Before You Leave

29. Christmas Eve

I literally had two weeks to prepare for the tournament. I spent half of it last week, but it was coming up right after New Years.

It was Christmas Eve, and I should be spending it with Gideon.

Instead, I was practicing with my partner, an exchange student from Washington who came from Russia.

His name was Alexei. He had dirty blonde loose curls and green eyes and almost always wore blue to represent his country.

Our coach, one of the finest in the country, Katrina Hall, has oversaw our routine, but was never satisfied. I can't count how many times the dick Alexei made me fall on my ass.

"No, no, no!" She screamed as we only got a minute into it. I rolled my eyes, nostrils flaring as I crossed my arms and looked at her.

Her face was almost as red as her hair. Alexei scoffed beside me.

"It's not my fault he can't do a simple move right, Mrs. Hall," I grumble, settling my hands on my hips. "You brought in this amateur all the way from Russia for nothing, apparently."

"Amateur?" He laughed from beside me. I pivoted to look at him, careful not to fall. "I think you're too rusty for me, darling," he says, his Russian accent distinct. "I've been doing this all my life and from what I have heard, you've been out of the game too long, sweetheart."

"Oh, so now you're stalking me?" I smirk. "I'm flattered, really."

"Oh, hush!" Mrs. Hall said, silencing his next retort. I spun back around to her. "The problem isn't your techniques. It's your intimacy. Do you two know what this piece is about?" She asks.

When we both said nothing, she sighed.

"It's about a couple who is so in love with each other, yet something keeps them apart." She sounded crazy. Her hands tightened in front of her, as if she was squeezing something. "That is for the watcher to decide what is keeping them apart. Secrets? Lies? Affairs? We do not know. But in the end, all they have is each other. And nothing could ever separate them from one another."

She spoke passionately, but I still didn't know what she wanted of us.

"I've barely spoken to him and you want me to act as if we are intimate? How would we even do that?" I ask. "Not to mention he has, like, no emotion—"

"You show a little too many for my taste, sweetheart—"

"Would you stop calling me that?!"

"That!" She says. "That there. You two have passion— fire. Use that."

I went red. "This is anything but passion. This is hate. Cold blooded hate—"

She waved me off. "I know what will help this piece." She crossed her arms in her black sweatshirt. "You two need to go on a date."

I coughed. "A date? I barely know him! And I have a boyfriend—"

"A date," she sings.

He groans beside me, glaring down at me. "Look, I'm going to do anything for this tournament. I need you to cooperate with me."

I snorted. "Cooperate? With you?" I laughed bitterly. "No thanks."

I started to skate away carefully, almost to the exit. Mrs. Hall already left after her instruction of a date.

"Juliette, why are you doing this?"

I stopped, clutching onto the red railing. I did not turn around. "You know my name?"

He laughed. "It wasn't exactly hard to find. And JJ is just ridiculous," he comments.

I do turn around then, glaring into his green eyes as I scowled.

"Why are you skating?" He asks again, crossing his arms as he waits for my answer.

I sigh. "I'm trying to get my record clean and get a scholarship to my boyfriend's dream college with him."

"Boyfriend's dream college?" He says, narrowing his eyes as he smeared toward me slowly. "Not your own?"

I looked around uncomfortably as I crossed my own arms. "Why does that matter?"

He blinked a few times, as if clearing his mind. "Never mind. No reason. I'll see you tonight. 6:30. I'll pick you up." He went to the exit, pausing outside as he took of his skates. "Don't be late."