All Chapters of Skating With Hearts : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

For several more moments, there was silence. I almost thought June had fallen back asleep or was ignoring me on purpose. Then, suddenly, she burst out laughing.Oh God, I thought immediately and rolled my eyes at her. “Oh my God,” she wheezed, clutching her pillow to her chest. “That’s what kept you awake all night? You—” she pointed at me in the dark, shaking with giggles, “you lying there like a tragic Victorian heroine, sighing at the ceiling because you were busy pondering love? Really?”I groaned and shoved my face into the pillow. “Forget it. I shouldn’t have asked.”But she wasn’t letting up. She rolled over, grinning like a maniac, her hair sticking out at gravity-defying angles. “Wait, wait, wait. Don’t tell me this is about Ryans. Is this about Ryans?”Heat shot up my neck. “No. Of course not!”She certainly didn't believe me because then, her grin widened and she said coyly, “Ohhh, it is.”I pulled the blanket over my head, muffling my voice. “I regret every life choice t

“Hey.”“You… you’re back,” I breathed, my voice catching somewhere between disbelief and the weight of memories crashing back.Her smile tugged at the corner of her lips, cautious but warm, like she wasn’t sure she had the right to smile like that in front of me.She tilted her head slightly, eyes searching mine. “Yeah. I am.” There was a pause from her. Then, almost too casually, she added, “Want to go on a walk?”My first instinct was to refuse. Every fiber of my body wanted to stay glued to the safety of the court, to the sound of the ball echoing in my head, to the memory of Skylar’s laughter still clinging to the air. But then I looked at Jasmine—the familiar slope of her nose, the quiet determination in her eyes—and I heard myself mutter, “I… I guess.”Her smile widened, just a fraction, and she turned toward the gate. My legs followed before my brain had decided anything.We slipped out of the court, then out of the school environs after some minutes and into the cool Boston eve

At noon, the cramps continued to be merciless and I was fucking sick and tired of it. By the time the professor was halfway through his lecture on international relations, I was chewing on my lower lip so hard I was sure it would bleed. My notebook lay open in front of me, but the lines blurred and danced together, the words refusing to settle into meaning. Every few seconds, a sharp twist of pain rippled through my stomach like someone was wringing my insides.“Damn it,” I muttered under my breath, clutching my pen so hard my knuckles whitened.“Sky, you okay?” Amy, a quiet girl in class, whispered from the seat beside me, her bushy brows pulled together in concern.I forced a smile and spoke without turning to her. “Yeah. Just… you know. Girl stuff.”Her expression softened with instant understanding, but the cramps didn’t care about sympathy. They only dug deeper, and I felt beads of sweat prickle along my hairline. I couldn’t sit there another minute pretending to focus while my

Actually, I was fucking tired. I was tired of the fights, the constant back and forth between Tara and me. It felt like a cycle I couldn’t escape, and no matter what I said or did, she always found a way to poke, to drag me into another battle I didn’t want to fight. But right now? With Ryans striding beside me, his jaw locked tight and his knuckles flexing like he wanted to punch something, I realized there wasn’t anything left for me to do than to let this next fight happen. I could see that Ryans was already so furious. He was furious because of me. And that… that made me feel something I couldn’t deny.If it had been Caleb I was dating and something like this has happened, he would’ve sighed, maybe offered me a hollow pat on the back, said something like, “Don’t mind her, Skylar,” and then gone back to whatever else mattered more which was either clubbing or hockey practice. But Ryans? Ryans was storming right now like a thundercloud, ready to strike anyone who dared touch me.

I knew I shouldn’t.Every cell in my brain screamed at me that this was wrong. This was supposed to be fake—an arrangement, a front to shut people up. But none of that mattered in this moment. Not when she had drawn near to me. Not when she was this close. Not when I could feel her breath brush across my lips, soft and shaky. Not when the memory of her hurt, her arm marked red, was still burning like gasoline in my chest.I’d meant it when I told her I’d do more for her without blinking. Fighting Caleb, warning Tara off—it hadn’t been an act. It hadn’t been about image or pride. It was because of her. Only because of her. Because the thought of anyone laying a hand on her lit a fire in me that I couldn’t put out.Nah, I couldn't stop. And so I didn’t stop. I leaned in and kissed her.Slowly at first, carefully, like I was afraid she’d vanish if I wasn’t gentle enough. But the moment her lips moved against mine, answering with a hesitant, trembling pressure, something inside me snap