Between Lies

More Lies

The music rang from the speakers, the melody of the Catch Me If You Can. Simón placed his right hand on Ámbar's waist, and with his left hand, he grabbed Ámbar's left hand. They started to skate in this position, then Ámbar turned around and she was confronted by Simón. She engraved her eyes into his, with a fire of anger burning in them. Simón still didn't know why the girl acted like this with him, his face showed his misunderstanding, but Ámbar didn't deal with it. She took a deep breath and prepared for the lift. She placed her hands on the top of his shoulders and jumped up while Simón lifted her grabbing by her waist over his head. They rotated some in this position, then Simón took down her, in front of him. Ámbar was skating backwards, but she still looked into Simón's eyes, while Simón skated straight ahead, almost colliding with her breath. Suddenly, Ámbar turned around and skated away. Simón quickly followed her, and they did a jump in perfect synchronous. They connected well even though Ámbar was mad at the boy, she still trusted in him to allow him to lift her.

Juliana stopped the music when they were done with the exercise. "Very well, Ámbar and Simón. Finally, I saw some emotions when you were skating, Ámbar. This was what you needed!" the coach praised the duo.

Juliana's words warmed up Ámbar's heart. Her coach praised her first, and it was an uplifting feeling. The little praises those she needed every day, what she didn't get from Sharon and no one else since Luna came in the picture. Since that girl appeared at the rink every coach admired her style, first Tamara, then Juliana, and Ámbar stayed in the background what she didn't like. Sharon always taught her to be the best, and if she wasn't, it bothered her.

"The next pair is Luna and Matteo!" Juliana pointed at the duo, and they skated to the middle of the rink.

Ámbar went to the barrier, bent down, and raised her canteen to her mouth to drink some water. Simón skated to her and stopped in front of the girl.

"Ámbar, please tell me, what's wrong with you? What did I do?" he asked her almost begging.

Ámbar raised an eyebrow. She didn't know what wasn't clear. "Don't you know?" she asked with an "I don't believe you" look on her face.

"No, I don't know. I searched for you last night, but I didn't find you. Then, I thought that you need to rest after what happened." He took the end of the sentence in a whisper so the others couldn't hear him.

"You are lying!" Ámbar exploded. "I saw you were enjoying the party, and you didn't care about me not even one minute after our presentation. You just used me to get the award. Anyway, did you get it?" she flooded the words on him.

He nodded a little, but he didn't know what Ámbar meant. He didn't use her, he truly cared about her because she was special to him, but he could not say why.

"Congratulations to you!" She clashed with her palms a few times to imitate applause.

"Opa, opa, opa! What's happening here?" Juliana asked loudly, looking at Simón and Ámbar.

"Nothing," Ámbar replied angrily.

"I see it differently." The coach shook her head sometimes and then continued, "It's the second time you are arguing in the rink. What do I say always? Keep the personal issues out of the rink. Do you understand?" They nodded. "The training is over for you two. See you tomorrow!" Juliana ordered.

"But—" Ámbar started, but Juliana raised her index finger.

"It's over for you." She gave Ámbar a warning look, so Ámbar left the rink without any objection.

"For you," Juliana addressed her words to those in the rink, "the training continues. Come on!" She slapped the ground with her cane a few times.

Ámbar sat down on the bench in the locker room and took off her skates furiously, throwing them down on the floor. The skates snapped heavily on the floor of the Roller.