Ice Queen

Chapter 6 ~ "Don't push it"

Nate

Sabrina is driving me up the wall. I'm this close to killing me or her, I can't take one more second of whining and complaining. I miss when life was so normal when I wouldn't have to think about my girlfriend before I did anything.

She was currently angry because I hadn't defended her honour at the diner the other night. I've never seen Sasha lay into someone like that. And the stuff she was saying was alarmingly true. About how Sabrina pretends to be important and special.

I was starting to really hate dating Sabrina, it just wasn't worth the headache anymore. She invited me to another family dinner tonight but I told her I couldn't go. My plan for the evening was just to walk around and try to clear my head a bit.

I walk until I come up on a coffee shop. I'm about to keep walking when I see a beautiful blonde girl in the window. Sasha's here.

I practically run into the shop getting a black coffee. It seems like she's doing homework but I can't help myself. Even if she yells at me to get away from her and leave her alone at least she'll be talking to me.

"Hey Sash." I say and she looks up with a blank look. She's always so unreadable, stoic.

"Nathan." She says quietly and focuses her attention back to her homework.

"We keep running into each other." I say and she rolls her eyes.

"I saw you double back and come in here." She says sounding unimpressed. "You're not a slick as you think you are."

"Not trying to be, I was just out for a walk." I say and she nods. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm studying." She says. "Dad thought my performance in rehearsal was adequate today so he let me go out tonight. By myself, to a coffee shop, to study." I nod and take a drink of coffee cringing at the taste.

"I blew off my dinner with Sabrina's parents." I tell her and she nods.

"Good for you." She mumbles looking at her laptop again.

"What are you working on?" I ask and she sighs.

"I'm um....doing research." She says and turns her screen to show a video of a girl skating. "I really want to land a triple axel." I smile and look over at her notebook.

I remember her telling me how badly she wanted to be good enough one day for that. I thought she already was.

"Right, I remember." I tell her and she nods tucking a piece of loose hair behind her ear. 

"Can I ask you a question?" She asks and I nod, excited she now actually wanted to ask me something. "Do you think I'm too stiff?"

"What?" I ask with a small laugh and she sighs.

"Kate says I'm stiff." She huffs. "I want to improve artistically but what if I just can't?" 

I didn't know how to answer that question it seemed like a trick. I say yes and I'm insulting her, I say no and I'm lying.

"I think you take this really seriously." I tell her and she nods not lifting her eyes from the paper. "The other night, when I was watching you....you had this blank expression. I can see you concentrating. But when you skated on Thursday with your own music, taking your hair out and doing your own thing. That was amazing." She looks up and meets my eyes for the first time in the conversation. "Sash, you do this the best when you're not overthinking."

"Thanks for being honest." She says quietly and starts writing down more notes.

"I think you can improve. You said what if you can't, you can. I've seen you do unnatural tricks and jumps in just a few weeks time." She shrugs and I sigh.