Picks & Pucks (18 page)

Ten minutes later, she herded us to her car and we drove to the rink, listening to her mumble about being an idiot. She got out of the car and disappeared into the arena before Eli unbuckled his seatbelt.

“She’s a little tense,” he said.

I snorted and headed to the locker room to change clothes.

“How much time now?” Janae asked for the three-hundredth time.

Eli dragged his phone out of his pocket and checked the time, telling her it was still another twenty minutes.

“Do you have everything?” Janae snapped at me.

“Er? Well, let’s see?” I glanced at my skates. “Yes, I’m fully clothed and I have skates on. I’m good.”

“Good, good,” Janae said. “I’m going to the ice. It’s too hot in here.”

She fanned herself and left Eli and me sitting in the small locker room.

“We better go with her. She’s losing it,” Eli said. He helped me stand, and we walked down the tunnel. I could see the light of the arena, smell the ice, and feel the temperature dropping. My skates felt heavy, and I wobbled like a child standing up for the first time. But the first time I’d stood on skates, my mother had been there with a reassuring hand. I was thankful for Janae and Eli, but sometimes a guy needed his mother.

“I think I’m going to puke,” I said.

“No time,” Eli said.

“Right.”

“Hey, look who’s here,” Eli said as we stepped into the bench area.

“She’s early?” I gasped. A wave of dizziness rushed through me, and it felt like my blood was draining out of my body. I glanced at the ground to make sure I wasn’t bleeding out.

“No, up in the stands,” Eli said.

I followed Eli’s extended arm and saw CJ, along with Spock, Kris, and Bones. They all waved. Eli waved back.

“You have groupies. Wave to the nice hockey boys,” Eli said. He grabbed my arm and shook it. CJ wiggled his fingers. Bones and Spock saluted me. Kris grinned.

“I’m still going to puke,” I muttered.

“Is she here yet?” Janae asked in a high-pitched tone that made the hair on my neck stand up. “She’s going to kill us. My career is going to be over before it starts. I think I’m going to barf.”

“Everybody stop talking about barf,” Eli snapped. I leaned on the boards, muttering to myself and taking deep breaths. Eli dragged the garbage can closer to the ice.

“Just in case,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“Fuck, now it’s getting to me,” Eli whispered. “She’s going to blame me, and after she dismantles me, she’s going to toss everything into the dark murky waters of the river. The catfish will eat me.”

“That sounds about right,” Janae mumbled and continued to pace. “You should warm up or something.”

I almost stepped on the ice with my skate guards still on my blades. Eli snickered and helped me get them off. I took a few laps and did some jumps. A warm caress of air across my cheek made me smile, and some of the pressure rolled off my shoulders. Ten seconds later, the demons blasted me with cold air, and I popped a triple loop.

“Not a big deal,” Eli said. I glared at him and paled when I saw a short woman with dark hair emerge from the tunnel.

“Hello,” Marina said.

Janae almost jumped out of her skin. She punched Eli on the arm, and he flinched.

“What was that for?” he asked, rubbing his bicep. He saw me skating toward them and held up his hands. “Just do it now so we don’t have any awkward staring moments.”

Janae scampered over to the sound system, and I struck a pose. When I nodded, she hit Play, and I let the music carry me.

The program still needed polishing, but we had the bones laid out, and already it looked better than my original long program. I only hoped Marina would agree. My jumps were bang on, and I only lost concentration once when I heard CJ yell after I nailed a triple flip, triple toe.

When the music stopped, I was pleased with the performance and grinned into my hand when I heard my cheering section clapping and whistling. Having hockey boys cheering instead of heckling was weird. I wondered where Danny was and what he would think if he found out part of his posse came to watch me skate. CJ clenched his fist, shaking it in the air, and like a total idiot I bowed.

Marina cleared her throat and beckoned me. I flinched and slowly skated to her. Eli handed me a bottle of water and drifted into the background.

“Hello, Justin,” Marina said. “You are looking well.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You too, uh, look well, I mean.” I chewed on my lip and waited for the shit to hit the fan. The demons sat down, occupying the entire bench, and watched with great interest. I wanted to tell them all to fuck off.

“Am I to understand this is a new long program?”

“Um, yes?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Both? Oh God, Marina, I know it’s stupid, but I wasn’t feeling the old program, and Eli brought me this music, and it all clicked into place. I know it’s crazy, but I love it, and we’re changing the short program too.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, waiting for the kiss of death.

“And what do you think?” Marina asked Janae.

“I think my brother is completely insane, but it’s the right thing to do.” She reached for my hand and squeezed so hard my bones felt like they were disintegrating.

“And you?” Marina turned to Eli, who was standing at the far corner of the bench.

“Me?” Eli squeaked.

“Yes, what music do you have for the short program?”

“A mix from the
Harry Potter
movies.”

“May I hear it?”

Eli dug in my skate bag and handed Marina a disc. She gave it to Janae, who popped it into the player. The familiar music from the popular movie filled the arena. It moved me to the ice, and soon I was flying across the rink.

“Sorry,” I said breathlessly.

“Do not apologize, Justin. We have the start of a wonderful program. Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of time to bring them to perfection. I am going to demand hard work from all three of you.”

“All three?” Eli piped up.

“Yes, you need to be part of his team. I do not know if it is because you know him or you have a natural talent for picking music to fit the skater. You have the makings of an excellent choreographer.”

“He’s a natural talent,” Janae said.

Eli stared wide-eyed at Marina before excusing himself to go to class. His screams of joy filled the tunnel, and two seconds later, he sent me a text to tell Marina that he officially accepted the position.

“Let us get to work,” Marina said.

“Ten days,” I muttered. “Ten days.”

“It’s going to be fine,” Janae said. She looked like she was going to pass out.

Marina was very happy with my jumps and spins. Watching Carly contort her body had helped me strike better positions during spinning. Not as good as hers, but better than I’d ever achieved before.

We spent a good chunk of time working on increasing the point value of steps connecting the jumps. We switched a couple of jumps and moved one closer to the end of the performance. Jumps in the final part of the program were worth more points. By the end of practice, we were exhausted but thrilled with our progress.

Janae wouldn’t shut up on the ride home about how easily Marina had accepted the change. I was still holding my breath, waiting for things to blow up in my face. But Marina honestly seemed to be onboard with the program.

The reality of what we were trying to do was monumental and probably really stupid.

“How am I going to pull this off? Skate America is in ten days.”

“I seriously doubt you’ll be skating the new program,” Janae said.

“Oh yeah,” I mumbled.

“Go to bed, Justin. Tomorrow is going to be another long day.” She hugged me and pushed me toward the stairs.

CJ’s door was closed, so I made a racket, banging the bathroom door and rattling bottles, hoping to alert him that I was home.

I still heard no sound from his room, so I reluctantly shuffled into my room and slipped out of my clothes. I was heading into full pout mode, when I heard the soft click of my door opening.

“Hi,” CJ whispered.

“Hi.”

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m not really sure. Marina agreed with the changes, but I go to Skate America in ten days. I think I’m crazy.”

“It’s the right thing to do. I can tell by your face when you skate.” He lowered his head and his hair fell over his eyes. I couldn’t resist touching the loose strands.

“Thanks,” I murmured.

“Justin,” he whispered.

“I’m sorry,” I said, snatching my hand back. “I didn’t mean to touch you.”

“It’s okay,” he said. His fingers brushed over mine, and the butterflies in my stomach woke up and started flying in loops.

“CJ, I’m not sure about this,” I said, wondering if I’d lost my fucking mind. I’d never thought about consequences before, but what had happened with Danny made me unsure. I didn’t want what was happening between CJ and me to be like Danny again.

“I know,” he said and backed away from me. This time I grabbed his wrist and pulled him to my bed. We tumbled on the bed, him on top of me, and I sighed as he settled. His lips brushed my neck, and I arched into him. My body was willing but my demons screeched loud warnings about getting involved with another hockey boy. He sensed my nervousness and rolled off, pulling the blankets over us.

“Good night, Justin,” he whispered.

I echoed his sentiments and closed my eyes.

A
NOTHER
MORNING
dawned and I realized how nice it felt to wake up sprawled across CJ’s chest with his arms wrapped around me, holding tightly. And although leaving the warmth of my bed was difficult, I felt refreshed from another full night of uninterrupted sleep.

“You’re smiling,” Janae said when I showed up at the rink. “Why are you smiling?”

I shrugged because I didn’t know what to tell her.

“It’s a good thing, Justin,” she said. I immediately wondered if she knew something was happening upstairs.

We worked on the long program until we were satisfied with the overall look and feel. The choreography was tough, but if I nailed the program, the point value would be high. I doubted Brian Fonta or anyone else in the world could match it.

Marina was pleased and laughed when Janae said she’d heard Brian was having issues with his quad, and the guy from Russia couldn’t handle his triple axel. And we wouldn’t go head to head with the dark horse from France unless he made it to the Grand Prix finals.

“Those boys always get it together when they come to a competition. I think seeing Justin makes them angry,” Marina said.

“Yeah, he sometimes does that to me too,” Janae said.

“Hey! I’m right here,” I grumbled.

“Oh, little brother, I just mean it irritates the shit out of me how easy some things come for you. Brian and those other boys have been skating since they were little boys. In the grand scheme of competition, you should still be competing in your regions instead of on the international stage,” Janae said.

“I work hard,” I whined.

They both rolled their eyes and kissed me on my cheeks.

“I don’t know why I put up with either of you,” I said.

The short program fell into place with very little arguing. My team all joked that there must be magic in the air. They thought they were incredibly funny. I told them they were all crazy.

CJ stopped by the rink after class and told Marina what I should wear as a costume. He decided I should go with black plants, black shirt, and tie, with the house colors of my choosing artfully placed on the shirt and tie. Janae figured I would choose silver and green, but I wanted to stay true to the story and wear the colors of Gryffindor.

CJ looked incredibly pleased with himself that we were taking his suggestions. Marina was equally impressed when we described the outfit he had suggested for the long program.

“Thank God you like it,” Janae said. “Tanja already has the costume for the long program ready for the final fitting.”

“It seems I am not needed at all,” Marina said.

“That’s not true,” we both said.

She smiled and winked. “We make a good team. And I like the hockey player too. He is a nice addition.”

I couldn’t hide the blush that stained my cheeks, and I’m sure Janae and Marina noticed.

CJ smiled. “I have practice,” he said. “I’ll see you at home.”

He patted me on the shoulder, waking the butterflies in my stomach and sending them into a fluttering frenzy.

“Bye,” I murmured.

“We need to talk about Skate America,” Marina said. “There is no possible way to debut either program at Skate America. I think we should hold off.”

After an hour of discussion, we decided to debut at least one of the new programs at the Grand Prix final in Japan. Now all I needed was to make the finals, and if I did, changing my programs so close to Nationals would freak the shit out of the entire skating community.

Everyone was tired when we finally got home. CJ, despite having classes and practice, prepared a soup that made me want to curl up in front of a warm fire and snuggle the guy to death. I was turning into a sap. I’d never had such tame thoughts before. Usually it was all about the physical pleasures, but this was more, and the demons didn’t know how to handle it.

Janae went to bed shortly after dinner. Being nervous wore a person out, and she had early morning lessons the next day. CJ and I lounged on the couch, laughing at the texts I was getting from Eli. Apparently, Taylor had taken him on a date, which led to kissing and a lot of heavy petting and an unfortunate incident involving sticky underwear again.

As we were reading my phone, CJ slipped his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him. I had missed this with Danny and all the other guys I’d been with. There had not been a lot of intimacy between us. Mainly, it had been frantic, hidden moments trying to get each other off before someone noticed we were missing.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm,” CJ answered. His nose was buried in my hair.

“What am I to you?”

“Someone I want to get to know,” he said. He looked directly into my eyes, making me and the demons hold our breath. “In all ways.”