Ice Skates

When Jonah asked if Nicky had ever skated before, Nicky lied straight to his face for reason's he didn't want to talk about.

He had never ice skated. Hell, he'd never even worn skates. The thought of balancing on two thin blades in a glorified frozen pool scared the shit out of him. He always wondered why people found hockey so fun at Westview, because to him it just looked like an exhausting combination of golf and soccer in funky shoes.

But there he was, lacing up Jonah's extra skates beside the frozen pond a minute down the road from Happy's on Sunday afternoon after Jonah and Priya finished their morning shift. He glanced over at the other two, who were already gliding effortlessly around, and decided he wasn't going to let Priya show him up.

Nicky took a deep breath and stood up, but fell back down after he wobbled like a baby deer for a few seconds. He tried again, only to step foot on the ice and slip, and then his skates were in the air and the back of his head was being slammed against the mushy grass.

Jonah chuckled and came to an effortless stop right in front of Nicky, holding out his gloved hand. "Need some help?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"You're lying down on the ground."

"I'm aware, Jonah."

"C'mon," Jonah said, shaking his hand, "I wanna help."

Nicky scowled, but took the other boy's hand anyway, letting him pull him up from the ground until they were both standing up on the frozen pond. Nicky went to move back, suddenly noticing their close proximity, but froze when he felt two hands on his waist, steadying him.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Jonah shrugged. "You'd fall again on your own. Here, wrap your arms around my neck. Like we're dancing."

"What? Fuck no," Nicky said. He could feel his ears heating up under his wool hat and his heartbeat getting faster and faster, but he refused to let it get to him. He wasn't about to admit that Jonah's hands on his waist wasn't the worst feeling in the world— no, he'd rather fall on his ass again.

But Jonah moved in closer, wrapping his arms around Nicky and placing them on the small of his back. Even through his cozy North Face, Nicky could feel the warmth of his hands dancing up his spine.

"Put your arms around my neck or this is gonna be really awkward."

Nicky bit his lip, his eyes darting to the trees, to the playground, to the snow, anywhere but Jonah's brown ones. Finally, though, he groaned and lightly placed his arms on Jonah's shoulders, letting them hang loosely, just in case Jonah was suddenly blessed with the ability to read minds and figured out what Nicky was trying to avoid thinking about.

"Good," Jonah said softly, "now I'm gonna push off backwards, and you push off forwards, but not real hard. Lightly, otherwise we'll both go down."

He wanted to protest— he really did. He opened his mouth to do so, but absolutely nothing came out. It was like the part of his brain that made snappy comments shut down and deserted him without any knowledge of how to talk like a normal person. So, instead of fighting it, he did what he was told, watching his feet as Jonah and him skated around slowly, leaving marks on the ice as they quietly circled around the pond.

At one point, Nicky looked up at Jonah and saw him with that crazy contagious smile he always seemed to have, but this time, it was just for Nicky. And that's when Nicky realized he was smiling, too. Just a little bit, but enough for Jonah to catch on.

"Nicolas Haddad," Jonah gasped, "are you having... fun?"

"Fuck off, Jonah," he replied quietly, because what else was he going to do? Deny it? Even Jonah— the king of obliviousness— could catch onto the fact that he was enjoying himself.

"You're kinda good at it."

"I am?"

"Well, I am sort of keeping you up, but I could let go and see if you fall to really test you."

"Don't let go," Nicky told him.

Jonah's smile grew— who knew that was even possible?— and he pulled Nicky in closer, tightening his grip. "I won't."

Nicky's breath was caught in his throat. All he could do was smile.

———————

"I want hot chocolate."

"You can't always get what you want, Priya."

"You're an asshole, Nicky."

The three of them were sitting on a snowy bench next to the pond unlacing their skates the best they could with their numb fingers. Nicky was tired, hungry, and freezing his ass off, but he hadn't had that much fun in a while. He didn't want to admit it, but he actually didn't hate ice skating, especially if it was with Jonah.

He couldn't find it in himself to completely repress his feelings about Jonah by the end of the day like he'd hoped, mostly because they didn't show any signs of going away anytime soon. Only after their movie night a few days before did Nicky realize he was in deep in this whole crush thing. It was like a fever he felt he'd never recover from. None of his fleeting crushes had ever lasted this long, which freaked him out, because it meant for the first time in his life, he actually had real, deep, heart wrenching feelings for someone, which was exactly what he'd been avoiding.

Jonah stood up, brushing off the snow that dusted his jeans. "If you guys promise not to kill each other I'll go steal some from Happy's office."

Priya put her mittened hands up to her cheeks in mock horror. "Jonah Moshe, that's a crime!"

"I never thought I'd be friends with a bad boy," Nicky remarked with the same expression as Priya.

Jonah flipped them off, but cocked a brow at Nicky. "Am I really a bad boy?"

Nicky shrugged. "Maybe, but only if you steal a few marshmallows for my hot chocolate."

"Ay ay, captain," Jonah said, saluting to the others before jogging off to the back entrance of the pharmacy. Nicky watched him curiously as he ran, letting himself squint until Jonah was just a little blob making its way into the building.

"Holy shit!" Priya squealed, giving Nicky a (surprisingly painful) slap on the shoulder. "You are totally whipped!"

"Excuse me?" Nicky questioned with a scowl.

Priya rolled her eyes. "Don't even try to deny it. Not everyone is as dumb as Jonah, Nicky."

"Don't say that. Jonah isn't dumb."

"Fine," she conceded, "but he is probably the only one in the entire world that hasn't noticed your massive crush on him."

That caught Nicky off guard. His eyes went wide as he stared at the girl beside him, her arms crossed smugly on her chest and her smirk getting bitchier by the second. "I don't know what you're talking about," he finally spat out after a few seconds of stuttering panic.

"Sure," she said, dragging the word out in a way that made Nicky feel sick. "So an hour ago when he put his hands on your waist and you went bright red... that was nothing?"

"Yep," he told her.

"And all those times when you came to Happy's at six in the morning to buy candy bars and ramen noodles before we became friends... you're saying that wasn't just an excuse to see him?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"And what about the whole cuddling thing last week at my house-"

"Jesus, Priya, would you just shut up?!" He snapped, cutting her off before she could list any of his other subtle— or, at least, what he thought were subtle— ways of making time to see his friend.

"Okay, so all of this," she said, waving her hand around as to gesture Nicky's entire panicked state, "is telling me that I'm not wrong. Stop being so defensive."

"I hate you," he told her.

She huffed, her breath coming out like steam and dispersing in the air. "Alright. If you don't wanna admit it, it's fine... but then I won't tell you what I know about Jonah."

He hated to admit it, but his ears perked up right away. He cleared his throat and squirmed in his seat, hoping to look like he wasn't dying to know what she knew, but when he glanced over at her and saw her knowing smirk, he realized he wasn't being as low-key as he thought. So, he sighed, running a hand through his mop of curly hair. "Fine."

She squealed and clapped her hands like a child who'd just been told they could have birthday cake for breakfast. "This is incredible. So you're gay, right?"

He nodded. "It's not exactly a secret."

"Right. Well here's the information I've got," she began, leaning in real close, her large eyes darting around the park as to double check for eavesdroppers. Nicky couldn't help but lean in as well, the suspense destroying him. "Jonah... has never had a real girlfriend."

Nicky pulled back, frowning. "That's it?"

She nodded.

He groaned, burying his freezing face in his gloved hands. "You're such a bitch. My little brother could've given me that!"

"I never said it was hard evidence, just information, which it is! He could easily be gay, too," she insisted.

"Or it's just because everyone hates him at school. Remember that?"

Priya shrugged. "The reason why doesn't matter. What does matter is that you have a huge chance, because Jonah has literally no standards."

"Gee, thanks," Nicky deadpanned. "I don't want a chance, anyway."

She gaped at him like he just told her the juiciest piece of gossip she's ever heard. "You don't want to go out with him? That's insane, Nicky."

"No it's not. I've never liked anyone like this before, Pri. Usually I just admire from a distance, but we're too close for it to just be a little crush. I wanna keep it contained so I don't get hurt, y'know?"

"You can't think like that, kid," she told him, placing her hand on his. Lucky for her, he couldn't feel his frozen fingers. "Sure, you might get your heart broken, but that's kind of how life works. I dumped my boyfriend two weeks ago, and it still hurts, but look at me. I'm living my life! It's not the end of the world."

"But Drew wasn't your only friend."

Priya's plastic, overly kind smile fell and she gave Nicky a genuine look of pity he never wanted to see again. "Jonah's your only friend?"

Nicky tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a wheezy cough than anything. "I know that's kind of a crazy concept to you."

Priya gave him one last once over as if she was making sure he was alright with the fact that he had no friends. He was most of the time. He'd sort of gotten used to it and after a while, it didn't seem like a huge deal to him.

"I'm your friend, Nicky."

Nicky snorted. "Yeah. Sure. You fucking hate me, remember?"

"I used to hate you. You've grown on me. I like you a lot, kid," she told him. Nicky rolled his eyes, but honestly, it warmed him up to hear that, because he sort of thought of Priya as his friend too. She was still annoying as hell, but a friend nonetheless. "And all I'm saying is that if this crush is getting serious, then-"

"You have a crush?"

The two of them whipped around to see Jonah standing over then, three cups of hot chocolate in his hands, one with a mountain of baby marshmallows.

"No. What?" Nicky spat out, ignoring Priya's stifled laughter from his side.

"Who is it?" Jonah asked, sitting back down in between them. Priya looked at Nicky over Jonah's shoulders and wiggled her eyebrows.

Nicky mentally flipped her off and told Jonah, "nobody. It's not important."

"But I wanna know."

"Well it's not your business, so fuck off."

Jonah took a long sip of his hot cocoa before turning to Priya with a smirk. "His ears are all red."

Nicky huffed and focused on his hot chocolate, ignoring the snickers coming from his two friends.

my two friends

———————

Y'all Priya is not an idiot she sees what's goin down. That's why she's my favorite.

Happy thanksgiving (american) boys!! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating America even though it was built on the mass genocide of Native Americans 😗✌️

Seriously, though. I hope you all have an amazing day with your fam eating some bomb food, and even if you aren't American, I hope that for you too.

Thanks for reading ahhhhh!

~Teddy