Equal Ice // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Gabrielle’s POV

By the time he had walked up to us we had taken our attention away from him already so he didn’t notice we had been watching him walk over to us.

“Um,” he said once he approached us, trying to get our attention since we were now faced away from him.

“You forgot your water bottle,” he told me as he handed out to me the light blue bottle with an ice skate sticker on it.

“Um, thanks,” I said awkwardly and unsure of what exactly to say as I reached out to grab the bottle from his grasp.

He gave me a small smile and then turned back around to walk back to his rink.

His accent was so thick, proving that he was obviously British. I didn’t expect his voice to be so monotone thought, but like his hair, it suited him.

“He’s British?” Bella’s mom was the first to speak after he’d walked away.

“Yeah, which is what I don’t understand. I mean shouldn’t he be on one of the hockey teams in Britain not America?” Bella said.

“It is a bit suspicious,” I agreed.

“He’s probably joining an American team to make sure we screw up and don’t win a medal if that team makes it to the Olympics,” Bella said.

“Oh come on Bella, they don’t need his help to screw up, they do that naturally themselves,” I said, and Bella laughed and gave me a high five.

“Okay girls,” Bella’s mom said, calming us from our laughter.

“I’m sure he has a good reason for being here and not in Britain,” Bella’s mom told us.

“You think everyone has a good reason for doing something,” Bella said.

“Well everybody does,” she said,

“You can’t always just assume the worst of someone,”

“Okay, so murders have a good reason for killing someone? Robbers have a good reason for robbing banks or breaking into people’s houses to steal their belongings? Kidnappers hav-”

“Okay Bella, you’ve made your point,” she said cutting her daughter off from her rant.

“Almost everyone has a good reason for doing something, but criminals don’t,” Bella’s mom said.

“Good enough,” Bella said to her, and her mom just rolled her eyes at her.

“We should probably get going,” she soon told Bella and I.

We both nodded and picked up our bags that we had set on the floor. As we all got out of the chairs, I unzipped my bag enough to slip my water bottle in before zipping it back up.

“So tell me about the skate lace problem,” Bella’s mom said, referring to the other incident we had said made us late.

“The lace on Gabrielle’s skate was in this giant, tight knot,” Bella told her.

“Yeah, I’m not even sure how it got like that though,” I said,

“The other skate came undone easily and I tied them both the same way,” I added.

“Any type of laces are always a pest, no matter how you tie them,” Bella’s mom said.

“You got that right,” Bella said, and we all laughed as we walked through the exit doors and out to the parking lot.

Harry’s POV

I wasn’t really paying attention to the argument that Zack and that girl were having. The other boys seemed to be really into listening and laughing at everything that Zack said. I couldn’t help but notice the other girl that was there standing next to her arguing friend. She had bright blonde hair that went past her shoulders, and I tried but I couldn’t quite make out the color of her eyes from where I was standing.

I soon noticed her looking over at me, and after awhile I began to feel a bit uncomfortable with her observing me. I looked over at her thinking maybe if she saw that I noticed her staring, she would stop. I looked back over at her and I caught her glance. Her eyes quickly darted away from me and back to the argument that was occurring. It wasn’t until I realized her friend was talking about me that I looked up and paid attention.

“So who’s the new guy?” is what she had asked that I knew was directed towards me.

“This here,” Zack said as he placed a hand on my shoulder,

“Is Harry,” he finished.

“Andrew left the team, some family issue came up and he had to quit, so Harry was recruited here from England,” Zack said.

I wanted to tell him that we weren’t in the army and maybe try to make a joke out of it, but I decided that it was a bad time.

“Oh okay, so not only did you lose a guy, you can’t even find another one in this country to join you team,” the girl with the darker hair, said.

The blonde girl gave her friend a high five, and Zack just had a scowl on his face

“Just leave,” Zack grumbled and then skated away.

Me and the other boys followed behind him as he skated to the other side of the rink.

“Those girls are annoying as hell,” Zack mumbled to Adam, one of the other boys on the team.

I didn’t hear what Adam said back to him, but Zack soon skated away from us and back to the other side of the rink.

“Why are you still here?” I heard Zack ask as he skated up to the girls.

“Gabrielle’s lace is tangled, okay, so just leave and go back to doing whatever,” the darker haired girl said sternly to him.

“Well just hurry up,” Zack said to them and then skated back over to us.

“Okay boys, we’ll start once the two prissy girls leave,” Zack informed us.

Zack was about to say something else but was cut off by a shout from the other side of the rink.

“Thank God!” one of the girls had shouted and I was almost positive it came from the dark haired girl.

We all were looking over at her with confused looks as to what happened. The blonde girl laughed at her, and I watched as she slid a skate off her foot. The other girl gave us an awkward smile once she noticed that we were all staring at her. After that, she turned back around to face her friend. They soon got up off the bleachers and picked up their bags and were laughing as they walked out of the rink and went to the lobby.

Zack began telling us what we were going to begin with to warm up.  A few of us were doing different things, and once most of us finished warming up, we began breaking up into teams to play a game. Zack and Adam were both team captains, and they were waiting for a few more guys to skate over here before they continued picking people to be on their team. “Goldie forgot her water bottle,” one of the guys told us as he skated up to us.

“Of course she did,” Zack scoffed.

“What a blonde,” Adam said, earning a laugh from a few other guys on the team.

“I’ll go give it back to her,” I offered.

“Um sure, whatever. If she’s left already just leave it here or something,” Zack told me, and I nodded and grabbed the bottle.

I skated off the rink and grabbed my skate guards and slipped them onto the bottom of my skates. I opened the door to the lobby and began to look around. I was hoping she was still here, but I wasn’t sure. As I continued to walk around, I examined the blue water bottle. It had a sticker of an ice skate on it, and written in black marker at the bottom of the bottle were the words, ‘Gabrielle E. Gold’ written in neat handwriting.

I guess that’s why the guys call her Goldie, because of her last name. Once the snack bar came into view, I saw Gabrielle and her friend sitting at a table with another lady. I slowly made my way up to them, not exactly sure on how to get their attention.