Chapter 84: Chapter 84

Nate's POV

" Ethan, I feel dizzy..let's...let's sit down for a while ?", I finally ask Ethan. It's almost two minutes since we are spinning continuously.

" Yeah..", Ethan nod and stops spinning. I feel like everything rotating around me. And then Ethan almost lose balance and starts to fall down but I clutch his hands tightly and quickly skate with him to the edge and makes him sit down, quickly slumping down beside him.

"Michael, I feel like the whole rink rotating around me.", He says holding his head with his both hands.

" Same..", I laugh. " Just close your eyes for sometime.", I say and close my eyes.

“ I don’t like you Gavin !”

I open my eyes at Grace's voice and I find her standing beside me clutching onto the railing whilst watching Gavin doing circles by the rink, leaving her to skate by her own. Gavin just chuckles at her in response.

" Huh..? I seriously don't like you.", she yells as Gavin keeps on skating without coming to help her, as she still can't skate properly on her own.

Gavin finally turns and laughs looking at her. “ C'mon..skate.”, he says.

“ Can’t you see I can’t fucking do it ?”, she asks furiously. Gavin laughs at her whilst skating towards her. Someone else who is sitting beside me also starts laughing and I tilt my face to see his eyes crinkling at the corners as he laughs watching Gavin and Grace bickering between each other, standing beside me.

Grace finally takes Gavin's hands and they starts slowly skating around the rink back and forth.

" They are cute, right ?", Ethan asks me. I nod to him.

Ethan let's out a chuckle every time Grace slips up and makes her grip a bit more tight on Gavin's hands. I can't also help but laugh watching them.

After sometime Grace gets the hang of it and starts feeling confident that she won’t fall. She relaxes herself and starts enjoying the experience. “ Gavin..now leave my one hand. Let me see whether I can balance.”, she says.

Gavin smiles and slowly withdraw his one hand. Grace smiles wide as she finds she can now balance better. She starts squealing and laughing in joy whilst skating faster along with Gavin around the rink.

" C'mon...let's also skate.", Ethan says standing up holding onto the railing. I nod and quickly stand up, grabbing his hands. Then we starts skating again hand in hand. We do a round around the rink, watching Grace and Gavin and the other couples inside the ring.

And then we starts spinning again, holding each other’s hands. Ethan is no longer scared. He laughs hysterically, shouting out my name occasionally. My lungs and stomach aches as I laugh along with him.

After sometime, when we are about to stop spinning, Grace and Gavin who were skating around the rink, joins us and we all starts rotating in a big circle of four, holding each other's hands.

We skate like that for a while, before starting to do rounds around the rink in pair. Grace and Gavin in the front and I and Ethan following them. We do a few rounds before Gavin and Grace stops skating and turns around to us.

" Nate, let's find out who among you two can skate faster.", Grace says. Ethan excitedly nods to her.

"Definitely he will win.", Gavin says.

" C'mon..do it first.", Grace whines.

" Yeah..okay. I'm ready.", he says.

" I'm also ready.", I say.

And then Ethan and Grace frees our hands and slumps down on the edge while I and Gavin take position standing with a little gap between us.

"Okay, ready 3..2...1..go ! ", Grace yells and we both starts skating fast.

Soon Gavin is far behind me and I win the first round. We does a few more rounds and in all laps, I win. But by the fifth round, he gains real speed and it becomes hard to beat him. He wants to beat me at least once and we continue to skate while Ethan and Grace sits on the edge and cheers for us.

" Alright...now it's a tie.", Grace says after the eighth round. "  You two are really good at this.", she declares clapping her hands, putting an end to our competition.

" But I didn't win even once.", Gavin sighs and slumps down beside Grace, tired. " And look at him. He is still so energetic. He is so much better than me in this. Nate, I'm impressed."

I smile at him. But I feel sad inside. He is already impressed seeing my poor skating skills. What would have he said if he saw Alex skating ? He was a skating pro and it's because of him I took an interest in skating.

" Nate, now show us that dance.", Grace then says excitedly.

" Wh..what dance ?", I ask in shock.

" The dance you said you performed on skates.", she says.

" oh no ! It was while I was in m..middle school. I forgot it Grace.", I immediately say.

" Okay, then just show us something. It doesn't necessarily need to be that dance itself. Just dance to this song.", Ethan suggests referring to the new slow melody that is playing in the rink. Again ! Again he took yesterday's trick.

" Yeah..do something.", Gavin also demands.

I look at the people skating around me. How am I gonna dance in front of all these people ? No !

" C'mon..Michael. No body here knows you. Just do it.", Ethan forces me with his pleading look.

"Okay, don't make fun of me if it flop or I fall down.", I say. Shit ! Why did I agree ?

"Pinky Promise we won't. ", Grace quickly says. Anything to make me dance.

I unbutton the heavy fur jacket I was wearing and take it off. A cold wave hit my body making a shiver run down my spine. But I anyway throw the jacket to Ethan along with my gloves and then skate a bit away from them, taking position. I stay like that for a moment, trying to remember some of the moves from that dance, four years back. I remember Alex teaching it to me at the skating rink nearby our house.

Thinking about Alex, I involuntarily start moving to the song that was playing. My body swings side to side along with the music. Then I jump into the air thinking how much Alex used to praise me when I learn steps fast and do it correctly. Landing a flutz, I look at Ethan and see him looking at me with a proud smile on his lips.

Doing a foot sequence, I carry on to doing falling leaf which I still remember vividly from the middle school dance. But I think now I did it with more perfection than I had done when I was young. I followed it by a stag jump and a few movements of the arms and hip before spinning in a rapid speed. I catch Gavin and Grace looking at me with open mouth as I stop spinning and do triple salchows. I can't remember anymore steps so I quickly finish with a Y spin and bows down just like I did in the stage at the end of my dance.

Suddenly I hear a lot of loud claps and I bend up surprised. It isn't just from Ethan, Gavin and Grace. But almost all the people in the rink are clapping their hands, flashing their smiles at me. Only then I becomes aware of the fact that all these people were watching me dance. Even the few elderly people who are sitting in the stadium are clapping.

I feel myself blushing all over seeing all these people smile at me. My hands involuntarily move to cover my face as Ethan, Gavin and Grace squeals, praising me. But soon I start shivering from the cold.

The next moment Ethan throws my jacket to Gavin and he comes speedily skating to me and wraps the jacket around me. Ethan soon gets up from the edge and manages to skate to me with my gloves. He holds on to Gavin with his one hand and helps me wear the jacket properly. After that he hands me my gloves and once I quickly wear it with his help, he grabs my hands and skates with me to the edge.

An hour later at almost 5 PM, we are sitting in a restaurant, ten minutes away from the Ice rink, sipping on a cup of hot coffee. I sneezed a few times after we got out of the rink and all the time during the drive to here, a very much concerned Ethan was rubbing my arms and face in the back seat, scolding me about taking off my jacket and gloves. He was making me blush all over, touching me everywhere. I think he just used the chance to touch and stroke me.

" Didn't I tell you guys that hot coffee would work ? Now his face isn't that red.", Grace says sipping on her coffee. Thank God she thinks my face was red because of the cold.

But Gavin chuckles at her and shakes his head, informing me that he clearly knows the reason for my blush. This is so embarrassing !

" Baby, do you think you will catch a cold or something?", Ethan asks me with concern

Wait ! Oh my freaking spinach ! Tell me he just didn't call me baby in front of Gavin and Grace.

" No. I'm a..alright. Shut up ! ", I tell him. Grace and Gavin are sitting opposite to me controlling a smile. But Grace can't control anymore as I look away awkwardly and soon she chokes on her coffee and starts coughing, leading Gavin to turn to her and pat on her head whilst laughing.

Oh my God ! I just want to dig a hole under this table and burry myself into it.

“ Are we going back to dorm now ?”, Ethan then asks, looking at Gavin.

“No it’s only 5. Shall we go for a movie ?”, he asks.

“ Yeah..okay.”, Both Grace and Ethan nods. I don’t really want to go. Cause it’s always Gavin or Ethan who pays for the tickets. And today Gavin might have paid a lot to get tickets to the rink. I'm not used to this much luxury- I mean going out to movies and lunch and different places everyday with friends, that too without spending a single penny from my pocket. And I'm insecure about the fact that I'm the poor guy among us four.

“ Between what are we doing this weekend ? No one's going home, right ?”, Gavin asks.

“ Oh..no I'm going. I'll head to home soon after class tomorrow.”, Ethan replies. He is going ??

“ Really Ethan ? Are you kidding us ?”, Grace asks.

“ No. I'm going. Tomorrow is my Mom’s birthday. So I'm getting her a cake and a birthday present.”, he says.

“ Oh..I see.”, Grace nods. “ Then why you hurried to move Nate to your room ? Now he is gonna be alone when you leave, right ?”

“Oh..! “, Ethan gasps. Seems like he is thinking about me only now.

Seeing his earlier excitement in packing my stuff and then arranging it in our new room, I thought he is going to stay this weekend.

“ It’s okay. He will sleep in our room. Warden isn’t gonna come and check.”, Gavin says.

“ No..I'm really okay with staying alone in dorm. Before Grace came, I was alone. No need to worry about me.”, I quickly say.

“ Yeah... I know. We just want to keep you in company.”, Grace says and gives me a small smile. I nod to her in response.

“ Okay then c'mon...let’s now head to movie.”, Gavin says and stands up.

Ethan grabs my hands as soon as I get up from my seat. I feel sad as we walk out of the cafe, hand in hand. The reason for my sadness worries me more.

Now I don’t want to stay away from Ethan for even two days ? It was yesterday we entered into a kind of dating deal, right ? Where is this going and where will this end up?