Ice Queen

Chapter 24 ~ "Are you alright?"

Nate

Today was the day Sasha was waiting for, a night out. Malcolm and Adrian couldn't hold it together as near as I could tell. They were all jumpy tonight as we changed in the locker rooms, clearly unable to get over the fact that Sasha was willing to go out tonight with us.

I just kept reminding myself that she wasn't interested in them, only in friendship. Practice had just wrapped up for the evening and I was packing my bag when Alex came over to me.

"Thanks for the other day." He says putting his hand on my shoulder. "She's doing better than I thought she would be. Thanks for helping her."

"It's no trouble." I say putting my hand out and he takes it for a brief shake.

"You three knuckleheads are taking her out tonight are you?" He asks and I nod. "Watch out for her alright?" 

"Absolutely." I tell him knowing I wouldn't be letting Sasha out of my sight. 

"She really likes you." He says quickly and then slaps my back walking away. "Don't fuck it up!" He calls walking out of the locker room. 

I laugh and shake my head continuing to pack up my things. Adrian and Malcolm follow me closely as I step out of the locker room and I see heads turn watching me leave. I knew why, Alex and Nik didn't tend to have any friendly conversations with the underclassmen on the team.

Just when I'm about to message Sasha that I'm on my way back I stop seeing a familiar head of blonde hair chatting with a few other people in the lobby. Jeez, you free her from her figure skating nightmare for five days and suddenly she's the most social person ever.

"Sash!" I call out and she whips her head around seeing the blonde locks fly through the air. She smiles guilty and then hurries over to give me a hug.

"Hey." She says.

"I told you to wait at the house I was about to come get you." I tell her and she rolls her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't wait. Besides this saves us both a trip." She points out and I can't be mad. 

"Who were you talking with?" I ask. 

"That's Maddie, Connor and Brooke." She says gesturing to a guy standing with two other girls, now whispering and shoving each other. "Apparently here to scope out the 'hot and sweaty hockey boys after practice'." She says making me laugh. "I of course told them I was too, and here you are." 

"Connor wants to scope us out?" I tease and she nods. Suddenly I realize what she's talking about and I laugh.

"You guys should come say hi, I bet they'd faint." She says raising her eyebrows to Malcolm and Adrian. Then she'd suddenly leading us across the lobby making me laugh harder. Sasha the wingman.

"Hey guys." She says and the two girls freeze. "So this is Malcolm, Adrian and Nate." Then the two of us watch as all of them stumble all over themselves while trying to talk to each other. The two girls are shy and Malcolm and Adrian can't seem to form a cohesive sentence. Connor, the other boy, seems to be getting just as much enjoyment as us, if not more.

"Jesus just talk to them." Connor huffs pushing them forwards. He was most likely just as interested but knew he didn't have much of a shot hitting on any of us. 

"Hi." One of them says and they nod.

"Hey." Adrian says beating Malcolm to the punch.

"Are you guys sophomores?" I ask the two girls trying to help this process along.

"Yeah." One of them giggles.

"Great, so are we." I say raising my eyebrows at the boys trying to get them to make an effort. After a few more awkward stares even I'm starting to get annoyed. "Sorry laddies but we need to head out for the evening. How about you exchange numbers?" I suggest and they all swap phones.