He’s silent for longer than usual and I look up to find him not meeting my gaze for once. Instead, he’s watching my hands work away at my pointe shoes.
“When I was younger, there was a kid at my school who played hockey. I talked about how I wanted to play too and the jackass told me I was too stupid to actually be any good. I joined anyways but ironically enough, I hated it at first.”
My eyes widen. “You did?”
It’s hard to imagine Lucas hating the very thing I see him get so passionate about now.
“Yeah, I felt so guilty making my parents pay all that money just for me to suck at it.” His gaze meets mine again. “I actually got called out by my coach quite a few times because anything he said to me went in one ear and out the other. I spent most games benched until he finally had no choice but to put me in.”
I pull my arm away from his shoulder, pointe shoes in my hands, but I remain standing in front of Lucas. He smiles and shakes his head.
“I ended up scoring the winning goal. I think that was the first time I ever exceeded not only my own expectations but everyone else’s. I realized I wanted more of it, so I kept playing.”
“But do you actually like it?”
He nods, prideful. “Oh, now I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else. But…also most people assume they know what I can and can’t do before they ever really know me, and I’m not going to lie and say that it doesn’t feel good when people underestimate me off the ice just to show them up in a game.”
I want to tell Lucas that I’ve never once underestimated him. Not with hockey or who he is as a person but then I’d be lying.
I too have fallen into the trap of thinking of Lucas as less than. I never thought he’d have this much of an impact on my life and I should’ve. From the second I saw him, I should’ve known that Lucas was going to worm his way into my life, settling in comfortably.
He’s unknowingly given me a reminder of what it feels like to want something. And oh, do I miss that feeling.
“Hey, Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go somewhere.”
His smile widens as if my words are equivalent to gold. “Where’d you have in mind?”
Fourteen
Denise
The clashing of plates hitting tables as orders are being served and the conversations of people sitting nearby become background noise. A world outside of the booth Lucas and I are sitting at in Lou Lou’s, one of the best pizza places in the city.
Garlic and pizza dough quickly made me realize how hungry I actually was after dancing for almost two hours.
“Hey.” Lucas gently swats my hand away from his plate. “What happened to not being that hungry?”
He stares down at my now empty plate that once consisted of a personal-sized margherita pizza. I rest my elbows on the table, batting my eyelashes as dramatically as I can get away with. “I lied, I’m famished.”
Lucas sighs, his attempt at hiding his smile failing. He sets another slice of pizza onto my plate regardless. “You’re lucky I’m nice.”
I quickly clap my hands before reaching for the slice and taking a bite, groaning when the warm sauce and extra cheese hit my tongue. I may have laughed at his order of apricot chicken pizza but after stealing a bite, I realized he might be onto something.
I happily enjoy my stolen pizza while Lucas takes another bite of his own slice, an amused smile on his face.
“Okay your turn.” He rips a piece of crust off and tosses it into his mouth. “Why ballet?”
“Does there have to be a reason?” I try to deflect even though I literally just asked him the same thing barely twenty minutes ago.
What can I say, I’m a hypocrite.
“Oh come on, Stryker. Throw me a bone.”
“Alright, fine.” I take another bite of the cheesy goodness purely to buy myself more time before revealing something only Amiyah knows. “I started dancing because of Gene Kelly.”