Page 57 of Fake Skating

I was quietly slipping my feet into my boots when my mom came out of her room.

And stopped in her tracks.

“Where are you going at”—she looked down at her watch—“six forty-five in the morning?”

There was no way for me to lie when I was wearing my coat, hat, and gloves, and my hand was literally on the doorknob.

“I, uh, I have to go talk to Benji about something before he leaves for practice,” I said, as if that made any sense whatsoever.

“You guys are friends now?” she asked, looking shocked.

“Not really, but it’s a whole thing,” I said vaguely, wanting her to let it go.

Needing to get out of there quickly.

“Well, I’m glad you’re up, because we need to talk about this whole thing with your dad,” she said, looking more serious than usual.

Which was fair and unsurprising.

“Did you know he was coming, honey?” she asked.

Please not yet.

I needed to deal with one nightmarish situation before moving on to the next.

“Um, no,” I said, shaking my head. “Listen, I have to go do this before Benji leaves for practice—can we talk about this when I come back?”

She sighed. “Fine. I have to run to Knowlan’s because we’re completely out of sugar, but as soon as I get back from the store, we’re hashing this out.”

“Thank you,” I said, throwing open the door and running down all the deck stairs.

It was barely light out as I went around the garage and crept through the bushes that separated our yards. I wasn’t exactly excited to wake up Benji’s dad as I rang the doorbell, but I was too desperate to let common courtesy stop me.

This was an emergency.

But the door opened almost immediately after I rang, and Benji was standing there, already dressed in a St. John’s Academy hoodie and joggers.

Like he was about to leave.

And whoa, his face.

He definitely had a black eye, and his nose did not look good. It was swollen and kind of looked like Mr. Potato Head’s nose.

My stomach was dippy as I looked at him, and I wasn’t sure if it was because his face was kind of gross to look at, or because his face was hard evidence that could be used against Alec.

“Dani?”

Yeah, I’m surprised to be here too.

“Can I talk to you for a second, Ben?” I asked, looking behind him to see if his dad was in the room.

“He’s not here,” Benji said. “Come on in.”

I followed him inside, crossing my arms and having no idea where to start.

“What’s up?” he said as he shut the door, but we both knew this had to do with his face and what’d happened the night before.

I took a deep breath, tried to come up with some clever argument, but then just blurted, “Please don’t go to the police, Ben.”

He opened his mouth, but I held up a hand.

“I know you two hate each other and I’m sure this seems like a good idea. He shouldn’t have hit you. But he was trying, in his own way, to defend me, so I feel responsible.”

I was talking fast, but he just watched me calmly.

I had no idea what he was thinking.

“You didn’t deserve to be attacked, but I’m begging you—as a friend I’ve known my entire life.” I looked into his eyes and prayed he’d have a heart about this. “Can you please pretend this didn’t happen?”

“How exactly would I do that?” he asked, pointing toward his battered face.

“I mean, you’re a hockey player,” I said. “If you just allude to the fact that you got in a scuffle, no one will—”

“I’m not letting Barczewski off the hook on this, Dani,” he said, shaking his head.

“But don’t you see that you could ruin his future—”

“ He did this, not me,” he snapped, his eyes narrowing. “And don’t you see how wrong it is if he’s able to behave this way and still get everything he’s ever wanted?”

“I mean, I can see how it might feel that way,” I forced myself to say, loathing him for being so vindictive.

“No, it is exactly that way. I’ll be honest—the idea of him flaming out and failing doesn’t make me sad. I’d fucking love it. But I didn’t do anything to make that happen. He is the low-class hothead who chose to come after me.”

“Please,” I said, feeling perilously close to tears. “I am begging, Benji, please don’t—”

“Ben,” he snapped.

“Ben, come on,” I said, fully panicked now. “And trust me, he won’t be getting everything he’s ever wanted.”

“Yes, he will,” he said, and it was obvious that was all he cared about.

“What can I do, Ben?” I blinked fast because I didn’t want to cry, but I could tell I was failing and that was terrifying. “Please tell me what I can do to convince you.”

“There’s noth—actually.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, like a villain hatching a plan before my very eyes. My heart was in my throat when he said, “Oh. You know, I think there is something.”

“What is it?” I asked, a sense of foreboding settling over me.

“Nothing illegal, relax,” he said, smirking like it was funny. “But if you don’t want me to file charges, you need to end things with him.”

“What?”

I looked at his stupid facial hair and broken face and couldn’t believe I’d heard him right.

He couldn’t be telling me to break up with Alec.

That… wasn’t possible, right?

But he nodded and looked happy all of a sudden, like he was excited. “You’ve only been here a minute, so it’s not like I’m asking you to divorce your husband, and he’s going to juniors as soon as he graduates, so you won’t be together for long anyway.”

He really was more of a tool than I’d ever thought he could be.

“But, like, so then why would you want this?” He might’ve had a crush on me when we were kids, but I could tell he didn’t now, so this didn’t make any sense.

“Because you are actually the one thing he’s always wanted,” he said with a casual shrug. “It’s perfect.”

“No, I’m not, and this… this is ridiculous,” I said, my stomach so heavy I felt nauseous because I could tell he meant it.

He’s seriously demanding I break up with Alec.

“It’s ridiculously simple ,” he said. “You break up with him, this goes away. If you don’t, I’m filing a report.”

It felt like my heart was shattering when I looked at that real-life villain, because he was dead serious, and I didn’t have a choice.

He really was the asshole Alec had always said he was.

But I’d seen the fear in Alec’s eyes when he realized he might’ve jeopardized his chance to be the anchor for his family—for the whole damn town—and I never wanted to see that look again.

So there was only one thing for me to do.

I had to break up with him.