Page 1 of My Best Bet

1.Meredith - The Hockey Boys – 16 years ago – summer

My broken skate guard snapped back at my blade as I paced the dimly lit locker room hallway. Smoothing back the little flyaway hairs that fell out of my low bun, I sucked in a deep breath, trying to pull myself together andnotcry.

Crying wasn’t allowed around here. For one, it’d just make me look “weak” according to Iryna, my coach. And two, it’d completely ruin the mascara my best friend Piper put on me during the last zam. I technically wasn’t allowed to wear makeup yet, so I really wanted this little bit to last for school tomorrow.

It’s not like I wanted to be out here in the hallway. Iwantedto be on the ice. But Iryna lost her shit on me when I two-footed my throw triple loop for a third time in a row.

“Land the jump!” she yelled across the ice from where she stood in the team box, bundled in her team USA jacket from the last Olympics. “One foot. You act like you have broken leg, you willgetbroken leg.” Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back in the tightest bun known to mankind, making her face look even more angular than usual. “Again,” she ordered.

Dmitry, my new skating partner, blew out an exasperated breath. I knew without looking at him that he probably just rolled his eyes. He didn’t speak much English, but eye-rolling was a universal language. I couldn’t blame him for being annoyed. He wasn’t the one messing up. I was.

What the fuck is wrong with you, Mer?I internally yelled at myself.Just land it.

Dmitry held out his gloved hand to start again. I took it and we began our back crossovers around the edge of the rink to set up the throw jump by the blue line.

We were moving fast, really fast. He skated with much more power than I was used to and I was struggling to keep up.

His hands came around my waist.

My feet melded into the loop take-off position.

My body knew the timing by heart, but my mind was spazzing out. I couldn’t seem to shut off the worries bombarding my brain.

What if you fall? With this force behind you, you could really get hurt,my brain shouted.

What if you blow out your knee?

What if you break your spine?

He launched me in the air.

Break.

Break.

Break.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pull in.

I abandoned the jump mid-air, resulting in a pop– which was way worse than two-footing.

Dmitry looked up to the rafters and muttered a foreign curse under his breath.

We glided back to Iryna, maintaining about ten feet of distance between us.

“You are stubborn as ram,” Iryna announced, like I was purposely trying to fuck up.

Dmitry let out a string of Russian that I couldn’t understand and Iryna nodded.

Her cold eyes landed on my face. “Off the ice.”

“Wait,” I swallowed, “offoff?” My eyes bounced between Dmitry and Iryna. I hated when they ganged up on me.

Iryna pursed her lips in distaste and jutted her sharp chin towards the rink’s entrance. “Yes. Off. This is head problem!” She tapped her temple. “Go fix it.”

The time clock on the scoreboard told me there was still a half hour left of the session. Lessons were expensive and my family was currently footing the bill for both me and Dmitry. “W-when should I come back on?”

She harrumphed. “When I say.”

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