When the Ice Breaks

II

5:00 AM

My alarm blared jolting me out of bed. I sleepily walked to my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I had a lot of hair. It was a curly black mess. I did my best to tame it by brushing it and wetting it so it could at least be contained. I put on a pair of grey sweats, a black shirt, and my varsity jacket. I put on my favorite Converse and headed downstairs. My younger brothers were sitting at the table eating. "Five minutes," I said to them both. They nodded put their dirty dishes in the sink and went to grab their school stuff. I stood by the door scrolling through Instagram. My brothers emerged downstairs and headed out the door. I grabbed my hockey and school bag and headed out. When I hit the outside I immediately smiled. It was that weather period in Michigan where it wasn't hot but it wasn't freeze-your-ass weather yet. I started the car and drove to school. I made small talk with my brothers until we arrived at school. They both got out and went their separate ways.

 I stayed in my car until I saw her walking towards school. I hopped out of my car calling, "Isabel... Isabel..Isabel Brown!" She turned around with a disgusted look and walked up to me. I was pretty talk so she had to look up at me. "Well now that's not a pretty face, is it Iz," I said striking. She looked at me with daggers in her eyes. "What the fuck do you want Stella, she spat.

 I paused for a moment, the way she said my name made me feel weird, but I brushed it off and hit her right back with, "I mean I know tore your ACL and wanna skate again and I am glad to help, but you gotta beg for it first." She looked at me with an astonished face, flipped me off, and walked down the hall. "Fine be like that then Isabel, never skate again," I said. She turned around and said, "I'll take the help but I do not fuckig beg. I'm not one of your little sluts." "That can be arranged if you'd like," I said trying to contain my laughter. Her face twisted in disgust and she raised her hand to flip me off but I grabbed her wrist firmly and leaned in, "I'm just helping you because I have to. I need this and so do you. So stop being a fucking bitch and meet me on the ice at 4:30, okay?" I said with a fake voice. She snatched her hand out of my grip and walked down the hall. I couldn't help looking at her as she walked away. She was like fire. Pulls you in, and makes you do crazy things, but if you get too close you'll get burned. 

"You did not say that Stella," my best friend Casey said. I nodded and laughed while she hooted and jumped around. "She's gonna kill you you know that right, Casey responded as she took a bite of her sandwich. Casey had been my best friend since we were six.  We were on the same hockey team until she quit to play soccer. She and I had been through everything together. She was the sister I never had. "Probably, " I responded taking a big gulp of my water. I was about to say something else when I saw her walk in.

  Faye James. Faye James was every guy's dream, she was skinny, blonde, and had big brown eyes. I stared at her with rage and when she caught my eye I lifted my middle finger to her. She rolled her eyes flipped her hair over her shoulder and kissed Tony Lopez. I slammed my fist on the table. Casey looked in her direction and then back to me. "Are you okay Stella?" she asked softly. I shut my eyes and took some deep breaths, "Yeah I'm all good," I replied. We finished up lunch talking about nothing serious and then went our separate ways. Once the last bell rang I immediately sprinted to the rink and put my gear on. As I stepped on the ice I thought about lunch today and Faye. 

Faye James was my ex-girlfriend. We started dating the summer of sophomore year and it was everything to me. I went to all her soccer games, she came to all my games. I gave Faye everything I had and she took it and threw it away. The summer before senior year I caught Faye cheating on me with Clarke Jennings, one of the best hockey players in Michigan, my rival since eighth grade. I slammed my hand on the walk of the rink, remembering what Faye had done. Seeing her today after everything reminded me of what she did, and what she took. I heard someone clear their throat I spun around and Isabel was standing on the soft part of the rink, holding a pair of skates. She didn't look me in the eye but she spoke softly, "So are we gonna do this or what?"