Page 22 of The Flirty Forward

“Yeah, no more crowds today,” she says with a shudder.

“I’m so sorry, Brielle.”

“Stop apologizing, Steph. It’s not your fault.”

Though I feel like it is, I don’t say anything else. We’re both quiet as we make the trip to their practice arena. Brielle’s ID pass that Aiden got her gets us past security and into the parking lot where I pull up to the curb to let Brielle off. She waves me on. “I’ll just walk with you.”

“I was just going to stay in the car,” I tell her.

She faces me. “No, you’re not. Aiden will want to see that you’re okay too.”

“It’s cute that you think he sees anybody but you.”

She shakes her head. “Come on. Park and we can go in.” I’m too tired to argue, so I park in one of the closest spots. I climbout of the car. “Bri!” I walk over to her and stare at the scratch across her cheek. “Did that happen when you got pushed?”

She puts her hand on it and scowls. “Yeah. Those idiots.” I open my mouth to apologize. “Don’t say it, Steph. You look just as bad, you know.”

“Thanks, Bestie.” I follow Brielle into the building, not particularly looking forward to what’s coming. Aiden is going to lose his mind when he sees Brielle.

It takes us a few minutes to make it through the large building and into the arena. When we get inside, I shiver and wish I would have left my jacket on. I took it off because I got warm in the car. Now, I’m just wearing a short-sleeved blouse—not one of my brightest moments. Iforget how cold they keep it in here because of the ice. We walk down the steps towards the ice where you can’t hear much over the shouting and the scraping of skates against the ice. Aiden sees us coming and immediately changes direction. He comes to a stop, his eyes locked on Brielle. I watch as his eyes scan over her face, and his scowl deepens. Before he says anything, Sebastian skates over to us and stops next to Aiden.

He takes in Brielle’s face and then turns to me. “What happened to you two?”

I laugh. I can’t help it. “What happened? What happened, Sebastian, is that we had a run-in with all those idiots at my school that you sent there!”

Aiden and Brielle move away from us, and I’m left with Sebastian. Weariness overtakes me. “Just go back to your practice.” I go to turn away, when a hand on my forearm stops me.

“Stephanie.” Sebastian’s tone is serious. “Did they do this to you?”

I see him looking at my arm, and I rotate it so I can see what he’s looking at. There’s already a bruise forming on myarm. “What about ‘we had a run-in with the idiots at our school’ didn’t you understand, Sebastian?” I try to pull my arm out of his grasp, but he doesn’t let me.

“What happened?” he asks again. I glance up at his face because he doesn’t sound how he usually sounds. In fact, there’s not an ounce of a smile on his face right now. He looks hard. And mad. And that’s not a look I’ve ever seen on him before.

Chapter 8

Stephanie

“Stephanie, what happened?” he asks slowly this time.

I jerk my arm away from him, and this time he lets go. “There were too many of them. They swarmed us, and we got tripped up in the crowd, okay? They knocked out Brielle’s glucose monitor and scratched her face. She got hurt because of me, and now Aiden’s going to rip me a new one because I let that happen to her. That's whathappened, okay?” My voice breaks, and I hate it. I swallow and look away.

“Stephanie, I—”

A voice cuts off whatever it was he was going to say. “Hart, get over here!”

I glance over and see it’s his coach yelling at him. Sebastian doesn’t even acknowledge him. “Stephanie, look at me,” he says.

But I don’t. “Your coach is calling for you,” I say with no emotion.

“Stephanie,” he says again.

“You’d better go.”

“Stephanie, Baby, look at me. Please.” His term of endearment surprises me, and I look up. He stares down at me. “I am so sorry.” He’s more serious than I’ve ever seen him. “I will take care of this, okay?”

“Hart!” His coach bellows.

I step back. “You better go.” I turn and walk back up the steps. I can feel his eyes burning a hole into my back, but I don’t turn back. I’m confused and unsteady, something I’m not used to feeling. When I get to the top of the steps, I turn and look backat the ice. Sebastian and Aiden are back on the ice. I watch as Aiden slams Sebastian into the boards. I wince and turn away.Yeah, he’s mad.Just before I turn away, I watch as Sebastian slams Aiden into the boards. My eyes widen when Aiden turns on him. Before they can go at it, their teammates slide between them and push them away from each other. I stare, wide-eyed.

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