Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Shortly before I leave for practice I receive a text from Scott:

SCOTT: Do you want me to drive you in?

ISABELLA: Sure

SCOTT: B there in 10.

I rush around my room collecting everything I need for the day.

Mom pokes her head out of their bedroom, “I’ll be ready in a minute.” “No need,” I stop her in her tracks, “Scott’s taking me.”

“That’s wonderful Honey, I hope you have a good session.” “Thanks,” I say dismissively, “bye!” By the time I’m downstairs,

Scott’s Mercedes is pulling into the driveway. I open the car door letting myself in, “Good morning,” I greet.

“Good morning,” he greets me. He has this raw sex appeal to me that I try to ignore, but every time I see him, he just blows me away.

He places his arm on the back of my chair while he turns his body to reverse out of my driveway. I don’t move.

He shifts into drive and returns his arm to the back of my headrest like we are a couple or something, honestly the audacity of him!

I freeze on the spot making sure I don’t lean back into his hand, waiting for him to move it. He doesn't. This creepy electric feeling fills the car. His hand intentionally touches my hair. “What are you doing?” I ask.

“Driving,” he answers sarcastically.

“You’re touching my hair.” “It's soft,” he compliments.

“We’re not on the ice, or in the public eye. You can’t just cop a feel,” I admonish.

“Touching your hair isn’t ‘copping a feel’” he says sarcastically. “If I wanted to cop a feel I will do more than just grab a lock of your hair.”

“What will you do?” I ask curiously.

“Grab you and force you to kiss. The coach told us to get familiar with each other.”

“He didn’t mean that way,” I argue.

An unsettling warm feeling starts coursing through my body. Not only does he not release the lock of my hair he’s holding between his fingers, but he also starts playing with it, twisting it around his fingertips. I pull away from him making the strand slip from his grasp and he rebelliously grabs more. His effect on me isn’t anything I can control, I find myself getting all hot and bothered by him.

I stare straight out the windshield ignoring him, but I’m not really, because I love the feel of having my hair played with and I don’t know it until now. I close my eyes for a second to savor it not knowing he is looking at me, but he is, and he can tell I love it. We drive the rest of the way in silence. He never releases my hair, it's like he is proving a point.

Scott parks the car and carries both our bags into the rink only stopping when we arrive at the senior lady's change room. He places my bag over my shoulder, and then opens the door for me saying, “I’ll see you on the ice.” He turns without looking back.

I’m out on the ice first stroking around when I feel his presence beside me. He wraps his arm around my waist when we heard Coach Tammy call out, “That’s it you two, start warming up!”

I can smell Scott’s perfume mixing in with the scent of the cold familiar ice rink, together they are intoxicating. I convince myself it’s just the rink scent that I like.

When we finish warming up, Coach Tammy waves us back, “I want you guys to do side-by-side double axels, and I don’t want you any farther from each other than six feet.” It is the same jump I injured myself on, only with one less revolution in the air.

I look warily into Scott’s eyes as we skate away from Coach Tammy. He mouths to me, “We’ve got this,” as he takes my hand and we pick up speed, he releases me a second before we step into our side-by-side double axels, throwing my free leg up into the air and beginning rotations tightly, it feels right. We land perfectly side by side. I release a deep sigh of relief as I grin ear to ear with excitement. I did it!

We skate back to Coach Tammy, Scott pulling off his hoodie as we arrive, “Good job, but next time I want you guys closer to each other. Try it again.” We repeat the jump, but this time Scott is much more naked, and we are afoot closer. “Much Better! I want you guys to practice that at this afternoon's skating session when I’m not here.”

“Sure,” Scott reassures.

Coach Tammy takes a drink of his coffee while we wait for him to tell us what he wants us to do next. “Scott, I want you to bring her into a right inside edge death spiral.”

I have seen them done before in competitions, so I sort of knew the positions my body is expected to contort into. Scott nods as he takes my hand preparing for the spin. He assumes a pivot position and holds me with his right hand spinning me in large circles as I start lowering my body parallel with the ice. “Lower, lower, lower,” Coach Tammy instructs.

We practice that five or six more times, the entire time our coach is yelling at me to go lower. Scott is encouraging me to follow Coach Tammy's instructions, but he isn’t the one being put into the compromising position. If I fall or he lets go of me, it will be my head on that hard ice surface, not his.

“You’re going to have to work on that, you’re still too high,” Coach Tammy says. The sound of the Zamboni’s motor turns over and the music stops. Our session is done. “Good job today,” Coach Tammy congratulates us. We rush to our dressing rooms to shower and change for school.

When we got back into the car, Scott’s arm goes back on my headrest as he backs out of his spot, but this time he doesn’t leave it there. I turn his stereo on and we listen to the traffic and weather on NTA news before Scott turns it off, “I need you to know something,” Scott says.

“What’s that?” I ask.

His expression grows serious and his dark chocolate eyes lock on mine, he grabs my hand firmly, “I won’t let anything happen to you when we’re together, you can trust me completely. You have to trust me, with lifts, throws, everything.”

“It’s not something that comes easily for me. I’ve never had to trust anyone so blindly before, but I’ll try.” I promise.

Scott pulls into the school parking lot and parks right next to Michael’s Mercedes, AGAIN. This time I notice him in the car, waiting. My heart begins crashing into my ribcage at phenomenal rates of speed. The confrontation is inevitably going to happen since I haven’t built up the nerve or found the time to come clean with Scott, but I don’t want it to happen now. I have to prevent this!

We all get out of the car at the same time. Scott comes to my side and places his arm over my shoulders. His muscle is pushing into the back of my neck, and this time it feels uncomfortable, but I don’t move. Deadlocked, Michael stares us down expecting something to happen. I assumed he is waiting for Scott to remove his arm, but he doesn’t.

Michael looks at me, “You told me HE knows.” “You are?” Scott asks Michael.

“Isabella ’s BOYFRIEND!” Michael informs him.

Scott turns to me, “You told us you don’t have one. You gave me your word before we agreed to this.”

“Who’s us?” presses Michael.

“None of your fucking business,” Scott snaps.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you,” I try explaining to Scott. “Why do you care if I have a boyfriend anyway? It doesn’t bother me if you have a girlfriend,” I argue.

“It bothers me because I’ve trained my entire life for a chance to compete at this level, and I’m not wasting my time with someone who doesn’t want it as badly as I do. There’s no room for divided loyalties in this partnership. It has to mean everything to you the way it does to me or it’s not going to work. So, it’s either him or me.”

“That’s not fair,” I balk.

Scott removes his arm from my shoulders and walks away not looking back.

“I warned you,” Michael reminds me. He places his arm around my shoulders and escorts me to devotion.