Page 66 of Wonderstruck

My mouth gaped as that boyish laughleft his mouth and he hunched over. “Finn Rhodes, I will not allow such a thing.”

He lifted his hands in a ‘what ya gonnado about it’ kind of way, before smiling down at me. “Gotta fight for the lady.”

I didn't know why the thought of Finnfighting for me was as arousing as it was. Ormaybe I did know, but didn't want to think about it when he was standing right in front of me and could probably see the drool hanging from my mouth—

“Aurora?”

Aspen’s voice pulled me out of the slow-motion montage of Finn with his shirtoff, his oiled-up chest glistening in the sunset.

A hopeless romantic can dream, can she not?

I turned around to face her, herexpression unreadable. “Can I talk to you for a moment? Alone?”

Yeah, because that sounds promising.

But I nodded back at her, my head feeling like a bobble doll. “Sure.” I turnedback around to Finn. “I’ll meet you and the others outside in a minute.”

He nodded down at me, probably seeingthe worry in my eyes. “Okay.”

And before I could wonder what he was doing, he leaned down and pulled me into his chest. My breath caught as I realised what was happening. His hands slipped around my shoulders, cradling me into his chest. My soul felt as though he'd struck a match against it. We didn't hug. We weren't even supposed to that day when he helped clear the house. My God, we didn't even sit close when we studied.

So to say I was in a slight state of shock would be an appropriate reason as to why it took so long for me to settle into his hold.

But just when I was figuring out all the ways that this hug felt lightyears better than the last, he let go, his hand trailling down my arm, leaving goosebumps in their path, before he sank into the crowds that were hovering.

He hugged you, Aurora. He didn’tdeclare his undying love for you. Calm down.

I had to close my eyes for a second, suppressing all those feelings to make way for the nervous ones when I turned around and found Aspen again. Quick as anything, she came over to me, pulling me to the edge of the rink before slipping a folded piece of paper out of her back pocket."For you."

I eyed the paper for a second beforeplucking it from her. It felt like theheaviest piece of paper I’d ever had in my hands, and I wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or a bad one. Regardless, I sucked in a breath, drowning out the noise around us and unfolded the page. I was met with grids and numbers and words I didn’t know the meaning of. My eyes scanned frantically, my heartbeat picking up with every unknown word.

Until I read the results at the very bottomof the page.

I felt the world fall off its axis when Iread—

Saint merde.1

“I got a junior pass.”

I looked up at Aspen, her unreadablelook from before switched for a smile, one that told me she probably knew I'd passed before I did.

I looked back down to the sheet again.

Junior Pass.

My chest began to heave, the questionsstacking up in my mind so fast that I didn’tknow which one to start with.

My eyes met Aspens again. “What…”The shakes in my voice were too intense. “What does that—”

“It means you can compete.” I felt myeyes widen. “A junior pass is what skaters need to compete. If you want to.”

The room spun for a moment. “Compete,” I repeated, my mouth doingits own thing. “Like, seriously compete? As in costumes and privates and—”

“Regionals.” Aspen’s head bobbed to theside, her face quirking. “And then sectionals, and then Olympic tryouts, and before you know it you’ll be a Team USA champion.”

Oh God. Was I ready for that?

“So…” I cleared my head for a moment,trying to make sense of all this. “Whatwould that mean? If I wanted to compete?”

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