Chapter 55
~The US Championships~
~Riley~
Turning my phone off is the right decision, I remind myself as I make my way to the locker room at the practice arena for my first official practice at the US figure skating championships.
It’s the first time I’ve been back in the country since the disastrous weekend at Skate America and the first time people here have seen me since Trevor and I broke up.
Gossip lingers in the skating world, and while they might not be privy to all the details, everyone obviously knows we’re no longer a couple.
The other competitors all nod at me politely before turning away to whisper to their friends behind their hands, and I feel even more alone than I did on my first day at Riverbend all those months ago.
My mom isn’t coming. Hudson isn’t coming. No one will be checking in or wishing me luck, and it’ll hurt less if I don’t keep checking, hoping for something that isn’t coming. My phone is a distraction I don’t need, so I’ll stick to my routine and make it through on my own.
If luck is on my side, Trevor and I won’t run into each other until the gala on Sunday.
With Evelyn, I won’t be so lucky. We drew starting positions quite close together during the short program, so I’ll have to face her tomorrow.
At least for today’s practice session, she’s not scheduled to be here, so I’ll have one more day to prepare myself to face my former best friend.
At least, I thought I would, but when I step out onto the ice, her long, black, high ponytail immediately catches my eye.
“Why is Evelyn Harding here?” My chest squeezes as I ask my coach the question, making it hard to take a drink from the water bottle he has ready for me at the boards.
Daring to glance over my shoulder, I see her chatting with her own coach at the opposite side of the rink. She hasn’t looked my way yet.
“They switched practice sessions,” he replies, not sounding much happier about it than I am, though I suspect his reasons are different from mine.
Evelyn has a reputation for hogging the ice during practice, but having trained with her for years, I’m used to it.
“Stay out of her way but don’t let her intimidate you. ”
That turns out to be easier said than done. As I’m lining up for my first jump of the session, Evelyn steps into my path, just a few feet away from me, leaving me to scramble and swerve wildly to the side to avoid running into her.
It’s not quite as blatant as Trevor and Hudson colliding at the Grand Prix final, but I catch the smirk that pulls on the corners of her mouth as she skates away. She fucking did that on purpose.
When it’s Evelyn’s turn to run through her short program, my coach calls me over to the boards to watch.
“She’s not unbeatable,” he promises me as she goes into her first combination spin after her triple Lutz-triple toe combo. “Your spins are better and her landings have been inconsistent. You should go out there tomorrow expecting to be in first place.”
Although I nod, doubt lingers deep in my gut. I’ve never beaten Evelyn at anything. The only thing I ever had that she didn’t was Trevor, and she managed to take him away from me too.
The thought jars something inside me, and I mentally compare the texts Evelyn sent after I found her and Trevor together with everything Trevor told me in Calgary.
She insisted they’d always been attracted to each other, but he told me that wasn’t true.
He had to get drunk just to sleep with her, and she made sure to be there in the morning when I showed up.
She knew she never really had a chance with him. She only wanted to hurt me. But why?
With renewed interest, I watch the rest of her program, and for the first time, I really see it. She is beatable, especially with the progress I’ve made at Riverbend. Maybe she knew I had the potential to beat her before I did and wanted to find a way to throw me off my game?
If that’s true, just how far would she go?
When we finish our practice session, Evelyn leaves the ice chatting with some of the other skaters, the younger women hanging on the national champion’s words like they contain some kind of magic.
In the locker room, I change quickly out of my skates so that by the time Evelyn stands to leave, I’m ready too.
I step straight into her path, just like she did to me on the ice. “Do you have a minute to talk?”
The room goes deathly still as everyone’s eyes move to Evelyn, waiting for her response. Everyone obviously knows we aren’t friendly anymore, or maybe they just feel the tension between us. It’s practically hitting me in the face.
Her cold, dark eyes and self-satisfied smirk are familiar to me from seeing her direct them at other people, but she’s never looked at me that way before. “Oh, now you want to talk? After ignoring my texts for months?”
Each head swivels to me to watch my next move.
“I thought it would be better if we spoke face-to-face.”
The lie slips out easily, and manages to tighten Evelyn’s smirk a little. She expected me to back down, like I would have before, but that’s not happening. With a scoff, she does her best to dismiss me. “I have plans.”
She moves to step around me, but I move with her, still blocking her path. “It won’t take long.”
A bag rustles in the background, the only noise in the room as everyone remains fixed on me and my former best friend.
Aware of the spotlight and how it’s starting to look like she’s the one avoiding me, Evelyn gives in with a shrug. “Fine. You have two minutes.”
She stalks out of the room, and I follow her until she finds an open door leading to a small, empty room. The door clicks quietly as I pull it closed behind us.
“What?” she demands as soon as we’re alone. “Do you expect an apology?”
“An apology won’t mean much if you’re not truly sorry, and I don’t think you are. You set Trevor up on purpose.”
Evelyn snorts, her arms folding across her chest. “Is that what he told you?”
Since I couldn’t have learned about it anywhere else, I nod in acknowledgement. “It is, and I believe him. What I’m not sure about is why.”
Her eyes roll to the ceiling. “I already told you why, but you never bothered to answer.”
“Because what you told me is bullshit.”
For once, she has no immediate comeback, her eyes wide as she blinks over at me. I’ve never spoken to her like this. I was always a supportive friend, never challenging her or calling her out.
Not anymore.
“There was never any chemistry between you, like you claimed,” I point out. “He doesn’t feel anything for you, and you must have known that. So, what was really behind this?”
I have my suspicions, but I want to hear her version before I lay them out for her.
What comes out of her mouth bears no resemblance to my theory. Crossing her arms, Evelyn sighs. “I was trying to protect you, actually. Not that you appreciated that.”
She’s got to be kidding. “Protect me from what?”
“From finding out the truth about why he was with you in the first place.”
The corner of her mouth twitches, anticipating some kind of meltdown from me, but I’m already a step ahead of her. “You mean because I paid his club fees?”
Robbed of her big reveal, Evelyn sputters, “Well… yes. He was just using you. Which makes sense. Why else would he date the most boring girl he could find?”
Any power she might have had to hurt me with insults like that has been drastically reduced by the lack of respect I have for her now. It’s my turn to scoff. “And you couldn’t just tell me that? You had to fuck him first?”
Her lips part in surprise at my phrasing, but she recovers quickly enough. “You would have found some excuse to forgive him. I had to make it clear to you where his priorities were. Now you know. He was willing to sleep with me just to keep his secret. You can do better.”
“I can,” I agree. “And I have. Even better, I know where your priorities lie too. You wanted to bring me down a peg, to stop me from taking any of your limelight. Unfortunately for you, it backfired. I’m not the same girl you walked all over, Evelyn, and this week, the whole world’s going to see it. ”
Before she has a chance to come up with one more excuse, I head for the door.