wasn't Alexis Stansson he was doing this for and if it wasn't Adam Banks she was doing this for they wouldn't be here at all.

So as she took her final pose and let her final moment of peace go, he cheered and clapped. And he watched her like a masterpiece.

"Adam?" Alexis pulls her headphones over her head and throws her Walkman towards the pile of jackets. Her feet slide along the rink as she stops in front of him. "I don't want to say it, but that was truely amazing."

"Where'd you learn to do stuff like that?" Adam folds his arms over his chest, leaning the right side of his body against the boards. "Well... when your mum is an all star ex figure skater it's kinda a given for me to learn it too." She shrugs simply. The brunette girl wraps her jacket over her shoulders, lifting her bag over the left one. She placed her skates into the duffle as the two walk in silence out of the stadium.

"What we're you doing in there?" The Stansson girl asks softly as she releases her hair from the ponytail to her shoulders. "Uh- I usually come here to practice, y'know got to look out for the scouts."

"I forgot they were even watching the games." She answers truthfully. "Can I ask you something." Adam stops her. His feet pointing in her direction. "Do you ever regret not joining your dads team?"

Her voice caught in her throat. "No. Although he is my dad I want to be with this team, even if Coach is being a total ass right now. My dads an even bigger one sometimes." Alexis shakes her head. Her smile falters and her chest struggles to rise. "I don't want to hate him but he makes it so hard, all our lives we are taught that no matter what we should love our family even when they do the most fucked up shit. And that's so hard to do when you've spent half of your life without your dad because he wanted to watch some other kids skate on ice." Alexis felt her cheeks warm up and her voice heightening as the halls echo each word from her mouth as it slips off her tongue with not even a thought of retrieving it.

"Not once. Not once did he ever come back, he didn't look back when he decided to go back to Iceland. He wasn't there when I first skated, he wasn't there when I won my first medal or when I first aired on tv. He was just a voice on a phone. My mum and I wanted to stay here because we had more opportunities, but my dad grew impatient and he left."

Adam Banks hadn't experienced anything particularly bad about his family. To be honest the Banks' were quite normal compared to other families, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt to see Alexis cry in his shoulders. Or feel her fingernails scratch at the thin material of his shirt. He hated that his heart slowed and his first instinct was to comfort her.

His arms wrapped around her waist as he brought he closer to his chest. Her arms draped his torso as her mouth fell open, searching for lost breaths as her voice still staggered and tumbled through her sentences.

"I'm sorry about your shirt." Alexis croaks. Her hands twiddled with the loose thread of her jacket. Adam watched as the girl refused to meet his eyes. His thoughts buried in the mere moments were she had unapologetically and shamelessly spilled her secrets even the ones she knew she'd be shamed for. But Adam didn't say one word. Instead he allowed those feelings to tear at her as the voice inside her scraped her nails against her skin.

Sentient, was the only word that would come to mind when his name would come up in a sentence. He was a listener not a talker, he preferred to stay in his silent haven as he watched those beam and echo with delight and he'd sit back as he watched those burn to ash and tremble into their crushed cocoons.

He was impenetrable, he knew it and everyone else knew it. But Alexis Stansson didn't, that is because his walls would crumble and the bricks he'd put up would fall to the ground as soon as she'd lay her glowing brown eyes on his.

He'd fall at his feet and beg for her attention as he craved her with every breath that dared to bless his tongue. Alexis was clueless about how far she'd made him fall and how deeply he cared for her.

Adam was clueless about what Alexis would do just to catch a glimpse of his blue eyes. If he'd seen the bruises on her knees for every time she'd fall right in front of him to plead for a singular ounce of his time. The things she'd to hear his voice reach her ears.

They were both too clueless to truely see the things they'd do for one another, the things they would never regret or look back at in disdain.

"I should get going." Alexis says softly. Her fingers swipe the bottom of her eyes as her thumb coils back around the fallen strand of her hair. "Goodnight." Adam says softly. His hands gently hold the side of her petite face, his eyes entranced by the soft and gentle features of the girl before him. He pressed his lips in a gentle position her cheeks, barely skimming the surface of her skin before returning back to his place.

"Goodnight, Banks." Alexis flashes the blonde boy a tight smile. He shares the same one as they both walk into different directions, with the same victorious smiles caught in their lips.

That night Alexis sat on Connie and Julie's bed ranting to the two girls about every detail noted in those moments. "I think I like him."

That night Adam sat on the ground with Charlie and Guy in front of him. The small bowl of sunflower seeds in the middle separated their circle as they went around telling things about their day. He had told them about Alexis, only about the hatred he'd felt at the time.

"I think I like her."

A/N:

This is a make up chapter for missing one the other day, and taking an abnormal amount of time to publish, which I apologise for. I hope you guys enjoy the story so far. And the progress with the Alexis and Adam is progressing :)

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