The Hockey Player (2)

20. Matt's POV

Aurora's school was surprisingly similar to mine. We got the stares and whispers I got everyday at school, but the attention was new for Aurora from how tight she held my hand as we entered the dance.

I'd never seen her look more beautiful. While her normal clothes were comfortable and baggy, tonight she looked like herself.

There was a million things I loved about Aurora but was drew me to her, without talking to her, was her quiet sense of self assurance. Her forwardness when she used her sharp tongue during our first phone conversation had me hooked and the rest was history.

An hour after random conversations, including the one where I noticed Luke's eyes on her ass, Aurora's confidence radiated. She was different from girls I was familiar with, who spent more time staring at me than holding conversations.

"Hi Aurora, Matt" Chris came up to us, with Melissa on his arm. She was pretty, but I knew she was a cheerleader. That wasn't a bad thing, they just tended to have a certain athletic appearance. Aurora was nice, she gave him a hug and a compliment.

"This is Melissa" he introduced, with a smile on his face.

"Hi, Melissa" Aurora shook her hand. Melissa squeezed her hand, then grabbed Chris again.

My radar went up straight away. There was two approaches girls took around hockey players, at least in my experience. Either she looked for a trophy boyfriend or despised me as an asshole.

Melissa obviously wanted Chris to be a trophy boyfriend, which came through how she laughed at nothing.

It's his life.

Aurora looked at Chris in surprise, before Melissa spoke again. "Oh God, Aurora! So nice to meet you. Isn't this great?" If I wasn't interested in Aurora's reaction, I would've rolled my eyes. She had zero poker face and I knew when she looked at me, she wasn't impressed.

"What's great?" Aurora asked. I smiled, holding back a laugh.

"This" Melissa stepped closer to Chris.

"I'm sorry, what?" I could see Aurora was trying to be nice, but she didn't want to be. Melissa gave some response on how Chris asked her to the dance, but I tried not to laugh at Aurora's reaction.

"It's so cliche"

"Oh yeah" Aurora failed at holding back her sarcasm. "It's like something I've been dreaming about"

"I knew it, baby" Hoping she needed a distraction, I threw my arm over her shoulder and pulled her in closer

"Right" she poked me in the ribs and went back to talking with Chris and Melissa. Aurora must have recognised her. Suddenly, Melissa turned her attention towards me.

"Now I see why you stopped coming to Dan's practices" She said, scanning me.

"Oh my God! There's Tiny and Amy. Chris, let's go" before Aurora and I knew what happened, Melissa dragged Chris away.

After Aurora's sarcasm about if Chris and Melissa were serious, I laughed. "He'll figure it out. I'm happy for him"

He seems happy.

Aurora's voice was soaked in sarcasm when she added, "I'm totally happy for him"

"So judgemental" I teased and wrapped her in a hug, kissing her softly. Our display of affection drew the attention of people around us. By the look on Aurora's face, she didn't appreciate it.

I had to do something about it.

"Aurora" I took her hand in mine. "Let's dance"

That mightn't have been the best suggestion, since her eyes widened like I suggested we kill someone in the parking lot. I smiled at her. She had no idea what she was in for.

~

Aurora pretended to be embarrassed as she danced with me, but her eyes gave her away. Thankfully for her, I knew the best way to dissolve how self conscious she felt about dancing was for me to dance terrible and draw eyes to me instead.

After her eyes widened, she laughed and copied the moves I did. Most of her moves were older, like the running man, but I jumped in since she looked like she was having fun.

Whenever we slow danced, my thoughts wandered. My thoughts went to my conversation with Nate, and I wondered if we were ready to take things up a level. I was more than ready, but nothing was about me in this situation.

After we broke apart on the dance floor, Aurora latched to Raine. I noticed curious eyes near us and I excused myself to go to the bathroom so she could have alone time with Raine.

When I met Raine, I thought she was all bark no bite. As Aurora's best friend, I didn't want to be on her bad side but I realised that only Aurora was on her good side.

After I made a mental note to talk to this Annie about her gossip website, I noticed how Raine disliked her. I didn't need much insight to see there was something between her and Dan. Since Aurora never talked about them, I asked her what was behind them and 'mutual hatred' was her response.

Aurora might have been too close to see what I did, but they didn't look at each other like she was the only thing they had in common. Their angry glares reminded me of....

Doesn't matter. None of my business.

As I stood in the bathroom, a tall figure sided up next to me and used the urinal on my right. I turned and paused at the angry eyes that glared at me. The very same person I stopped thinking about stood there with his fists clenched and a look that he intended to use them.

Dan.