Dying and Everything in between

10| Sliding away

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Lucas was ice skating. Against his own will.

Lucas thought Joy was going to bring him to the smoothie place and make him pay for her stupid watermelon creamsicle and he was fine with that!  He was fine with anything that didn't involve much physical effort, plus the food was good!

Food was always comforting, even if he couldn't keep it down for too long lately. However, that wasn't exactly the point. Lucas assumed the plan was to just grab food, spend a few hours with Joy, and go on with their respective lives.

But nope. Joy brought him to an ice skating ring, and Lucas couldn't back out unless he wanted to be a douche all over again. It wasn't worth the risk, and Joy looked so excited, he knew he would feel even more guilty than he originally was if he were to ditch her.

And thus, Lucas found himself with skates on, standing by the entrance to a cold rink, gripping onto the sidebars for dear life.

The whole place was illuminated with colorful lights. Sounds of laughter and enjoyment filled up the place and there weren't many people around either.

Lucas never had a good experience with anything related to sports, His subpar skills showed when he was positioned as a bench- warmer in his high school soccer team. He was never the most athletically inclined either, especially after he got diagnosed.

Joy seemed to be a different story. The girl was healthy with stamina and strength. Pair that with her unruly hair, irritating smirk, and her natural ability to glide over ice with ease, it was just another blatant reminder that Joy Jones was nothing like him.

"Fuck you! Now you are just showing off!" Lucas said over the chatter of his teeth. He regretted not wearing something thicker.

"Come on, Andrews, it's not too bad!" Joy called out to him. Lucas in return gave her the nastiest glare.

"It's gonna be bad," He sneered, eyeing the ice like it murdered all his relatives or something. "I'm fine here."

"Join me," She beamed, skidding to a graceful stop in front of him. Lucas whipped his attention back to where she stood, brows raising high.

"Are you trying to kill me?" He blinked slowly.

Her smile grew impossibly wider, "No, I'm asking you to come here and play a few games with me. If you suck, we can just hit a puck back and forth."

"This is your idea of comfort?" Lucas wanted so badly to judge, but if he were to upset her right now, he wasn't sure he could bear the weight of more guilt. Joy already did so much for him; this was the least he could do.

But the thing was, he didn't want to do this. His legs were already pathetic, snappable jelly-like substance beneath him. The second he would get on the ice he knew damn well he was asking for a broken bone, or well, an early death wish. Plus Lucas wasn't in the mood to tug around a stupid cast for the last few months of his life.

Joy seemed confident, Confident enough that it kind of terrified him.

"Yeah!" Her voice pulled him out of his head. If she were a dog, her tail would be wagging a hundred miles per minute. "Come on, Lucas. You'd love it. And if you fall, you got a pro-skater to help you."

"I hate you for this," Lucas grumbled. "If I die, that's on you."

"You're not going to die," Joy chuckled. "It's all about the balance."