Heart of Ice

Chapter Seven

EDITED: 03/10/19

Aurelie

Jacob was the first to say something. "Dylan, it has to be." 

I was confused, though. "How would he know Amber though?" 

"I don't know, but I bet it was him. He's such an asshole, he would pull some shit like this without batting an eye." 

I still didn't know if knowing who most likely did this solved any problems though. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, feeling worn out from the stress of the flight back this morning and breaking down twice within ten minutes. 

"Is there any way we can prove that he did it? Or find out if it really was him?" I asked Jacob, knowing the answer was most likely no.

"Yeah, give me a week, alright." I was surprised by his answer. Did he really think he could find something?

"Really?" 

"What, you asked for my help without thinking I could help you?" 

"Uh..uh." I stumbled over my words and he seemed amused by my reaction. He gave me a mock salute and sauntered out of the locker room. 

Later that night as I crawled into bed I couldn't help but think of Jacob. Why was he helping me? And what could he possibly do to prove that I was blackmailed? As I drifted into a restless sleep, the feeling of his arms wrapped around me floated in and out of my dreams. 

That next four days of school were pure torture. I had to answer what felt like millions of peoples questions about the competition and explain that no, I wasn't going to the Olympics. To make matters worse,  I had heard nothing from Jacob, and the more days that passed, the harder it was to appeal to U.S. Figure Skating to show that there were ulterior motives at play. Of course, there was no way I'd approach Jacob, I was already bothering him enough as it is by asking for his help. Plus, I'm sure he was busy and had no time to deal with my stupid problems. 

I could feel myself sliding into a depressive rut, but I had no way to get out of it. I felt like I had no friends left. I mean, I had "friends", but no one I could truly talk to. I was left out of everything, and I had no real best friend. Liz had dropped me for still unknown reasons in the middle of sophomore year. I guess not wanting to get high multiple times every weekend meant I was boring and therefore unworthy of her friendship. 

The worst part was that I found no solace in skating anymore. It felt pointless now. The workouts, the long hours, it all just seemed like a waste. I still skated, but it brought me no joy. Coach and some of the boys on the hockey team tried to cheer me up, but nothing seemed to be working. 

To add insult to injury, the puck bunnies of the school, which included Liz, had made it their mission to harass me, because they were pissed that I was close with some of the hockey players. The funniest part, in my opinion, was that they were hanging around Jacob. They were the ones that had bullied him for most of high school, but the minute he was a hockey player and had turned out to be a total hottie, they were all over him. Wait, hold up. He is not a total hottie. No way, no how. Must have had a brain glitch. 

I had decided to take the day off skating today, because my knee was acting up again, and it wasn't like I was training for anything anyway. When the final bell rang, I gathered up my stuff and headed straight home. The one silver lining was that I could throw myself into schoolwork, and ensure that I beat out Jacob for the valedictorian spot. I was applying early to Penn and I still needed to finish up my application. 

I sat at my desk and worked away until suddenly I heard the doorbell ring. That was odd, if it was my brother or parents they would just walk in through the garage, and the mail had already come. Grabbing one of my brother's hockey sticks, I made my way towards the door, praying to God that it wasn't a murderer. 

I was not expecting to see Jacob on my doorstep at 5 p.m, looking down at his phone. He looked up as I approached the door, and started laughing out loud when he saw me advancing with the hockey stick. 

I opened the door, with a "Jacob, what the hell are you doing here?" 

He was still laughing so hard he could barely breath.

I sighed, "Stop laughing at me." 

He finally managed to slow his laughter, and told me, "I'm here because I found out how Dylan knows Amber." 

I looked at him in disbelief. "Are you serious?" 

"Yeah," he nodded, "Can I come in?"

"Of course," I opened the door wider, so he could step in. "Wait, how did you get my address?" 

"Well, um, your coach gave it to me." 

"Why did you tell her you needed it?" I questioned him. I did not need anybody thinking there was something going on between Jacob and I. 

"She didn't really ask me." He shrugged. 

Fuck. There's no way I won't be questioned about this tomorrow morning. "Alright, well do you want to sit down, I guess?" I felt completely out of my comfort zone. The last time I had a boy at my house was well, never to be completely honest. 

We moved towards the couch and both sat down. 

"So what did you find out about Amber and Dylan?" 

He quickly explained that he had overheard two of Dylan's buddies, Ryan and Blake, in the locker room. Apparently, Amber and Dylan were cousins and Ryan wanted to hook up with Amber, quite desperately. 

"So, does that confirm that it was Dylan?" I asked Jacob. 

"I think it does," he nodded, "I just need to confirm that he's the one who took the pictures of you." 

I shuddered just thinking about it. It hadn't really occurred to me that he had to have seen me to take the pictures. 

I must have made an awful face because Jacob glanced over and asked me what was wrong. Quietly I said, "I just realized he must have seen me in order to take the pictures." 

Jacob shook his head and said, "I can't believe there are people like that in the world. Don't worry, I'll make sure that we catch him, Princess." 

"Why do you even care?" I replied, "You hate me." 

"Listen, I wouldn't let this happen to anybody. And I'm sure as hell not going to play on a hockey team with a guy that would do something like this. It's unsafe for any female to be changing in those locker rooms if there's guys taking pictures of them in there." 

"Yeah, of course." I didn't know why a small part of me, buried deep down, was disappointed that he wasn't doing this for me, but of course he wasn't. I banished the thought from my mind and focused my energy on figuring out how the hell we could prove that Dylan took the pictures. 

All of a sudden, I heard our garage door opening. Oh, no. That meant my mom and most likely my 14 year old brother were home. They had been out of the house this afternoon for a doctor's appointment. 

"Jacob," I hissed, "Leave now or else you're going to have to meet most of my family."

He crossed his arms over his chest and smirked, "No, I think I'd like to meet your family, princess. See what it's like in the Washington household."

I felt the color drain from my cheeks. "No, Jacob, no you really, really don't want to do that." 

"I think I do." He remained sitting on my couch. 

And then, my mom and brother walked in. 

last chapter of today, it's 11:15 pm where i am but i'm in a horrible mood so i wanted to write and feel productive. thanks to everybody for reading :) 

please leave comments with constructive criticism or ideas! always looking to improve, and this is my first story! 

xoxo

dmh 

published: february 02, 2019