Page 77 of Oh, Flutz!

Bryan skids to a stop, and I nearly fall on top of him, but he holds me up.

“Ready,sunshine?” he seethes, only this time, his favorite teasing nickname for me just sounds mean.

“Always,” I say.

We take off with our matching entries, turning in and out of three-turns and footwork. I catch a glimpse of him in my peripheral vision, his brows drawn tightly together, jaw clenched. Then I propel myself up in the air.

His is flawless. I slam my foot down with excessive force, and nearly trip backwards.

He doesn’t miss a thing, a mean smirk on his face. “I’m sure you can do better than that. I believe in you.”

“Tiny mistake,” I say breathlessly. Only it wasn’t a mistake. He’s just too thick to realize it. I ignore the way my stomach flips at the sight of his triumphant smile, even if it is only at my expense.

It’s just going to make everything all the sweeter when his newfound confidence shatters tomorrow.

Chapter Twenty-One

BRYAN

We have one minutebefore the warm-up is over. And Katya’s about to ruin everything.

We’ve been working on more complicated lifts in practice lately, ones where I have to hold Katya nauseatingly high up in the air while she contorts her body into a bunch of different positions that I’d break my back if I tried to do. And it’s mostly been working. Right now, she’s a little busy threatening to drop onto me and kick me in the back of the head on the way down.

This whole trip has been a nightmare. I already knew she’d try to get me pissed off, so I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. I shouldn’t have gotten riled up when she was talking shit before we got on the ice. I knew the second I shot back thatit’s a miracle she hasn’t been banned for drugs yetthat I’d be in for it.

“That’s not funny,” I hiss up at her as we glide across the ice, maneuvering around the other skaters as we all run through our choreography in one last desperate practice before it’s our turn. If you’d told me when we first started this that my arms wouldn’t be about to fall off in the middle of a lift every time we tried one, I wouldn’t have believed it. But, against all odds, my “limp-noodle arms,” as my partner so affectionately called them that one time, have gotten used to lifting her whiny ass all the way above me and keeping her there, not to mention chucking her into the air and catching her as she falls.

No big deal.

Only now, Katya’s refusing to talk to me, unless it’s to yell at me. And on top of that, she’s trying to make us both fall.

She doesn’t answer, just squirms a little more, and her weight shifts just alittlebit more onto my left side.

“Stop moving,” I demand, and she responds by movingmore. I can feel my blades wobbling, and when I feel her lean to the side, panic seizes. If I fall, she’s dropping ten feet with no one to catch her.

“This isn’t funny, Katya, stop!”

“What’s going on over there?” Lian calls from the boards as we whiz by, turning back from where she’s been talking with Juliet and the Canadian coaches. I can’t answer, I’m busy straining every muscle trying to counteract whatever Katya’s doing.

“What’s wrong?” she taunts. “Can’t keep up?”

“Katya, you’re going to—”

Before I can finish the sentence, one of my blade edges catches a rut, which usually wouldn’t be a big problem, except I’m struggling already between Katya making it harder to keep my balance and also taking up half my attention, so it’s too late to do anything when I trip forward. My life flashes before my eyes, but all I can think is,she’s going to break something, so at the last second I’m able to throw my body the other way, so instead of flying way over my head, she lands on me, and I break her fall.

It all happens so fast. My butt collides with the ice, and Katya’s entire body weight drops onto my chest, our legs going everywhere, blades flying, both of us sliding a good few feet across, and the other pairs have to swerve to avoid a nasty collision. The Japanese girl trips over the Norwegian guy’s leg, and she sprawls out on the other side of Katya. It’s total chaos.

I can hear people screaming, but the sound is muffled like I’m underwater. I can hear Lian’s commanding voice over the mayhem that’s erupted in the audience. But I can barely register it, my head foggy and dazed, vision blurry and wavering.

I can’t breathe, is all I can think for a second.Oh my god, I can’t breathe. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Katya rolls off me and scrambles to my side.

“Bryan!”

I lean my head back, hearing the blood rushing into my head, the freezer burn of the ice the only thing I can feel. I think I might be about to throw up. I think I’ve broken a rib. I can’t tell. Oh, god, ohgod, I have to get up, we have less than thirty seconds left in the warmup, if we don’t get off the ice we’ll miss our skate, or hold up the entire competition, or be disqualified—

“Bryan! Bryan, wake up! Look at me!” I feel someone touching my face, shaking my shoulder, or maybe I’m already shaking. I haven’t been concussed since I was fourteen and training quads for the first time, but it didn’t feel like this. I can’t feel much of anything.

I can shake it off. It’s fine. I’m imagining it—I can’t move. I’m completely in shock. All I can do is hold my breath.

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