"Cara!"

"I'm coming!" I blocked my phone and kept it inside my bag, walking with my skates already on towards the rink. Like every other text he had sent me, I ignored it.

Another picture of him. Nico's been sending me pictures nonstop all week. The last one had been one photo of him finally walking with clutches. Someone took it from him and I wondered who that might be.

Maybe it was that girl he talked about. What was her name?

As if I didn't know it perfectly.

It was one of these moments when I wished I had social media. I knew Nico had an Instagram account, he showed me some of his work on his profile. He was one of those people with lots of followers but just a few pictures of him covering his face with his phone, just showing his back or his hands. Most of them were photos he took or paintings he made.

And even if I knew he wouldn't be posting anything, I still wanted to see it for myself. Maybe I could ask Ben to help me. I was terrible with technology.

Maybe I could also see that Mélanie girl.

It just came out, I really didn't know her name.

"You seem distracted. Just 'cause you won last competition doesn't mean you can chill now."

I stared at Jeong-wu with an annoyed face, he had a smirk on his and I just wanted to punch it away. I smiled. "Then how come you've been doing that all of your life if you haven't even won one?"

It wasn't true, he was really good, but I liked to see his face become red with anger, smoke almost coming out of his nostrils. Just like Mushu. I glided over my coach and ignored Jeong-wu. He thought his remarks would bring me down but they only made me become better.

"You're chirpy."

"Chirpy?" I frowned.

"Yeah, you've been happy lately." He added.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I cocked my head.

He stared at me pressing his lips together. "Well, you know..."

"Okay, yeah, but times passes. It heals everything." I gestured to his notes. "What's on today's menu?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nico had stopped sending me pictures.

Why?

Had he really gotten tired?

He only sent...

I scrolled up our conversation and counted them.

Eleven.

Eleven pictures.

And no response for my part.

Okay, maybe he did get tired.

But he still hadn't apologized. I knew I was really stubborn but my family was really important for me. I didn't like what he said about them.

Although lately I had been realizing some things.

For instance, Brandon had been taking advantage of me. Now he suddenly didn't care that I took care of Sandro. He realized he was nothing without me and came back to me. But he still treated me like shit. As if he was doing me a favor to let me clean his son's diaper. I had decided to talk to him about it, maybe I could do it that night after he arrived from work.

My mom's been going out a lot. It was seriously impossible she got so many shifts. Plus, she'd started to wear make up and doing her hair. Suspicious? Yeah. Couldn't she have some fun? Yeah.

But couldn't I?

Ben had been really weird lately. He'd been disappearing, not at his usual hours, but in the morning. Where the hell was he going so early? I needed to find out.

In fact, I could do that now. Maybe I could start with the excuse that I wanted an Instagram account.

I knocked on Ben and Ash's bedroom door when I came home from practice. He was sitting on his desk, reading some document on his computer. When he saw me get inside, he quickly closed the window and opened another.

"I told you like a millions times to knock on the door."

"I knocked." I pointed out.

"Yes, but I didn't tell you to come in." He said annoyed. He sighed and turned his chair to look at me. "What do you want?"

"I want to create an Instagram account." I announced as I leaned on his desk, giving him my phone.

He took it and cocked his head with a frown. "You know that you need to have friends and stuff to follow you?"

I narrowed my eyes at his comment and punched his arm. "I have fans, you know."

"But you've always had fans and you still didn't like it." He cocked his head and smirked, rolling my phone in his hands. "What's the real reason?"

"Nothing." I mumbled. "I just changed my mind." I sighed and bounced my legs exasperated. "Come on, help me."

"Okay." He pointed at me. "But you owe me. I'm busy."

"You owe me like four hundred and twenty six favors, Ben." I remarked. "What are you even busy with?"

"Stuff."

"What stuff?" I asked, taking another chair and rolling over to his desk. "Where are you going in the mornings?"

"What username do you wanna use?"

"Cara Belinsky. Come on, tell me."

"I've been working."

"Working?"

"Yeah, I'm saving. Profile picture?"

I got closer to him and frowned. "I don't know, that one." I pointed, since he had already opened my pictures.

"What is with all of these pictures of Nico?" He asked, scrolling up.

"Stop!" I tried to take my phone from him but he closed the app and went back to Instagram.

"Chill, I didn't wanna see your boyfriend's dick."

"You're disgusting." I scrunched up my nose. "He's not my boyfriend and he surely doesn't send me pictures of his... thing." I was blushing by the time I ended the sentence.

Ben stared at me and chuckled. "Yeah, sure."

As we decided on what to write in my bio, I kept on with my questions. "What have you been saving for?"

After a moment of being silent, his thumb hovering over the screen, he said quietly, "College."

"You're going back to college?" I asked, eyes opened wide.

"That's my plan."

"Oh my god, Ben!" I jumped off my chair, throwing myself at my brother, hugging him tightly.

My phone fell and we almost fell down from the chair, too. "Cara! What the hell!"

"You just made my day." I kissed his cheek and stared at him. "I'm so happy for you, Ben."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Ben said pushing me off his lap, grabbing my phone from the floor. I didn't miss how he was trying to fight a smile. "You want that Instagram account or not?"

"Yes." I said beaming as I sat on my chair.

"Then stop. No kisses, no hugs and don't tell anyone. I still haven't figured out how I'm gonna tell mom." He said with a frown.

"She's gonna be so proud, Ben." I smiled.

The reason why my brother had decided to go back to college was still a mystery, but if that meant he'd be happier and he'd have the possibility to take advantage of his talents and with that, have a better future, the mystery could stay unsolved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, when I was alone in bed, as alone as I could be in my bedroom with two little demons on the other side of the room, I checked my Instagram. I got so overwhelmed that I had to stand up from the bed and sit on my window ledge. I already had a thousand followers. Some of them I recognized, people and acquaintances of the figure skating word. Even Mushu started following me. But the majority of them were people I knew nothing about. I also had lots of dm's. People excited that I had created an account and some of them asking if I was the official Cara Belinsky.

I knew people liked me, I could see them from the ring as I skated. I even received letters and little gifts from some of them, or signed some autographs after a competition. Specially when I went to the olympics. But I didn't know there were so many.

"Oh my god..." I whispered as I continued scrolling down.

I followed some people back and decided to post a picture. It was one from last competition, and I honestly loved it.

After a few hours of reading people's messages and comments, I decided to look for the one I had created this account for.

Nicolas Dumont.

What a beautiful name. I wondered how it was pronounced in French. In my mind sounded really good.

I shook my head, just like every time that I had started thinking about my friend this week, and hit the follow button.

I waited and waited but nothing happened.

Was he really mad at me now? I sighed and let my phone on my table, walking towards my bed again after I plugged it in.

And that night, I tried not to think of him, but Nico was all over my dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up, I checked the time to see that I was late. As usual. I quickly put on my clothes and grabbed something to eat on my way to the arena. I drove there in record time and by the time my coach approached me, I had already managed to put on my skates.

"You're fast, but I know you're late." He scolded me. "I've seen your car arrive."

"What matters is that I'm here, right?" I grinned.

"Come on, warm up." He said with a roll of his eyes.

"Yes, sir." I saluted.

When I got back home that night, I was firm to talk to Brandon. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. Ash was moving out tomorrow, so I guessed, since Sandro was on my grandpa's lap, that they went out as a goodbye party.

I usually had a shower at the arena, but today I decided against it. Not because I was late and totally forgot to bring clean underwear.

No, it wasn't that.

Before I got into the shower, as I waited for the water to warm up, I checked my phone. Nico had followed me back, thirteen hours ago. Just at that moment did I realize that he lived six hours ahead of me. So when I followed him yesterday, he was probably asleep.

What time is it now? 5.30 pm, so that means it's...

I sighed exasperated and got into the shower. Why am I so fucking bad at maths?

When I was finishing washing my hair, I rolled my eyes at my belated mental calculation. 11.30 pm. He was awake, for sure. I just needed an excuse to talk to him.

I was still thinking by the time my brothers, my grandpa and I were sitting at the table having dinner. Sandro was put to sleep and I didn't have time to make anything during the day, so frozen pizza it was. The kids loved it.

"Hey, Oli's slice is bigger." Oscar pointed out.

I sighed and exchanged our plates, so he could have a bigger portion.

"Did you touch it?" He asked suspiciously.

"Yes, I licked it all over." I grinned.

"Ew!" He scrunched up his nose looking at the slice.

"It's a joke, Oscar." I chuckled at the germophobe nine year old. "Eat it. There's another one in the oven." And then two more, i thought. Ben ate like a razorback.

"Hey, what happened with the girl you were always with?" Grandpa asked Ben.

"I broke up with her." He shrugged, his eyes never leaving the TV screen. There was a football game and he was a huge fan. Justin was too. The boy wasn't even chewing, his slice of pizza in his hand. I think he forgot he was supposed to eat it somewhere along the way to his mouth.

"Oh." Grandpa shrugged and kept on eating. "She was... nice."

Ben frowned, still looking at the TV. Although I was not sure he was paying attention now. "She was a bad influence. I deserve better."

Grandpa glanced at me with a surprised look before turning to look at Ben. I just gave him a shrug and a little smile. "Sure you do, kid." He let out a breath and stared at me, a little smile playing on his lips. "And how's Nico doing?"

"Fine. They let him use clutches now."

"That's good." Almost everyday, my grandpa asked me something about the guy. I was beginning to think he liked him more than me.

"Where is he?" Oli asked after I came back from the kitchen with another pizza.

"Who?" I asked, cutting it.

"Nico." I served him another slice, and he quickly took off the pieces of mushroom.

"In Paris."

"Wow." The twins both said in awe. "Why is he there?"

"He's visiting his family." I took a bite. I burnt my tongue. Great.

"Are you mad at him?" Oli asked.

"No." I shook my head.

"Then why did you call him...?"

I gave him a pointed look as I raised one of my eyebrows.

Oli bit his tongue and giggled. "Never mind."

"Yes!" Ben suddenly got up and fisted his hand, scaring all of us since some of the plates bounced on the table.

"Ben!" I scolded him.

My brother ignored me completely and turned to look at Justin. "Did you see that?" He asked the little boy. Justin nodded eagerly, a small smile showing on his lips.

Ben took his coke and took a large sip, his eyes going back to the game. Justin then glanced at me, still smiling. I wiggled my eyebrows at him and he smiled wider. I think he was just excited that his older brother had payed to him some kind of attention.

Ben had changed a lot in the past week, and I was starting to think who could be the cause of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My nervousness went away the second Nico's voice buzzed against my ear. He always managed to calm me, even though my stomach was doing weird somersaults.

"Mais, mon Dieu! The famous figure skater, Cara Belinsky! To what do I owe the honor of this call?" I was sitting on the roof later that night, the excuse to call him weighing heavy on my tongue.

"Don't mock me." I furrowed my brow, throwing a leaf to the ground. It was, according to my calculations, three in the morning there, but I had a feeling he wasn't asleep yet.

"I don't know. Since you didn't respond to my texts, I thought you were busy with your 5k followers on Instagram." He added.

Did I really have that many followers? In just one day?

"So you're mad." I pointed out.

"I'm not mad." He paused. "I just get tired of chasing you sometimes." He explained softly.

The excuse I had prepared to call him instantly flew away. I didn't need an excuse, I wanted to call him. I wanted to hear his voice, I wanted to know how he was doing.

Since I had stopped talking, he continued.

"Look, Cara. I'm sorry if I hurt you in any kind of way with what I said, it wasn't my intention. But my opinion is still the same." He sighed.

"You were right about... some things." I told him. "I'm still trying to figure things out, though." I explained. "I'm sorry I called you... you know."

"You won't even repeat it?" He asked. "I thought it was very sexy coming from you."

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes and covered my face, which was warming up due to the blush.

Nico let out a little laugh when I didn't talk. "You're covering your face."

"How do you know?"

"I didn't. I just tried." He chuckled. "You sometimes do when you're embarrassed."

"I'm not embarrassed." I mumbled.

"You aren't?" He asked. "Okay, then let me point out a few things that I find sexy about you. Wait a moment, I have a list somewhere in my pocket..."

"Oh, shut up." I laughed.

Nico did too, and we stayed silent for a few moments. Just hearing each other's breathing.

"I'm glad you called." He said.

"Me, too." I smiled, covering my face once again. A weird feeling had settled on my body and I felt tingly and excited.

"You're stubborn."

"You are, too." I added.

"I'm a Taurus." He pointed out.

"I know nothing about zodiac sings." I pressed my lips together. "I just know I'm a Capricorn."

"I don't know much about them either, but my grandma used to say that I was really stubborn and that was because I was a Taurus. I think it was just an excuse for her stubbornness, since she was a taurus, too. Juste comme mémé."

I didn't understand but I didn't want to ruin the moment.

"Cara." He said after a moment of silence with a yawn. "I can't sleep, tell me about your week."

So I told him about Ben, I told him about the twins and the guy at the park. I told him about my new social media discovery and my weird obsession with roller coasters. He told me about his recovery and his evil step siblings. He told me about his passion for art and how he hated public swimming pools.

We talked, we talked for hours, as I lay back and gazed at the stars.

And as we talked, it hit me.

I liked him.

I liked Nico Dumont.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really don't know what happened. I started writing and I couldn't stop. So here it is, one extra chapter just a day after the other one. Plus, it is a long one.🥳

So!!! 😏😏😏 she likes him! I'm so happy for the things to come. I hope I can update soon.

Thoughts about the chapter?

Do you think that Nico was right about telling Cara all those things about her family?

What do you think of Ben's change?

How cute is Justin? I love him so much.

What do you think will happen next?

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and let me know what you think in the comments ❤️