CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
HOCKEY

It was the end of January, December had passed Aaron by just as quickly as it had come around.

Aaron was doing his best to follow Steve's advice in regard to the girl, but it was difficult when every time the girl as much as looked at him a certain way he would grow flustered.

Steve was used to using his advice on girls he thought looked good, just when he was harmlessly flirting, not with girls he actually really liked, not the way Aaron liked Kimmy anyway.

Since the snowball, the two hadn't directly spoken about the events of that night, but it was clear something had changed between the two thirteen year olds.

They spent a lot more time just the two of them. Kimmy and Aaron were usually left to hang out just the two of them anyway, Max and Lucas always together, Mike and El always together and Dustin always hanging out with Steve. Will didn't hang out with the party so much out of school, his mother frightened something might happen to him. But Aaron hoped his mom would ease up a bit the longer Will went without any issues.

At first, Aaron had thought Dustin and Steve's abrupt start to a friendship was weird. Seeing as Steve was five years older than Dustin. Aaron had soon gotten used to the peculiar pair of friends, seeing as they hung out all the time. Aaron was almost one hundred percent sure that they had become each others best friends.

Kimmy and Aaron usually just did whatever they pleased when they were left to hang out the two of them, this ranging from getting ice cream to going to the movies. Whatever they wanted.

Steve insisted to Aaron that these were in fact dates, but Aaron wasn't sure. The blond was pretty sure that to be counted as a date, Aaron would actually have to tell her how he felt.

Aaron actually thought that he should have told her by now, it was Steve who told the boy to wait. Steve had insisted that he couldn't spring how he felt on the girl if he actually wanted things with the girl to work out in the long run. Aaron would sometimes try tell her how he felt subtly, not ever actually saying the words.

Steve insisted that Kimmy did like Aaron back, and while Aaron often found himself agreeing at times. He felt the doubt more often than not.

Today, the pair decided to go up to the lake that had frozen over with the cold weather, Aaron bringing his hockey stick as well as an old one so the two could go skating since they couldn't the year prior when they'd tried to.

Aaron gave Kimmy his own hockey stick, the boy using his old one that was fairly evidently too small for him and was quite uncomfortable for the boy to hold since it hadn't been used in years.

Aaron didn't say anything, letting Kimmy use the one that Aaron should be using.  Aaron thought it would be better for Kimmy to get the hockey stick that actually fit her size, seeing as she had never played before and Aaron played whenever he had the chance.

Aaron had also brung Steve's old skates which also hadn't been used in years. The skates were still a little too big for him, but they fit him much better than they would have the year before if he'd tried to wear them then.

Aaron gave Kimmy his own skates, knowing if the older boys skates where still a little too big for him then they definitely wouldn't have fit Kimmy and would have only caused her to be more likely to trip over herself while on the ice.

"Did you hear that Max and Lucas are over?" Kimmy told the boy, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly as if it was no big deal.

Aaron turned to her with his brows raised, not particularly surprised. The two had been dating for not even two months and they had already split up twice.

Lucas and Max's relationship was one of the reasons that Aaron was kind of glad he had never actually gathered the courage to ask Kimmy out. Lucas and Max had been so close and looked like they'd be the perfect couple before they started dating. But now they were dating, the two either acted like they were in love or like they hated each other. It changed daily.

"Why?" Aaron asked Kimmy as he grabbed his stick from the floor and watched her try do up her skates as she sat on the ground. "What happened this time."

"I don't really know, to be honest." Kimmy muttered quietly, not looking up at the boy as she moved on to her second foot and began tying that skate up. "Lucas managed to do something to piss her off. She called me last night to tell me she was done with him, and then called again this morning to say that he was already trying to win her back."

Aaron snorted in response, dropping his hockey stick and kneeling down in front of her as he undid her laces and went to re-tie them.

"What are you doing?" Kimmy asked puzzled, dropping her hands to her sides dramatically. "I had tied them myself-"

"Yeah, but you'd tied them all wrong," Aaron scoffed, not even looking at her as he tied her laces swiftly. "You don't just tie your skate laces in a bow, Kimmy, you have to lace them through the hooked eyelets."

Kimmy scoffed, not knowing what a hooked eyelet was, she wasn't a hockey player, she wasn't interested in hockey. Why would she?

"If you don't hook them then there's not even point tying them." Aaron told her, despite the fact he knew she didn't care in the slightest about ice skates. Aaron grabbed Kimmy's hand, pulling her up with him. "The second you would try move they would have come flying off and you would have fallen flat on your face."

Kimmy rolled her eyes, Aaron handing her the hockey stick she was using that was lying on the floor.

With that Aaron turned and stepped onto the frozen lake, skating away from the girl, turning to face her as he waited for her to catch up. Aaron scrunched his face up, momentarily forgetting that she wasn't used to skating on ice like he was.

She was moving slowly, her eyes trained to her feet, her arms stuck out at her sides slightly in case she were to fall.

Well, this proved to be useless anyway, because the girl seemed to have gotten the front of her blade caught on the ice, sending the girl flying onto the ice with a yelp.

Kimmy made no attempt to get up, leaning on her forearms as she groaned in slight pain. She reached her hand out, grabbing her stick which she had dropped when she fell and going to stand with a sigh.

Because Kimmy had fallen on her front, she struggled to stand again, unsure how to manoeuvre herself so she could stand without cutting herself on the skates.

Aaron sighed, skating over to her and looping his own arm under her arm, pulling her up to stand.
Kimmy let out a frustrated sigh, blowing the loose strands of hair out of her face, Aaron hiding an amused smile at her dramatics.

The girl had her hair in two loose braids, Aaron advising her over the phone before the two had even left their houses that it was probably in her best interest to keep her hair out of her face.

"Look at me," Kimmy scoffed, motioning down to herself with an unimpressed look. "I am drenched."

To be fair, Kimmy was drenched after her fall, the front of her clothes soaking wet from water.

"You'll be fine." Aaron shook his head, doing his best to remove any humour from his voice, but he had a feeling Kimmy noticed anyway.

"Why do we even need to do this anyway?" The girl continued to huff, stumbling on her balance slightly when Aaron let her go. But she quickly regained her composure.

"Because it was my turn to pick what we did and I like hockey." Aaron rolled his eyes halfheartedly at the girl, skating backwards as he spoke, just to brag to the girl that he could skate confidently unlike herself. "I don't know why you're complaining, I sat through the entire of that new Molly Ringwald movie when it came out, but you didn't hear me complaining did you?"

Aaron watched as Kimmy's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened drastically. "Yeah, only because you dragged me to see the new Indiana Jones when it came out in the movies because you just had to see it opening night. I had a test the next day that I slept through because of that!"

Aaron simply shrugged his shoulders, dropping his hockey puck onto the ice as he impatiently waited for the girl to skate up to where he was stood.

"Well," Aaron sighed dramatically, leaning on his stick at how slowly Kimmy was moving, the girl too scared to look away from her skates as she moved. "I didn't hear you complaining. So-"

"Okay, well now I am." Kimmy retorted, her voice sounding distant as most of her attention was adverted to the floor.

Aaron rolled his eyes at her despite the face he couldn't see. "Now you're what?"

"Now I'm complaining." Kimmy stated in an obvious tone.

"You can't complain weeks after we went to see it." Aaron scoffed disapprovingly.

"Yes I can." Kimmy retorted as she reached out and grabbed Aaron's arm and sliding her skates under her so she wouldn't have to try skate the entire way to the boy. "Freedom of speech and all."

"Whatever." Aaron mumbled and shook his head, turning his attention away from the girl as he went to try show her how to hit the hockey puck.

"Okay, just like this." Aaron told her, going through the motions with his own hockey stick without ever actually hitting the puck. "You try."

"Okay," Kimmy nodded, her voice quiet as she spoke. The girl tried to copy him, but she ended up missing the puck entirely and just hitting the ice next to it harshly.

The girl turned to him with an expression mixed with anger and embarrassment, Aaron could tell she was about to protest and give up before she even opened her mouth.

"It's okay." Aaron reassured instantly, demonstrating for the girl to watch once more. "It's fine, your doing good, it's just your aim-"

"Aaron," Kimmy sighed, her brows knitting together in frustration. "Isn't hitting the puck the entire point?"

"Well, I mean, yeah." Aaron shrugged hesitantly. "But you're doing good, I swear. That was only your first try."

Aaron tried to teach Kimmy how to do it a couple more times but she just wasn't getting it, eventually, the girl gave up just as Aaron predicted she would.

"Okay, that's enough for today." Kimmy dismissed abruptly, handing Aaron her hockey stick. "Let's do something else. Something fun."

Aaron rolled his eyes but allowed Kimmy to ramble on.

Kimmy turned away from the boy, trying to skate away from him but failing miserably. Aaron sighed and skated after her, grabbing her hand and dragging her along behind him, knowing the two would be there all day while Kimmy tried to get off the ice if he didn't.

Aaron seemed to be skating too fast for the girl to keep up, Kimmy scrambling frantically as she gripped onto the boy for dear life with a panicked expression.

"I think next time I should just watch?" Kimmy blurted after they were off of the ice, the two sat side by side as they undid their skates.

Aaron grinned proudly to himself at her words, the girl confirming that there would in fact be a next time when she'd let him take her skating.

"Maybe," Aaron shrugged trying to act calm and unbothered as he spoke before he began laughing and asked her a question of his own. "What do you think Lucas did to piss Max off?"

Kimmy laughed in response, looking to him with a toothy smile. "I don't know, it could be anything. He either looked at her wrong or killed somebody, there's no in-between."

Aaron smiled back at her, nodding his head in amusement.

Aaron went back to his house that night knowing one thing, he most certainly liked the girl to the extend he would be perfectly fine just hanging out with her and no one else ever again. Although the boy wasn't sure this was a good thing, for all he knew he could be getting his hopes up.

With one final shake of his head Aaron pushed the thoughts from his mind, ultimately deciding that if it would really spiral into such a big issue, he would cross the bridge when he came to it.

...

Kind of a short chapter in contrast to the last one but I'm super super excited to start season 3!!!!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far!!

- AJ :)