The New Boy

Chapter 24

The following Wednesday, Henry and I went out to ice-skating for his birthday. It was his eighteenth birthday and well, his first birthday with me so I took him out.

I asked my mom for the cash.  After Kylie dropped me off at my house, I went up to my mom's room and said, "mommy can I please have some cash."

"What for?" She asked nonchalantly.

"I want to take Henry out to the ice skating rink, he is turning eighteen today."

"Oh well, if it's for Henry, here you go." What did that even mean? So when I ask for cash, I should always use Henry as an excuse because my mom seemed to like him. She gave me the money and I changed my shoes and went over to Henry's. I rang the doorbell and in split seconds, he opened, as if he was expecting me- which he wasn't by the way.

"Hi you, get into something warm, we are going ice skating." I said enthusiastically.

"Why?"

"It's your freaking birthday mister. It's a school night so hurry up." He immediately rushed upstairs to change and I waited in the living room.

Kylie could not come with because she had to go out with her sister for some manicures, and whatever girly activities they wanted to do.  I would rather ice skate and hit my head on the ice than do that.

Henry came back a few minutes later with warmer clothes. We got into his car and drove off to the mall.  We got to the rink and exchanged our shoes for the skates.

For the first few minutes I stayed near the wall, cautiously skating. Henry was unbelievably good at it. He held my hand so that I could go with him to the middle of the rink. I had no idea why I chose to go ice skating instead of rollerblading.

Although it should not be that hard. I tried to keep my balance as I followed behind Henry. He showed me how to move my feet but then I said, "I know how to move my feet, it's keeping steady that I'm worried about."

"Don't overthink it," he said.

I wasn't overthinking it.  Right, left, right, left, I moved my feet in a very slow motion. And when I was getting the hang of it, I tried to go a little bit faster.

"You're doing it." He said, clapping his hands.

I think I made the mistake of looking at the back to him because that's when I slipped and fell on my butt. I propped against my hands. Cold. Cold. Cold. So freaking cold! Why didn't I wear gloves? I lifted my hands from the ice and wiped them with my sweater. Henry rushed to me and started laughing really hard. I pouted and told him that he was going to regret it, but that did not stop him. I folded my hands on my chest like a little girl that's upset.

"Would you just help me get up and stop laughing." I said, holding out my hand for him to pull. As he brought his hand forward, he was trying so hard not to laugh. I rolled my eyes at him.

He reached out again and our hands touched. Woah! I flinched and jerked my hand away.

"What?"

"Nothing." I reached out my hand again and our hands touched and I got the same kind of sensation. The part where our hands made contact was the starting point of electricity rushing through me. That was really weird. I looked up at Henry and suddenly his grey eyes caused some type of movement in my stomach. I could not explain it but it was freaking the hell out of me. He pulled me up, it was so quick that I lost my balance again and fell onto him. I swear my pulse quickened from that and I found it very weird. What the heck was happening?

I ignored it and went on to skate with Henry.

After skating, Henry and I went out to a steakhouse and had all the steak in the world. I ate it like it was my last meal on earth or like it was my birthday. I liked the fact that Henry was enjoying himself. He smiled from his eyes and he looked adorable. I was so glad that I could make his birthday great.

After eating, it was already seven in the evening, so we decided to go home. I was glad that he did not choose to get birthday sex from one of his girls, and instead he spent his birthday with me. We were best friends after all.

He dropped me off at my house. Before I even opened the door, I heard my parents arguing. I had never heard them argue before and it was damn loud. I got startled by a glass breaking and my heart pounded against my chest so hard that I felt a bit of pain right there. My eyelids pricked with tears. I knew couples fought but for my family, that was new or maybe I had just never witnessed it. That day was the very first time and it broke my heart to pieces.

I eavesdropped to hear what they were arguing about but their voice weren't quite clear.

"You fucking cheated, how could you?" I heard my mother say and I swear my heart stopped beating for a split second. I tried to blink the tears away but they managed to escape my eyes and rashly make their way down my cheeks like a non-stop flowing river. I put my hand on my mouth hoping that it would stifle my sobs.

"I hate you, I hate you." My mother shouted again after a while.

"If you hadn't nagged me all the time, maybe I wouldn't have gone out and cheated. I find it very ironic that you only see my mistakes but never see yours." My dad said. He was not even feeling sorry about it.

I did not want to listen anymore. I wanted to get out of that place. I would go to Kylie but she had a lot on her plate with everything that was happening with Tim and well I would not want to interrupt her time with Kim. I would also go to Henry but it was his birthday and he can't be fixing my problems on his birthday. My anti-social skills seemed to be working out for me at that point, yes that's straight up sarcasm. I only had two friends and I could not go to either of them for help.

Janine! She was an irrelevant person to turn to but at that point I needed someone to talk to. I then remembered that I did not have her number so my idea was useless. What then?

My vision was blurred by the tears in my eyes. I decided to walk to the park, even though it was dark. I hoped that walking would clear my mind.

I heard the tension and intensity behind my mother's tone when she swore at my dad for cheating on her. Thinking about it caused a sudden gush of pain to jolt through my body. The tears would not stop flowing. Everything around me seemed blurred and the focus was on the sad girl walking on the street alone. At that moment I did not know what was going through my mind. I lost the respect I had for my father.

How could he cheat? My mother had been nothing but good to him. I could not believe that that whole time I thought that my parents were happily in love for the past eighteen years and the love still flew the craziest sparks ever. But I guess I was wrong.

I thought my dad was happy with my mom, after what I heard him say, it did not seem like it.

"Navia." There was only one person who called me Navia and I did not want to disturb his day with my problems. I was really hoping to avoid him. I should have taken the longer route and not passed by his house. I walked faster and did not respond but he called again, this time he was running to me. I wiped the tears quickly before he could notice that I was crying.

"Navia?" He said softly. "Are you okay?" He placed his hand on my shoulder and I felt a chill run down my spine, again, weird.

"Yea. Yea, I'm okay. You?"

"Where are you going so late?"

"The park. It's not late." I chuckled.

"For a girl like you to walk alone, of course it is."

"Well, I'm going to go now. Enjoy the rest of your day Henry." I tried to walk away but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him, can somebody tell me why I felt a movement in my tummy? It was just Henry. And why did my breath just quicken.

"Let's go inside." He said and after a little bit of hesitation, I followed him inside.

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