Rumours of the rink

Lillian waited. Three days to be exact, she was waiting for the private ice time she had booked. It was going to be the first Asra actually doing their long program in full. Asra again refused to wear the newer skates. Lillian was watching them put on their skates.

“Can I ask you about something?”

“I don’t really wanna talk to my mom.”

“I wasn’t going to ask about that.”

“Okay.” Asra stood up and waited for Lillian's question. Clearly she was having a bit of issue trying to word it. “What's going on? Is everything okay?”

“Where have you been going every night?”

Stopping just as their skate was about to touch the ice, they almost fell. Their grip on the wall was tight. They had no idea how they were going to lie they’re way out of this one.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb Asra. I saw you and James leaving the other night. And last night after Jasper went to bed. What are you hiding.”

“Nothing.” Asra shrugged a little bit and Lillian just crossed her arms. “It’s nothing.”

“If it’s nothing then tell me. Asra-“ as she was talking, Asra was pushing off the wall. “Get back here.”

“You know I really should be practicing my programs.”

“Asra.”

Clearly trying to get Asra to tell her wasn’t working. She sighed and just leaned on the wall after hitting play for the music choice Asra picked. Even though it was a private rehearsal, Will came in just to tell her he’d be back to pick her up in an hour. He had to take James to go see a doctor since just before his Practice ended he went face first into the barrier. She usually never looked at Asras phone, she didn’t really care for it. But as soon as Will left James was texting Asra. Telling them he couldn’t meet tonight because of his face. Will was scared he broke his nose.

“Okay sit down.”

Lillian pointed to the bench after Asra was actually done their full run through. She knew she had to wait just before the Practice was over but also couldn’t wait too long, then Asra could use the excuse of having to go home.

“Are we done? I thought we still had fifteen more minutes.”

“We’re done skating, yes. But what we’re going to do now is you're going to tell me where you’ve been going every night and why James is texting you.”

“You went through my phone?”

“No course not, that is a breach of privacy. But you did leave it on and face up. Why is he texting you.”

“Because we’re friends?”

“Bullshit.” She crossed her arms again. “What are you hiding? Because I know you're sleeping with him. But you wouldn't go through this much effort to hide it.”

“Woah” Asra held up their hands and gave Lillian a look. “First off don't say it so loud, second of all how do you know?”

“You're so mean to him. There literally no other way you would put up with him. Why are you hiding it.”

“You literally told me that you and will had to run around and hide your relationship for a year.'' Asra crossed their arms. They didn't like how it sounded when Lillian said it. Were James and Asra oddly hostile with each other? Yes. but that was the fun part of it. “Why do you sound so judgemental.”

“I'm not judgemental. Will and I had to hide it because we were partners and if our coach found out we would have literally been murdered. There is no way you are running around like this just to sleep with some boy.”

“Okay he's not just some boy.”

“Oh so there's more going on. Is he your boyfriend? Friends with benefits. Is he going to distract you from training.”

They rolled their eyes like they couldn't believe what larisa was saying. Did she really not think that highly of Asra. Two months so far and Asra had kept up their training just fine. James wasn't a distraction, he knew exactly what it was like to be a competitive skater. They were both adults who could handle themselves.

“Okay i dont really want to talk about my sex life with you.”

She huffed a bit and shook her head.

“Fine. but you better be using protection. You're not giving up your career because you're messing around with boys.” she tapped her fingers on the barrier. “What else are you hiding. Im not stupid.”

“I'm not hiding anything. Oh look at that, my mom is calling me.”

They grabbed their phone as it was ringing before dipping to the changing rooms. They didn't want to talk to their mom but they preferred their mother asking when they were getting home then Lillian asking about where they were.

Lillian of course wasn't going to let it slide. She waited until later, Will told her to drop it but she felt something else going on. They left the house around 8, telling everyone she was just going on a late night run to the store. James was easy to trick so of course he believed it. He didn't know what larisa was sitting in Will's car, parked on the road rather than the parking lot. She was sitting there for an hour waiting for Asra and James to show up. When she saw only car pull up she was little thrown off. But Asra wasn’t stupid, they werent going to show up in their own car. Watching the two of them getting out of the car and going to the door, she was kind of confused about the fact that James had a key.

She was very surprised about what she actually walked in on. She didn't even bother hiding at this point. They were just skating around toegther as they warmed up. Not all of the lights were on, which was a safety hazard. But she didn’t blame them, they probably didn’t want to bring attention to the fact they were using the rink after hours.

Asra nearly screamed when they turned around and saw Lillian standing by the barrier. They honestly didn’t think Lillian would go as far as to stalk them to see what they were doing. But she did.

“So this is what you're hiding.”

Asra was caught, absolutely no way to possibly hide this from her anymore. Asra could have just played it off as ‘oh we’ve just been meeting and skating around nothing serious.’ But she walked in just as they were about to start doing moves and spins together. Obviously James wasn’t a choreographer, they were using one of Jasper and James’s old routines to Practice.

“Well?”

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Really because what it looks like is your spending time skating around with your boyfriend instead of resting.”

“I’m not their boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

They both spoke at the same time. Then they looked like they weren’t on the same page, Asra gave him a confused look.

“I feel like we should talk about that.” James whispered to them.

“I mean if you want to talk about it then we can- okay not the point right now.”

Looking back at Lillian, they couldn’t tell what emotions were. That was scary, Asra had never seen this before. Lillian stood waiting for a better answer. She wanted a proper explanation as to what was going on.

“Okay, well.” Asra started but they stopped. “See the thing is.”

“Just tell her.”

James sighed, as much as he didn’t want them to get in trouble but it was too late. Lillian was staring them down. He knew this was going to end badly for them.

“Yeah Asra. Just tell me.”

“Fine! Okay but you can’t get mad.”

“No, you are the one caught doing something stupid. You don’t get to make demands .”

They avoided eye contact as they said it. They knew Lillian was going to blow up during this. They just got Lillian to calm down over the party. Now they were running around behind her back.

“I wanted to pair skate.”

“Wow.” Lillian looked baffled. “We talked about this.”

“I know, but it’s not affecting my training. I still show up every morning and I have my short program down.” Skating to the edge to follow Lillian. They were trying to keep up; they didn’t even put their guards on. “Lillian.”

Lillian was walking away purely because she didn’t want to talk about this infront of James. Sure she considered him one of her skate kids but Asra was different. They were the only one that Lillian was this protected over.

“Does what I say just don’t matter to you at all? Do my words just come out and they’re just nonsense to you?”

“No not at all.”

“Then why don’t you listen to me!” She shook her head, trying to regain her composure; she really didn’t mean to actually yell at Asra. “I told you we’d talk about this after nationals.”

“That’s so far from now, it doesn’t affect my training so I don’t understand why you're so mad.”

“I’m mad because this is exactly what you used to act like before we started understanding each other. I don’t get you, you spent so long turning around your act and proving to me you wanted this. Now what? You throw a party when you know you shouldn’t have. Your training late at night when you are supposed to rest so you're not overworking yourself. You're running around behind my back with a boy who is your boyfriend but also isn't. Why are you lying so much, I don’t understand anymore.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you, I knew you would react like this. You're just as bad as my mom.”

Asra stopped. Regretting the words that came out of their mouth. They tried to speak but Lillian raised her hand, telling them to save it.

“Okay, I’m not talking anymore about this. Not right now.” Lillian went to pull her keys out of her pocket. Asra just watched her leave.

The next day sucked. Lillian barely talked to Asra. And when she did it was just minor critiques of the programs. Asra honestly didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t just apologize for comparing Lillian to their mom, well they could. That would actually be a good start. But they could tell that actually hurt Lillian.they were sitting in their car again with Oliver. They weren’t sure if that was actually going to help this time. Maybe they just didn’t want to be alone. But they did tell Oliver about what happened. For the first time in years Oliver had nothing to say to them, no advice. Nothing. All he could tell them was that they needed to wait for it to all calm down.

The one thing Oliver did tell them that was helpful, they needed to talk to James about where they stood with their relationship. There was no trying to get around telling Oliver while they ranted about the whole thing.

Lillian didn’t tell Asras' mother. Clearly Asra took drastic measures for a reason. She was trying to work out how she was going to talk to Asra about this. The last thing Asra needed was for Lillian to go into this head first and make it worse.

“Uh what's this for?”

Asra was holding out a box to Lillian. They weren’t making eye contact either. They kinda kept their head down because they knew they were stepping on eggshells around her. They just pushed it into her hands before stepping back again. Lillian didn’t open it right away and Asra motioned with their hand for her to open it.

“Are just not going to speak.” They just motioned again. “Okay. Okay.”

Things were quiet and awkward between them for now. Lillian knew that Asra wasn’t sorry for what they did. They clearly did it to open a relationship and grow a bond with James. Pair skating probably motivated it a little. Lillian could tell how much Asra liked James. They wouldn’t have risked something like this with just anyone.

She opened it and inside there was a necklace with a small gold crescent moon. A 15$ card to Starbucks, it probably would have been more but Asra didn’t have a lot of money.

“What’s this for?”

“You won’t talk to me so I figured a material gift would help.”

Placing the cover back on the box she put it down. She took a deep inhale just watching Asra, she had her hands on her hips.

“Asra-“

Before she could actually get a word out Asra was speaking. They tried not to let the fact that Lillian wouldn’t talk to them mess with their head. But it clearly did.

“I don’t like fighting with you. It’s diffrent when I do something a little stupid and I can just do the work outs and you let it slide. I know I fucked up, but talk to me. I don’t know what to do, you literally won’t say more than a few words to me.”

“You lied to me Asra.”

“I know, I know. I did and I’m sorry. But I don’t know what else to say. I literally am at a loss for words, and that never happens.”

“I know.” Lillian put her hands on their shoulders. “Okay. I’ll admit, what you said was bad. But I also reacted poorly. Saturday morning, your day off. I’ll come by in the morning and I’ll take you to breakfast okay? We can actually sit down and talk. No more of me getting upset and lashing out and then you responding in the same way.”

“Does it have to be breakfast? You eat at like 8 am.”

“Asra.”

“Okay okay. Breakfast is great. Breakfast works yeah. Yeah that’s fine.”

“You can go take the rest of the day off.”

Asra just nodded a bit before they were heading back to the locker room. Not that there was much of the day left. It was only a few hours before Asra got free. Lillian almost screamed when will spoke. Forgetting that there were other people around.

“How did that go?”

“How did what go?” Lillian asked as they picked up the box. “Asra has resorted to material items as an apology. They’ve been sneaking around after hours, pair skating when I told them we could talk about it after nationals. After. They just had to wait one more season and they decided to go do it now. They’re sleeping with James, but they don’t even know where they stand with James. I know for a fact that this is going to come around to bite them in the ass. They’re probably hiding it from Jasper, that's not good. What next? They’re going to shave their head? Just completely Quit skating as a whole.”

“I mean the shaving of their head part could happen. One manic episode.”

“Not helping.”

“Sorry.”

“Is this what it feels like to be a mom? I don’t want this anymore. I hate it.” She sighed and went to pull her hair into a ponytail before calling over Oliver.

“You decided to be a mom the second you started coaching Asra.”

Will left Lillian and Oliver to do whatever they needed to do. But he noticed dustie wasn’t paying much attention to her skaters. He had an issue he needed to be fixed. Sure, he knew it was a coward move to tell on his fellow skaters. He would understand if Connor wasn’t invited, but he knew his skaters and his kid. They would never leave someone out of something like that.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah Sorry, what’s up will?” Dustie put her phone away before giving her full attention to Will. “What’s wrong? Sorry is Lillian getting mad again.”

“No, we’ve talked about the pill situation so much that even she’s getting tired of it. I don’t really understand why she’s so upset over that years later because she didn’t lose her skating career over it- I’m getting off topic.” He held his hands up and shook his head. “It’s about Connor.”

Dustie sighed and looked at ice, seeing Katie and Connor practicing a throw. She looked back at Will and sighed again.

“Did he say something to Jasper again? I told him to stop mentioning-“

“okay we don’t need to bring that up okay.” Will gave a warning tone. He clearly didn’t want to talk about Jasper's younger years. “No, he didn’t say anything to Jasper today. did you know he snitched on my skaters for having a party.”

“A party? When?”

“A few nights ago. They were in here, they went about getting permission from the owner to use the rink. And they cleaned up their mess. They were respectful and they did it all for Katie because they could tell that she wasn’t feeling welcomed and clearly closed off from her partner.”

“Okay-“

“I’m not done. Don’t even try to tell me they aren’t distant. I was in a pair. Remember, you were a single skater. I’m sure you're a wonderful coach, and you are trying your best. But if he pulls any petty shit like that again, I’m going to make his life a living hell. You need to get him under control.”

“He’s a work in progress but I promise you I will.”

“Thank you. Have a good day.”

He took a deep breath before turning to the ice. He called Jasper and James off the ice. While Lillian had to stay at the rink for Oliver, the others left. Will drove Jasper home. Leaving Lillian there, she would probably just text him if Oliver couldn’t give her a ride. But will need to know the actual extent of what was happening with Connor.

“Will.” Jasper was sitting at the dining room table.

He told them they had to talk but at this point it was just Will pacing back and forth. He was clearly mad about something but the two skaters honestly had no idea what he was so mad about.

“What’s going on?”

James was scared that Will was going to spill the beans about him and Asra. He knew it shouldn’t come from him, Asra was her best friend.

“What has Connor been saying to you?”

“Me?”

“No the 6’3 guy who could easily punch Connor into the middle of next week.” He stopped for a second. “Not that you couldn’t. But you know what I mean. What has he been saying to you?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing.” James spoke up. “Hey!” James held his arm after Jasper punched him in his bicep.

“Stop speaking for me.”

“You won’t tell him.”

“Because it doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter.”

“I’m not talking about this.”

Jasper shook her head before going upstairs. The two in the dining room heard the bedroom door slam closed. James leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes.

“Tell me.” Will crossed his arms while he was waiting. “I can’t just let this continue. Clearly he’s saying something to her, she’s been moody since he started making those dumb comments.”

“She’s always moody, that’s just how Jasper is.”

“James-“

“Okay Jesus. Sorry.” James shrugged a bit. He knew it wasn’t going to end well. “Remember that one time she spent three days at the hospital.”

“You're going to have to be more specific, they got their tonsils out. remember and had to stay and be monitored. They also cut open their wrist on your skate, they had to go back because their stitches opened. They also went after they told Lillian and I they didn’t trust themselves.”

“The last one.”

“Okay yeah, I remember it.”

“Okay, well Connor keeps talking about it. But he also says it like he’s not talking about it, he’s very confusing. But the other day we were literally just Tying up our skates and he told us to be careful not to send Jasper to the hospital again. And then he said maybe they-“

James shifted in his seat being very uncomfortable with what happened. He knew he should have told Will right away but Jasper told him not too.

“Because they left practice early for therapy. They might think Jasper did it on purpose if she had to go to the hospital again. He told us to make sure we tell them Jasper isn’t crazy because it would be a shame if she couldn’t compete due to her mental health.”

It got silent, clearly Will was mad. He was ‘quiet mad’, James hated this Will. He never told anyone what he was doing. He just left the room when he was this type of quiet mad. But he didn’t move, he was standing there, his arms crossed like he was thinking something over.

“Will? I know we should have told you sooner.”

He shook his head a bit. Grabbing his keys from the table.

“No. No, don't take responsibility for something that Connor has all the control over. He shouldn’t be talking to you or Jasper like that. I get messing with your competition a little bit, like a snide comment about a spin or something. But outwardly making fun of Jaspers therapy and an accident they literally had no control, not even you had any control over it.”

James got up quickly when will made his way back

To the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Jasper! I’m going back to the rink!”

Her door opened and she halfway down the stairs. Trying to stop will but he was already halfway down the driveway.

“Why did you tell him.”

“Because you wouldn’t.”

“Go!”

Jasper and James followed Will out of the house. They were worried he was going to do something to screw up their chances at competing. The pair barely had time to close the doors before Will was driving. They were both surprised the door didn’t break from how loud he slammed his door.

“Will wait- will.” Jasper was trying to stop him. Clearly it was no use. “Wait. Please don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid.” He opened the door to the rink.

Jasper and James were having a hard time keeping up. They both had Little Rock’s all over their feet from the Parking lot. Will didn't even give them time to grab shoes. They stopped when Will got to the edge of the ice.

“What’s wrong?” Lillian looked at the pair, it wasn’t hard to see that he was mad. “What happened.”

“James told him what Connor said to me the other day.”

“What did he say?”

Jasper didn’t have time to tell Lillian, Will was telling Dustie to call over Connor. Purely because he didn’t feel like walking on the ice in his shoes. Both Lillian and Jasper gasped when he grabbed a hold of the eighteen year olds shirt. James was praying he didn’t leave any permanent damage on Connor.

“Okay, listen here you little shit. I don’t know who the fuck you think you are but you are never going to speak to my skaters the way you have been again. I was giving dustie time to straighten you out but clearly it isn’t working. You’re arrogant, you’re ignorant, you’re mean, and you don’t give a shit about anyone else’s but yourself. You really think you have a right to make mean comments about my skater's mental health, as well as an accident that happened 8 years ago at this point.” He stopped to give Connor a chance to respond but he didn’t. “Sorry I couldn’t hear you, do you think you have a right to joke about someone’s else’s mental health?”

“No.” Connor shook his head a bit. Clearly before this other coaches were too scared of his father to ever set Connor straight. Will has never met his father, nor would Connor's father scare him.

“Exactly you have no right to be making fun of someone’s struggles. I get it, your dad pays for everything. Your dad wants to see gold metals and he wants to see you succeed. But guess what, your dad has no power in the rink. So you either smarten your and stop treating my skaters, or any skaters here like shit, or I’ll make this a lot worse for you than it already is. I really don’t want to come back here again like this because you were being rude to my kids. Got it?”

Connor just nodded a bit, usually Connor wasn't scared of anyone but his father. But will wasn’t fucking around. He lost his footing a little when Will let go of his shirt.

“Maybe focus on using your talent to win gold rather than bullying people out of competing. If they tell me

One more time that you were harassing them, you're going to wish you never trained at this rink.”

As soon as he turned around he took a deep breath while he was walking back to James and Jasper. Lillian looked a little shocked. She hadn’t seen him like that since their skating days.

“Are you done?”

“Yeah I’m done.” He nodded at Lillian and sighed a bit. “Now that that’s dealt with. I’ll see you at home?”

“Yeah Oliver said he can give me a ride home.”

“Awesome.” He kissed Lillian's cheek before going to lead James and Jasper back out. “What do you guys want for dinner?”

They both were surprised at how calm he was after that. Jasper has only seen his flip out like that once. And that was when a skater back in Japan was essentially telling Jasper they needed to lose more weight when she was already on the brink of being underweight for her height. Jasper didn’t even see the full extent of it, all they heard was wills yelling from the offices.

Will was just hoping that this would stop Connor from being a dick to his skaters. He knew it would, but if it didn’t he would end up following through with his threat