SofiaxHugo

Episode 3: Distractions at Practice

Sofia grunted as she landed on the ice flat on her back. Instantly I was by her side, helping her to her feet as she tried to recover her breath. I wrapped one arm around her waist to hold her steady until she could breathe normally again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She looked up at me without skating out of my grip. "Did you catch how many rotations short I am on that flip?"

It took me a minute to realize what she said; my mind always seemed to work slower when she was this close to me. Barely any air between our faces... On an impulse, I wrapped my other arm around her waist as well. "You're only half a rotation shy of landing it. You're so close." God, she was so close to me.

Sofia's eyes lowered while I spoke—was she watching my mouth?—but then she smiled up at me. "That's it? Half a rotation?"

I was positive that if I tried to speak my voice would crack, so I just nodded at her. She giggled and looked at my mouth again. It would be so easy to just pull her against me and kiss her, but I remembered James's warning and reluctantly pulled back and glided away from her. "Do you wanna practice it on the trampoline for a little while?" I asked, trying to avoid looking at her.

Sofia sighed. "Sure." She followed me to the edge of the ice and we took off our skates. In a room attached to the rink was a huge floor trampoline, which we used to practice our jumps. Getting the jump wrong and falling on your head hurts a lot less on a tramp than it does on ice, and the bounciness of it simulated the effects of the enchanted skates. We wore just our socks, and padded out into the center of the floor.

I put both hands on her waist. "Ready?"

She covered my hands with her own and bent her knees. "Ready."

We bounced together three times to build up some inertia, then on the fourth bounce Sofia pushed off hard with her legs just as I launched her into the air with my arms. She soared upward, and at the peak of her arc, she tucked her legs and flipped seven times before untucking a second too soon and landing flat on her bottom. Fortunately, instead of bruising her tailbone, she just bounced a few times, then stood up and looked at me. "What did I do wrong this time?" she asked with more than a hint of frustration in her voice.

"You didn't hold your tuck long enough," I replied simply as she bounced back over to me. "You'll get it this time. Just concentrate." I put my hands back on her waist and we started over. She landed on her bottom three more times before finally sticking the landing with both feet on the trampoline. When she did it, I jumped into the air and cheered. "Yeah! You did it Sofia!"

Sofia ran across the trampoline to me and tackled me in an embrace. I let myself fall flat onto my back; landing on the tramp didn't hurt at all. What I hadn't thought about was the fact that that meant Sofia would land directly on top of me. Her entire body was pressed against mine, and her auburn curls brushed my face as she pushed herself up on her elbows so she could look at me. Every move she made sent electric jolts through me, and I was beginning to wish I had worn something other than loose gym shorts to practice.

Her crystal blue eyes were still sparkling with the joy of finally landing her flip, and her grin hadn't moved either. I tried to smile back at her, but oh God, she was still laying right on top of me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I felt myself begin to sweat. And that was when I noticed her head moving toward mine. Two opposing feelings, both equally strong, filled my mind. The first was how much I wanted to let her kiss me, to kiss back, to hold her as close to me as I could; but the other was the fear of what James would do to me if I allowed her to kiss me. Before she could close the gap between us, I cleared my throat.

"Uh, Sofia?"

She stopped and looked at me blankly. I took the opportunity to wiggle out from underneath her and stand up. Words stuck in my throat. I had no idea how to explain this to her. I opened and closed my mouth a few times before she finally just stood up.

"It's okay," she said. I frowned. Okay? What was okay? Nothing about this situation was okay. When she looked up at me, her smile was gone. "I understand. And don't worry, I won't let it interfere with practice. I think it'd be best if we call it a day for now though." I stared at her as she slowly padded off the trampoline and back out into the main room, put her shoes on, and left. By the time I had hurried after her she was already airborne on Minimus. I watched her fly away, then went back inside and sat down, letting my head fall into my hands.

Sofia had tried to kiss me. Sofia, the best friend I had ever had, the girl with whom I had gone from hatred to friendship, now wanted something more. From me. And like an idiot I had refused her. Because I was afraid.

In a sudden outburst, I kicked the wall of the rink. Coward. I've always been a coward. Ever since I was a kid. That's why I hated Sofia so much when I first met her; she had threatened me. She was better than I was at something, and that scared me. Once we had become friends, Sofia helped me face my fears of telling my dad how much I loved ice dancing. And now I was too scared to let her give me the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world: her.