Page 6 of The Sky Between Us

“You don’t get the fact that I don’t like you?” I tilted my head and laughed. “It must be hard to wrap your head around that information but try a little harder.”

“Let me guess,” he leaned onto the wall, crossing his arms in front of his chest, causing the light blue shirt to stretch over his biceps. He looked down at me and suddenly I was annoyingly aware of how close we were. I could smell his cologne and it was actually really nice. Almost comforting. “You were bullied in high school and you turned into a mean girl.”

A laugh escaped me to cover up my roaming thoughts. “No. Iwasa mean girl in high school. I still am. Life is good.”

“Guess karma didn’t come around yet,” he lifted a brow.

I shot him a dark look. “You can’t complain either. You broke 90% of the girls' hearts on campus and I guess you were even worse in high school.”

“Maybe.” Aiden shrugged and gave me a half smile.

I ignored him and scanned the room instead. I was trying to find a familiar face, but since Sarah was MIA and all I saw were soccer players, I had no idea where to escape.

“You need a drink.”

“I don’t drink.” I looked back at Aiden. His brows were connected in a concerned frown. He was trying to read me, but I was coded way too well. No one could read me. “Don’t you have somewhere better to be?”

“No. My party, my rules.” He opened his arms and smiled. I didn’t understand the point of rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, but it did make me notice his biceps more. “You’re nicer at work.”

“I get paid to be nice,” I reminded him. “I’m not paid to be nice right now.”

“I still believe you can be nice, when you try hard. You know I’m not such a bad guy…”

“Oh my god, no. If you need an ego boost, I’m sure any other girl here is more than happy to feed your ego. As far as I’m concerned your ego can starve to death.” I started to turn away, but he grabbed my arm to make me stay. His warm touch felt strange on my cold skin, and shivers ran through my spine.

“Sooner or later, I will figure you out.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” I warned him with a smile, unfazed by my body’s reaction.

He shook his head and, letting my arm go, he took another sip from the beer. “Sky is surprisingly good at soccer.” His sudden change of topic made me turn back and lean my back against the wall. I loved to talk about Sky. I adored him. “When did he start playing?”

“I don’t know. As soon as he was born. He just loved kicking stuff around ever since he was little. And you know my dad, as soon as he was able to walk, he was giving him a ball. And he just fell for it.”

“Yeah, he’s already amazing.” Aiden nodded and his smile turned gentle. “You guys are close? Even with the big age difference.”

“Of course. I love him; he is so cute. And you know… mistakes happen. Even when you are older and a parent.” I shrugged.

He nodded and leaned his head onto the wall as he still tried to read my expression. Our heads were close to touching, but I kept my gaze fixated on his hand holding the beer. I noticed a brass anchor on his wrist, tied with a blue and white striped rope, like the ones they used on boats.

Curiosity pricked me.

“How come you never played soccer?” he shot his next question, before I could ask him. I bit down on my lip and thought hard. I wasn’t too keen on sharing my life with him, but a little detail might not hurt. After all, we did work together. Maybe a little talk will get him off my back and he will realize I’m not worth his time.

“I did for a while, but I broke my arm when I was seven and mom put me into dance classes. I fell in love with dance and quit soccer. I started dancing pretty late, considering more kids start it at the age of two, but it was okay. I kept up pretty well… won a few titles.”

“Wow, you still dance? Are you a dance major? Why are you not part of the dance team?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Why not? You quit?” he shot question after question at me and for a few seconds I sheepishly blinked at him.

“I was a stupid teenager and I’m sure you did some crazy things that you regret by now.”

“No, not really, but I get it. We all did stupid things. Sometimes we still do.” He gave me a warm smile and reached over to squeeze my shoulder. “So, are we friends now?”

I laughed and tried to ignore the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach from his touch. “I’m not sure friendship is based on three personal questions.”

“That’s because you don’t know how to make friends, Ice Queen. But don’t you worry, you have me.”

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