Stone Cold {bxb}

CHAPTER TWENTY

~Two Hours Before Competition~

Gabriel, Nico, and Leo along with several other figure skaters from other teams were all skating around on the ice rink to warm up before the second competition of the season started. This was going to be the competition in which they would cut six skaters out of the thirty that were in the groups. And after getting tenth at the Moves-in-the-Field competition Gabriel didn't want to be one to get cut before the competition season even started.

Gabriel couldn't help but catch Damion and his old teammates at Shontail High out of the corner of his eye. Marco Santos; the best figure skater at Shontail High was the main reason Gabriel left. He was a duplicate of Nico Peters minus the temper and added one more title to his collection. If Damion and Gabriel weren't as close as they were- Gabriel probably wouldn't even have two titles. Marco Santos would be where Gabriel is right now which made him question once again why Vincent chose him.

"Amore," Vincent called out and once Gabriel looked in his direction he waved him over.

Gabriel made his way to Vincent after taking another glance in Shontail High's direction.

"Everything alright," Vincent asked once Gabriel got to him.

"Yeah," Gabriel replied nearly out of breath. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you seem distracted."

Gabriel shook his head. "I'm not," he replied. "I just...want to make you...proud."

Vincent chuckled which made Gabriel furrow his eyebrows. "What's so funny?" Gabriel asked.

"Make me proud?" Vincent questioned and Gabriel nodded. "Amore." He placed a gentle hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "I'm not your parents. You don't have to "make me proud." Just prove my point that I didn't make a mistake with choosing you. Okay?"

Gabriel nodded then noticed Kyhun walking behind Vincent. Kyhun locked eyes with Gabriel and gave him a small wave before looking away. Gabriel watched as his ex best friend made his way to Damion and both the men sprung up a conversation.

"Gabriel," Vincent spoke, causing Gabriel to look at him. "I'm going to run to the restroom before the competition starts."

"Okay," Gabriel replied.

"Keep practicing okay."

Gabriel nodded then watched as Vincent made his way to the restroom before Gabriel went back to skating. He couldn't stop thinking about the last competition and placing tenth. Tonight six people will be cut from each group. And Gabriel didn't want to be one of the six. He wanted to be as far from them as possible. So he had to focus on the competition and drown out all the other skaters and the fans.

1:15 pm

"Welcome all to the Preliminary test," the first announcer spoke which caused the fans to scream louder. "We went from two-hundred amazing skaters sadly saying goodbye to ten of them. In tonight's competition we have eight groups; each consisting of thirty skaters."

"And tonight we will be saying adios to a total of forty-eight skaters."

The crowd reacted with suspicion while the announcers went on. They informed everyone what tonight's competition consists of: spins, jumps, and turns.

"Let's kick this off with our first group," the male announcer spoke. "From West View Peak, Nolan Kim."

The crowd cheered and clapped as Nolan made his way to the ice. Gabriel remembered the male skater from the 2023 World Championship. Only five points had separated him and Gabriel that night. The piano music had started playing and Gabriel couldn't take his eyes off of the male.