That Was Then

36-Then

"Hey!" I tried to contain the excitement in my voice when I answered my phone but it was the first time Kya had called me in nearly two months. Our Friday night tradition had ceased to exist and we no longer ate lunch together, but we were still friends. Mostly. Kind of.

"Hey..." she sounded annoyed but I couldn't understand why. She called me.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm bored." I could hear her exhale loudly, like she was blowing her hair out of her face.

"Well, we're about to go ice skating, want to come?" The outdoor rink had just opened for the season and I had brand new ice skates I was eager to try out.

"Who's we?" She asked.

"Me and Caleb." It had taken some serious coaxing to get Caleb to go with me but I didn't want to go by myself.

"Sure, pick me up?" Mama was a little surprised when I asked her if we could swing by and pick Kya up on the way. It had been awhile since I had seen her outside of school. Caleb tried to get out of going when he found out I had someone else to go with but when I pouted he pulled on his sweatshirt and asked Abuela for money for hot chocolate.

Kya and Caleb didn't have their own skates so we had to stand in line to rent skates for them. The rink was busy. Caleb saw one of his buddies and after making sure it was okay with me, he went off with him and his girlfriend.

At first things were like old times. We talked and laughed. Kya pointed out every cute boy she saw. She kept pulling off her glove to peck away at her phone and I didn't think anything of it, Kya had been attached to her phone since the day she had gotten it. And then I saw Paige skating toward us, auburn hair flowing behind her like a flag.

"Hiiiee," she squealed and hugged Kya. She said nothing to me. I tried to convince myself that it was a coincidence that she happened to be there. "I thought you were here with Caleb Dominguez?" She shot me a look like she didn't know why I was there and then searched the crowd for Caleb. This was definitely no coincidence.

"Yeah, he's over there with Danny and Kate," Kya waved across the rink.

"What's she doing here?" Paige 'whispered' but she definitely wanted me to hear. Kya shrugged and she and Paige started to skate off toward Caleb. She didn't even look to see if I was following. I wasn't. Instead, I skated off in the opposite direction. Tears blurred my vision but I eventually made it off the rink and only fell once. I sat down on a bench and took off my new white skates, replacing them with comfortable warm boots. I no longer felt like skating.

It would still be an hour and a half before Mama came to pick us up so I played a game on my phone until my fingers were too cold and I had to put my gloves back on. I hadn't even noticed that Caleb left the rink until he sat down next to me on the bench and thrust a steaming cup of hot chocolate into my hands.

"Thanks," I cradled the cup in my hands, feeling the heat through my soft blue mittens.
When I was pretty sure that it had cooled down enough not to singe my tongue, I drank my cocoa. Caleb sat quietly next to me drinking his own and when we finished he tried to coax me back out onto the rink.

"This was your idea, are you really just going to sit and watch everyone else have fun?" By everyone else I knew he meant Kya and Paige. They were happily twirling each other around on the rink. I lifted my shoulders and then let them fall. "C'mon!" He tugged off my boots and held them out of my reach and even though I had two pairs of socks on, my feet were still cold. I relented and put my skates on and let Caleb drag me out onto the rink where I ended up having fun with him and his friends. Kya didn't even acknowledge me for the next hour and even though it was crowded, the rink wasn't that big. When it came time to leave though, she slid into the back of Mama's car and tried to talk to me like nothing happened.