Thick Ice

The Prissy Skaters

"Ah, come on." Theo sighs. "Please tell me you haven't forgotten about our date!"

My eyes flick around between the trees and him. Is this for real? Like, is this actually happening right now?

He takes my silence as a cue to keep talking. "Oh, it's okay. It's not like you, I don't know, pantsed me in front of an entire audience." The end of his words carry a higher pitch, almost like he's asking me about that horrid event, instead of telling me about it. Believe me, I wish it was a question just so I could deny it. Nope. Not me. Wrong girl. Sorry.

Instead, I merely wince. "Sorry about that."

With a wide grin, he stands up straighter. "So you do remember me." A short pause. "And our date."

I shrug. "Hey man, it was embarrassing for me too. It's not necessarily something I try to remember often."

At this, his eyebrows scrunch together. Then, what looks to be an expression of pure confusion slowly shifts to a smug face. "Who said it was embarrassing for me?"

What? I can only blink as I try to process what he's getting at. When I finally gather my words, the ones that manage to come out are, "The fact that you were standing with your pants around your ankles in front of, like, fifty people."

He scoffs and waves his hand. "Please. They loved the view. If anything, they should have been thanking you."

Oh, so he has turned cocky. As if I need another Alec in my life.

"Sadie!" a voice calls out. I look around and can't spot anyone, but by now, I know the voice. Within moments, Landon has skipped out of the darkness, dragging Lauren behind him. "There you are– right where we left ya'."

Lauren rolls her eyes at him. "Where else would she be?"

"Well, I don't know. Somewhere that's not right here, maybe?" His voice reeks of a sarcastic tone, and his slugged posture only makes him seem more childish. When he spots Theo a few feet away, he turns back to me and says, "You ready to head back?"

Even though it's really subtle, I still manage to catch Lauren's sideways, weary stare at the boy in front of me. Then, she says, "Yeah, I'm beat."

Oh man, it doesn't take a lot of effort to read the room right now. Even Theo, for whatever reason, starts to back up, like prey from a snarling wolf. But there isn't any wolf. It's just Landon and Lauren, so I don't understand what all of this is about.

Whatever it is, it makes Theo offer me one last smirk. "See you around, Sadie."

Once he's far enough away that he can't hear anything, I stalk towards the pair. "What the hell was that about?"

Landon just shakes his head and lightly pushes against my back, towards the area where we entered the bonfire at. "Nothing, don't worry about it."

I look to Lauren for any more details, but she just looks away, not wanting to let up.

Not even later that night, after I've dropped Landon off at his house and it's just her and I in my truck, does she confess anything. "It's really nothing, Sadie. I wouldn't think too much about it," she tells me.

My shoulders rise and then fall as I take a deep breath. I absolutely hate it when I'm told what to do, or what to think. There's clearly something going on between Theo and those two. The tension between the three was clear as daylight. It was enough for Landon to want to leave, even though we weren't there for that long.

When Lauren hops out of the passenger side door, thanking me for the ride tonight, I don't immediately drive off. I wait for her to close the front door of her house behind her and even then, I sit there for a bit, thinking about the night.