Alex's POV

I'm trying my best to stand still, but it's hard to do it when kids are passing by me at the speed of light, making me lose my balance and fall butt first on the ice.

Despite that and how sore and cold my butt feels, I think this is one of the most romantic moments of my life.

I'm ice skating at the Rockefeller center with Dylan. Well, trying to skate would be more accurate.

I suck at this, like... badly.

Dylan is looking at me right now, his hands over his stomach as he laughs like a maniac, because I just fell for the tenth time.

He extends his hand to me, so I can be up on my feet again and when I do, he holds me tight against his body, close enough to feel his warmth.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I have to say that you're funny when you fall."

"I'll try not to be offended by that." I bring my hand to my head to adjust the annoying hat that insists on falling over my eyes, not helping my case at all.

"Ok, what I really want to say is that I like being here with you." He gives me a sweet smile and I can't help but smile back, as the thin snow starts slowly falling from the sky.

"Well, I like being here with you too." He pulls me a bit closer and leans in to kiss me. It's soft and although our noses are way too cold, it feels good.

After he lets go of me, he takes my hand and leads the way, holding me tight so I don't fall again.

"How are you so good at this?" I ask because it looks like he's floating on the ice, like he owns the place. He glances at me with a smirk before he answers.

"I was into hockey before I joined the football team, so I practiced for a while."

Right, I remember his hockey phase. I went to watch him play and suddenly it became the most interesting sport. I even asked my dad to get me a New York Rangers t-shirt. It was a bit stupid of me, I admit.

"What about you? Have you ever skated before, because you know..." I bumped on my own feet when he said that, making a point that I'm a terrible skater.

"Yeah, well, we used to skate together, remember? You, me, Bennett and your dad.''

''Right.'' I can't blame him for not remembering, it was a long time ago. It was so much fun. I remember how Bennett used to help me skate because I sucked at it. I still suck. 

''As you can see, I was never really good at it. My favorite part is actually having hot tea after skating."

"Now you get to skate with me..." He pauses to make a move and twirls around me, making me laugh. "...and Lilly. Where is she by the way?"

"She should be here soon."

Lilly is the one who insisted that we came skating because it's on the bucket list.

"I'm glad that we are having this time just for us, you know, as a couple." I say while he hugs me again.

"Yeah." He agrees and I giggle for no reason.

"I wish you could stay the whole time, though." I pout and he pinches my nose.

"I know, I wanted to, but the guys had this thing planned for a long time, so I have to go."

"I understand." I know that if we want a healthy relationship, it's important to spend time with our friends as well, not just with each other, so I nod like the understanding girlfriend that I am.

He does spend a lot of time with his friends though, so I secretly hoped he cancelled his plans to stay with me.

I also want him to spend time with Lilly, so she gets to know him. Once she realizes how amazing he is, she will change her mind about him.

"Why don't we go over there where the food stands are, so we can get you some tea?"

"I'd love that. I'm sick of falling on this thing. I want to be able to walk like a normal person and I still have to skate with Lilly."

He chuckles and we start skating our way out of the rink.

The only problem is that half way through I slipped again, only this time it wasn't pretty, it was more like when you keep slipping several times, enough to get everyone's attention, before you fall like an idiot.

When I finally stand up, I notice a group of people that are certainly finding this amusing before they are quickly back to their own thing.

They seem to be around my age and I don't know what's worse. Embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of heartless kids who are laughing at me or a group of about ten teenagers.

Luckily, not all of them paid attention to my pathetic attempt of getting out of here, so looking at the bright side, I probably only embarrassed myself in front of half of them.

"Are you ok?" Dylan asks me as I adjust my hat for the millionth time.

"I'm fine." I say, a bit annoyed at this point.

I glance at the same group, when I notice one of the guys, who seems to be in the half that didn't see me fall.

"Isn't that Bennett?" I ask Dylan, pointing my head in his brother's direction. He looks where I'm pointing and shrugs.

"Yeah, it looks like the nerd has friends after all."I give him a pointed look.

I keep staring at Bennett with his friends and it's a weird sight. Not sure why, but it's different seeing him like this.

Like he's actually having fun.

He is leaning on the rink wall as his friends skate around him. He's unbothered, a loose smile on his face.

The moment I'm about to mind my own business, I see a girl practically crashing on him, but instead of being annoyed or anything typical Bennett, like glare at the girl for invading his personal space, he holds her elbow and snorts a laugh.

The girl is finally steady on her feet, but he doesn't let her go. They keep in that exchange until he takes her hat that fell on the ice to put it back on her head.

He does it in a sweet gesture and my stomach immediately twists.

Is she... no, I'm sure it's something else. She cannot be his girlfriend.

Bennett is not dating.

Or is he?

Well, he certainly doesn't treat his friends like that. Trust me, I've been paying attention. He's being way too sweet with her.

"Alex?" I hear Dylan call me, but I ignore him. "Alex, let's go."

I finally look at him, nodding as we skate a bit more on our way to the rink exit.

But not before a final glance at Bennett. She is now giggling and playing with his scarf. He wouldn't allow anyone to be this close to him, but there she is.

Well, he must really like her...

Who the hell is she anyway? Could she be Kate?

The way he is smiling at her, playful in a way that I've never seen him doing, makes me sick.

"Is everything ok?" I focus my attention on Dylan, the person I should be paying attention to all along.

It's our romantic moment for christ sake.

"Yes, sorry, I zoned out for a moment."

"I noticed that." I give him an apologetic smile. "Shall we go?"

I nod, pulling him for a kiss. I crash my lips on his harder than I wanted and it's just that. A rough kiss, not a romantic one. I don't know why I did it, I guess I just want to prove a point to myself, whatever that point is.

We pull away, leave the rink and the moment we're on the line to get tea, we hear a high pitched voice.

"Damn, this place is crowded. I mean, of course it's crowded, it's freaking Christmas and this is the Rockefeller Center."

"Hi Lilly." My friend is way too loud sometimes.

"How are you guys? Am I late? Alex, why does it look like you've had a hard time skating already?" I narrow my eyes at her.

She is probably talking about my hair that is sticking to my face and how disheveled I look.

"How did you know we were here exactly?" I ignore her question, because Dylan is laughing next to me and I don't want to talk about my lack of ice skating skills.

"Oh, I followed the food. If you're not in the rink, there's only one place you could be and that's wherever food is."

What can I say? She knows me.

"I have to go, will you be ok?" Dylan puts his hands on my arms so I'm now facing him.

"Yeah, Lilly and I will skate a bit more and you know, I'll probably fall a few more times, but it will be fun." I smile, really wishing he would stay. "I'll miss you though."

"Me too." He kisses me, letting his lips linger for a while, until we hear Lilly clearing her throat next to us.

I glare at her, but she gives us an innocent look.

"I'll call you later. Have fun, ok?" He gives me one last hug before he leaves.

The moment he is out of sight, Lilly pulls me towards her and rolls her eyes.

"God, I thought he would never leave."

"You do realize it's my boyfriend we're talking about, right?" She hits my arms playfully.

"Oh please, he is Dylan West, so even if he's finally your boyfriend, I still don't like him."

I shake my head, I'll let this go because I don't want to argue with her about this again.

"How was the meeting?" I ask instead.

"It was nice, I'll definitely apply." Lilly has been in contact with a NYU group of students for a while and they invited her to their Christmas get together, so she could get to know more about them and the college.

"I'm sure you'll get in." She shrugs.

"I hope so. Forget about it, tonight is about having a nice time together, skating until our feet hurt and having a sugar rush of so many s'mores we'll eat. Well, I'll eat, you're a freak who doesn't like chocolate"

"Don't forget the ritual to cross it from the bucket list." I add and she nods.

We make our way to the entrance again, where we show our online purchased tickets, so we can get in and I can have another round of falling.

As the athletic person that she is, Lilly is obviously good at ice skating as well. I mean, not Olympic level, but good enough to twirl and jump.

It's so nice to spend this time with her that I almost forgot about what happened earlier with Bennett.

"I can tell something is bothering you." I wonder if there will be a day where I can hide things from Lilly. Even if I want to, she seems to know when something is wrong.

Lilly is persistent and I'll end up telling her anyway, so I might just say it already.

"Well, it's nothing, it's just..." I pause, taking a deep breath. She will make a big deal out if this, so I'll probably regret this.

"Just what? Spill it, woman."

"Bennett is here with some friends. It was just weird seeing him with a girl, that's all." I say fast enough, hoping she will let this go, but I know she will absolutely not let this go.

"Wait, Bennett is here? With a girl?" I nod, but she doesn't seem to believe it. "Who?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I've never seen those friends of his."

She nods, but I can see the wheels turning inside her head.

"And that's not ok because..." it sounds more like an unasked question.

"I don't know, it's just weird. He seemed so relaxed and into her. I've never seen him like this, that's all."

"I have to see it." She starts looking around.

"What?"

"Take me to where they were, I want to see this mystery girl."

"Lilly, I don't think that's a good idea." I don't know why I bother, seriously. It's not like I will convince her.

She's already looking for him, a determined look on her face, like if whatever I said is true, she will demand an explanation, which is very weird.

Why would she even care who the girl is? She said she's not into Bennett and I believe her, so what's the point?

We skate closer to where Bennett was when I was with Dylan, and I hope he's gone already, but no. He is still there, the girl standing next to him as they look at their friends skating.

The same weird feeling creeps its way back.

He doesn't look as happy as he did moments ago though.

"We should go say hi." Lilly's words make my head turn so fast to face her that it almost gave me a headache.

"Have you lost your mind? I'm not going over there." I protest.

"Well, I will." She doesn't give me time to react, she's already skating in their direction.

I try to skate after her, but as the better skater, she is fast and if I do this any faster, I will fall for sure.

"Lilly? What are you doing here?" Bennett asks, straightening his body as he pushes himself away from the rink board.

"Bennett, I didn't know you were here. Such a coincidence, isn't it?" For a good actress, Lilly is seeming completely fake and I think she's doing it on purpose.

"These are my friends. Guys, this is Lilly. We go to the same school." She waves to everyone and they wave back. Except for the girl, the girl is looking at Lilly as if she interrupted something.

"So, what are you doing here? Are you alone?" He asks in a tone as if he already knows the answer and that's the moment I make my not so great entrance.

Guess what happened? You got it right, I slipped and my amazing introduction to the conversation was with my face on the ice.

"Are you ok?" I look up, to find Bennett reaching out his hand to me. "Here, let me help you."

I grab it, feeling like an idiot. My hair is sticking to my face again, and for a split second I see Bennett moving his hand in my face's direction, but then he drops it to his side.

"Sorry, I just... I'm not really good at skating." He smiles, the intensity of his stare as usual.

"I'm not that good either." I give him a weak smile, because I can't tell him that I actually saw him skating earlier when I glanced back and that would not be classified as 'not good'.

I guess it's just Bennett trying to make me feel better, like he usually does. When we're not fighting, at least.

"Ben, aren't you going to introduce your friend?" The girl asks, making him look away.

I have to admit that the way she calls him Ben pisses me off a little. It reminded me of that girl from school that called him Ben a while ago. He doesn't like to be called like this, if they don't know that, maybe they don't know him that well.

"Yeah, right. This is Alex. These are my friends from camp."

I can tell he is uncomfortable. I guess it's because he never introduced his friends to any of us and barely talks about them. I feel like we're invading his privacy somehow.

Also, for some reason it's like his friends' demeanor changed when he mentioned my name, but that's just me being crazy, as usual.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Don." One of his friends says, with a smirk on his face. He clearly seems curious and narrows his eyes as if studying me, before looking at Bennett, who fits the floor in response.

"Yeah, right. I'm sorry, but we should get going if we want to catch the movie." Another girl says, not bothering to acknowledge us.

Way less polite than Don.

Lilly gives Bennett a pointed look, like she's silently wanting to tell him something, but he just looks away from her too, his face serious. Whatever she's trying to tell him, he's not interested in engaging in it.

What is going on with them? All of them.

It looks like they don't like me, but they don't even know me, so why on earth some of them are glaring at me and some others are looking at me like I'm an interesting animal at the zoo?

"Bennett, you're going with Kate to her cousin's house before we go to the movies, like planned, right?"

The moment the girl says Kate's name, I freeze. So this is Kate... The girl he was texting and being all flustered about. I mean, of course he was flustered, it's so damn obvious they are a thing.

After today, I have no doubts about it.

Also, the girl's tone was like a statement, as if she wanted us to know that Bennett and Kete have something going on between them.

My heart starts beating fast, but not the good kind. I'm just nervous. Pissed, even.

"Yeah, I guess." Bennett's eyes are back on me, like he's looking for a reaction and I feel my cheeks on fire.

What is wrong with me? I suddenly feel the urge to go over there and ask her a million questions and tell her that I have known him my entire life, not that it would make any difference.

I want to prove that she doesn't know him like I do, but what would be the point anyway?

Not to mention that I have no clue how close they are. Maybe he opens up to her more than he does to me, which is not a lot. Maybe I'm the one who doesn't know a thing about him.

I hate the thought.

She must be special if he's going to her cousin's house or whatever on freaking Christmas. Like, it's Christmas for heaven's sake, so he'll meet her family.

He probably met her family already, God, I don't know what I'm saying.

Before I make a fool out of myself, and before Lilly says something she shouldn't, because one look at her and I can tell she's about to lose her shit, it's better to leave.

"We should get going anyway." I say, pulling Lilly's arms to the opposite direction of where they are going.

Bennett nods and goes stand next to Kate, way too close of her for my liking. In his defense, she's the one who practically glued on him.

"I guess I'll see you around." I say and smile trying to see if he would give me any sort of attention.

"Yeah." Is all he says at the same time that the girl snuggles even closer to him, marking her territory even more.

He doesn't move, neither closer or away from her, so I frown at them.

We make our way and when we're far enough, Lilly turns to me.

"Can you believe him?" Lilly sounds angry and I don't know how to feel about whatever just happened.

"What is going on? Why did you want to go over there? Bennett was perfectly fine with his friends and his girlfriend." I snap.

"Please, she is not his girlfriend." My eyes dart to her.

"Did you look at them? It's so obvious. What makes you think they are not dating?" She shrugs, fitting the ice.

"I don't know, I just don't think he actually loves her, you know?"

"It was obvious, Lilly! Why do I feel you know something I don't?" I'm so angry that I might be imagining things.

"I just read the situation and I think he's not that into her, but who am I to say, right? We know him, so I just thought it would be good to go say hi, no biggie."

I narrow my eyes and although I still feel like she's not telling me everything, I don't have time to say anything else, because my next move is an epic fall.

Fucking great.

I look up from the ice rink and I see Bennett with his group in the distance. Kate takes Bennett's arm and leans her head on his shoulder.

The same feeling I had when I first saw them is back and although I don't want to admit it - because I shouldn't feel it - I know what it is.

I'm jealous of Bennett.

..........................

Hello Lovely Readers,

I do like this chapter a lot! I guess it's because it gives another perspective from Bennett's POV of skating at the Rockefeller. It feels like both chapters just fit well together! haha, I hope you think that too. 

To answer some of your questions, YES, we will see more of Bennett's friends, YES, Kate will be in more chapters (not soon though), YES, there will be more things happening at the school play/auditorium (BIG things)!

I'm excited for the next chapters because there's a LOT that is going to happen that might bring Alex and Bennett together (not forgetting that you might get frustrated with bad decisions...)

Love,

Me