Love Me Not

Chapter 11

“I wasn’t sure if you were going to turn up,” Yas said finally staring at Eve as she arrived in the ice rink. 

Eve brushed a few strands of her hair back behind her ear self-consciously and shifted her bag from where it sat on her shoulder, “Well we still need to perform this duet and I want it to look good so we better make this work.”

“Sure,” Yas agreed briefly. “We still need to finish the duet as we don’t have much time left before Tessa and Scott want to us to perform it to them.”

Eve hadn’t realised that the tour had been going so fast and they’d soon have to start performing regularly but thinking about it Yas was right in that they probably had a week or two before they started to have to perform this to the public. “I want to change the concept though,” she said determined.

“What to? It is a bit late to come up with an entirely new program.” Yas asked confused.

“I think it’d be better if instead of you playing Aeneas you instead represent the king of the dead Hades who is taking Dido down to her death. I just think it will be easier chemistry-wise and we can still keep our choreo and music we came um with,” Eve said the words spilling out of her as fast as they could out of control. That had been part of the deal she had made with herself when she had decided to keep doing the duet with Yas because she needed to construct as many boundaries as she could.

“For chemistry-reasons,” Yas repeated as though to agree with what Eve had just said. He nodded his head slightly unconvinced, “We can make that work if that’s what you would feel more comfortable doing.” 

“Yeah I would feel better doing that,” Eve agreed. “I had some ideas about how we could just slightly twist the choreo we had already done and what we could do with it moving forwards to portray how she’s torn between dying or not.”

“That’s no problem,” Yas said shaking his head as though to shake himself out of a stupor. “Do you want to get your skates on so we can get to work on the ice?”

“Yeah just give me a moment,” Eve said sitting down on a bench and sliding her skates out of her bag. 

“No problem,” Yas said before turning to sort out the music on the speakers and Eve could hear the first few notes starting to float out and fill the rink. “Have you started to think about costume as Dido?”

Eve pulled her two skates on and started to tie up her laces so they were cinched in at her ankles, “I got a dress when I was out with the others but I can always return it if it doesn’t work out.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to sort it out after all your costumes have always been beautiful,” Yas said from where he was standing his back to her fiddling with his ipod.

Eve flushed slightly glad he wasn’t able to see it especially considering that she was still mad at the Japanese skater. “Well I haven’t got Olga around so I’m not sure how sure I can be that I will be able to maintain my normal standards,” she said brushing aside the rest of his comment. 

“You ready,” he asked sliding the remote into his pocket and stepping onto the ice with ease.

Eve checked her skates for the last time to make sure that they were still tight before standing up and heading towards the ice. She stepped onto it gracefully feeling the ice move beneath her as she skated towards the Japanese skater with ease. 

…

At the end of the rehearsal Eve was panting, her forehead was slick with sweat and her hair frizzing slightly at the nape of her neck. They had finished the rest of the duet adding a variety of pair movements throughout which Yas had apparently gotten Scott and Tessa to teach him over the last few days to make up for the fact that Eve still wasn’t able to jump.

She’d been really careful throughout to ensure however that she kept their discussion as cool as possible and professional so that it was solely focused on the choreography. They had a job to do and Eve would only be able to do it properly if was able to ensure that there was no drama happening.

“That was really good,” Yas said skating to the edge of the ice looking just as dishevelled as Eve was. “You picked up the pair movements really fast.” 

“It’s not as though they were incredibly complex,” Eve said shrugging uncomfortable under his attention. “It was a good idea of yours work on those though so we can get a bit of added wow factor to our performance.”

“Definitely,” Yas agreed getting off the ice and heading towards the bench so he could start to remove his skates. “Costume wise I was thinking for me that I could just wear a black regency style top and black pants now that I’m death.”

“That sounds good though what will your fans say at such an understated outfit.” Eve said poking fun at Yas from where she stood pressed up against the boards watching him take his skates off. 

Yas laughed a single chuckle, “Well I can guarantee there will be as many rhinestones that I can fit onto that top in the time that we have before we need to perform which had better keep them satisfied.” He yanked his skates off and was replacing them with trainers by the time he looked back up at Eve, “Why aren’t you taking your skates off.”

Eve bit her lip, “I’m meeting Nathan to work on his exhibition with him in preparation for the show—that’s why we were watching the movie together.”

Something flashed across Yas’s features but he easily moulded them back into a controlled mask and Eve wasn’t sure if she hadn’t just made up the moment of uncertainty that she had seen in his face, “That sounds fun. Is his exhibition good.”

“I really like it—he really gets who he’s trying to play and we’ve been working on it for a couple days together so I can see the impact of my suggestions.” Eve said thinking back to the past days. The rink with Nathan working on his exhibition had become a form of escape for her and she’d enjoyed her time there more than anything else.

Yas smiled though at least from Eve’s perspective he looked slightly pained as he tucked his skates into his bag, “You seem happy.”

“I am,” Eve said after a few moments of hesitation as she thought about Yas’s few words. “I don’t know what I would have done without his support in the last week or so.”

Yas was just about to speak when they both heard the door swing open and loud confident footsteps fill the otherwise quiet room. “Eve are you there?” a voice asked that Eve was able to identify with ease based off of the clear American accent. 

“Yeah,” She called out as Nathan came into her sight from around a corner. “I’m just finishing up with Yas.”

“Is everything okay,” Nathan asked from where he had approached with a note of caution in his voice as he glanced from Eve to Yas as though to make sure that he wasn’t entering into a loaded situation and to establish the lay of the land. 

Yas stood up shoving the bag with his skates in it to his shoulder roughly, ‘I’m about to go so you guys can get started.” His shoulder brushed against Nathan’s as Eve watch the two men but he no longer seemed openly hostile towards the younger American. 

“I’ll see you later man,” Nathan said turning back to watch Yas leave the room before looking back to where Eve stood routed in her position on the ice. “Is everything okay with you,” he asked with a protective tinge to his voice.

“Yeah. I kept it as civil as I could and he didn’t overstep any of the boundaries that I put up,” Eve said going over her training session with Yas that had happened not 10 minutes ago. 

Nathan smiled sympathetically, “That’s good okay. Your friendship with Yas needs to be on your terms now not his if you want it to survive.”

“I know,” Eve said smiling. “Now are you ready to skate or not.”

…

Yas was mad. Scratch that he was fuming and every part of him hurt and he wasn’t sure why. It all radiated out of his sore ankle and throughout his body, which ached fiercely.

The entire training session with Eve had been incredibly painful for him as she had spent the entire time trying to avoid his company or any prolonged touch that she deemed to be unnecessary and not to the benefit of their routine. He should have expected it from the first second that she had stated that she wasn’t comfortable with the pair of them playing lovers.

It wasn’t as though he had suggested them to play Dido and Aeneas because they were lovers but he did think that their close friendship would lend itself well to the dynamic between the two at least according to his impression from when he had listened to the music. In contrast Dido and the shade of the dead that Eve had strongly suggested was a far less romantic duet that had more tension and disagreement and less tragedy. Besides it was clear to anyone that they would have changed the topic of the duet because they weren’t able to successfully portray the dynamic properly. 

No one had ever accused Yas of not having enough chemistry and he couldn’t help but be annoyed. But that annoyance was nothing in comparison to his anger when he realised how happy she seemed to be thinking about Nathan. A fragment of himself the unselfish part was happy for her and that she had someone to smile about but the larger dominant part was annoyed that he was no longer the source for her smiles and instead merely the reason for her perpetual frown that had rested upon her face for the session. 

Instead she was happy about spending time with Nathan but Yas wasn’t even able to hate the American skater anymore. He had hated him for his friendship with Eve with ease but after he had spoken with the boy he couldn’t fault him for caring about Eve. Anyone would have to be blind to her and her compassion and everything, which made her unique to, not care for Eve and as a result Yas couldn’t begrudge him the fact that he was there for her.

If anything though whilst he had won over Nathan enough that the American skater wouldn’t cause trouble between him and Eve’s friendship that he was trying to rebuild and the girls had all agreed to give him one last chance so all he had to do was win over Eve. He already knew that that would be harder than he might like but there was something about her that was driving him crazy, which he couldn’t put into words. Maybe it was the fact she was no longer hanging around him as much and he missed her or the fact mere fact that if she didn’t loathe him was coolly indifferent. Whenever he saw her now though he could feel his blood boiling in his veins and didn’t want to let her out of his sight which made it all the more painful when she seemed to be trying to conceal her urges to run away from him at all times. 

Yas shook his head twice as though to wake himself up. He was obsessing over nothing and this was only distracting him from more important issues.