Broken Ice {w.b.}

Chapter 12

"Oh, honey, that's not a reason to beat yourself up," my mom said in a soothing tone giving me a sad look. I sighed and lightly tapped my math book with my pencil eraser. 

"I know. But I am just so mad at myself! I have never messed up that badly before." She shrugged.

"Well, there's always other competitions. Have you talked to Hilary about the one back home?" Hilary was one of the many friends I had to leave behind when I left Alaska. We met when we were five at our first figure skating practice and have been best friends ever since.

"No, not yet. She hasn't even talked to me since I left." The thing with Hilary is, when someone leaves her life, she gets emotional and mad because they left and usually holds a grudge for a while. She hasn't bothered to make any contact with me since the second I left my house. 

"Then maybe you should make the first move. Call her back, she is your best friend, after all." I think the reason Hilary gets like that, is because her father walked out on her, her mom, and her two baby brothers when she was only thirteen. There was no explanation why he did it, her mom dind't have a clue. He just packed up one day and left. 

"I guess I'll have to try that. Thanks, mom." There were voices in the background, sounding as if something crashed in the background. 

My mother cursed under her breath. "Dumb cat. Jasmine, honey, I have to go. I'll see you in a few months. Tell Lisa I say hi!" The screen went black before I could reply. I closed the laptop and sighed. 

"Love you, too," I muttered, getting back to my homework.

--

"Good morning, Jasmine," Lisa said happily when I walked into the kitchen. It was around ten o'clock on Saturday morning, and I hadn't really bothered much with my appearance for the morning. All I needed was a pair of black sweat pants, a red tank top, and my hair pulled into a messy pony tail to have a relaxing Saturday. 

"Good morning, Lisa! Where's Cole?" I asked, walking to the cabinet and grabbing a Rice Krispie. As I tore it open, I leaned against the counter to listen to Lisa's answer. 

"Oh, he had an interview to go to this morning. We're going to have a cookout later, to celebrate them getting signed." I noticed a big smile form on her face when she mentioned this. "Why don't you invite your friends from school? The more the merrier!"

I smiled and ate a bit of my snack. After I swallowed, I nodded my head. "I'll do that. Oh, and I talked to my mom last night. She says hi." Lisa took a drink of her orange juice, then looked back at me. 

"How is your grandfather, by the way?" My grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer about two years ago, and just a month ago they stopped his treatment because he was informed he only had two months to live. 

"I guess as good as you can be when you only have two months to live. But I'm not to upset over it," I admitted. I wasn't actually that sad about my grandfather's death. I mean, sure, it is sad that he's dying, it's always sad when people die, but I just wasn't close with him, ya know? Do you have that one relative that you know you're related to but you're not that close with them, and when they get sick you're sad, but you're not worried? I don't know if that made that much sense, but I understand it. 

Lisa gave me a small smile. "I understand, you weren't all that close with him." There was an awkward silence that followed afterwards, but was thankfully broken when the front door opened, and the loud voices of five teenage boys filled the house.