Step of Faith

Chapter XVII: Thigh pincher

Chapter XVII: Thigh pincher

I opened my eyes and was met with the warm morning sun through the windows of the car. And with Theo's big grin when he passed me a cup of coffee.

"Calculated just perfectly," he chuckles.

"Calculated what?"

"When you'd wake up. I stopped in a gas station like six minutes ago to get coffee because I thought I'll fall asleep and decided to get you one too," Theo's face breaks out into a smile as he gets into his side of the car.

"Thanks," I smile as he passes me little cute donuts.

I quickly got comfortably situated and then he pulled back onto the highway. He had been driving in silence without the radio for the past hour just because I was sleeping and he was worried I'd wake up.

The morning had started out pretty good. Of course, I never like getting up at 8 am on a weekend but knowing what the day holds I was more than excited.

I had packed my bags because he said we were staying overnight. I had no problem with that since this Saturday and Sunday were my off days before I started heavily training for my performance.

The figure skating's national committee had decided that this year's annual championship could be a little different. Usually, it was held for a week and then you received a schedule on which days you perform.

This year it was split into a multiple-month-long competition. Figure skaters needed to perform at the Hockey Championship games. Before, between, and after. You collect points from each performance and then at the end of the Hockey championship a figure skating final is held between the skaters with the highest points.

At first, Carl and Catherine were furious. But after a lot of phone calls, it finally clicked why they were doing this. It was the 50th anniversary of the Hockey Championships so it made sense to want to switch things up. But last year one of the Hockey committee members had a big scandal so they were probably assuming the worst in fan attendance.

Having my first performance so close was fucking with my calm aura. It was genuinely terrifying but I hoped everything would go smoothly.

"I can smell your brain overheating from here. What are you thinking about, pretty girl?" Theo flitted his eyes to me before fixating them on the road again.

"The competition. What if you guys need help again and I can't go on the ice because Carl and Catherine are watching me like hawks?" I fidget with my sweater.

"Skates, we'll be just fine. You're our coach, you should have more trust in our abilities," He puts a hand on my thigh and I sigh.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry," I shake my head and get all of those thoughts out of my head.

"Are you excited for today?" He still hasn't moved his hand. If it weren't for my jeans my skin would probably be tingling.

"Yeah," I look at his hand.

He has a pretty hand. It has a small butterfly tattoo on it and rings decorate his fingers. Would be great if they could tangle in my curls. Stop.

"Am I distracting you, Skates?" Theo chuckles and I smack his hand off which makes him break out into a fit of laughter.

"Stop that," I pinch him.

"Ouch, do you want me to crash?" He rubs his thigh where I pinched him and now it's my turn to laugh.

"Yeah sure, Jesus take the wheel," I chuckle.

"Pass me a donut, miss thigh pincher," I lean over and shove a mini donut in his mouth.

Apparently, I had slept for forty minutes so we had about an hour and a half to go judging on traffic. Our school was located in Boston so his family lived relatively close to the college. Whereas I lived only fifteen hours away.