I wake up in my bed alone this morning. I groan and roll my face into my pillows, knowing today is just going to be awful. I knew I'd made the right choice but I also knew it meant for most likely driving a wedge between my old group of friends. My plan was just to sit with Sasha, knowing she was always so capable of brightening my day.

She was here last night, mom goes to work everyday before five a.m during the week so I knew we could sleep the night through. But she's not here anymore and I start to miss her.

Yesterday had been so great. We went and saw a shitty movie later on in the afternoon. Mostly for my own benefit, there isn't anything like cuddling in a dark movie theatre. She told me she didn't even know the last time she'd been to the movies and quite honestly.....neither could I. Sabrina didn't like going out to do something simple like that, and with everything else going on, there just wasn't time.

The best part of being with Sasha was it felt like everything slowed down while I was with her. Everything felt easy and painless, like we were supposed to be together. Every time I allowed myself to let my mind wander I thought about our conversation in the kitchen. It was inevitable, we've just been putting it off. It was important, not just to figure out where we stood with each other, but it gave me the chance to apologize for how I treated her and for her to tell me how she really felt.

My mind kept repeating those three glorious words she'd said to me, when I told her I wanted her. 'Then I'm yours'. Everything I felt for Sasha was overwhelming and it was nice to know she felt the exact same way.

I roll over when I realize I can hear faint humming coming from the bathroom and I smile. I stand up and start to find something to wear for the day listening to the door to the bathroom open and footsteps going back across the hall.

I take a turn in the washroom and then I think about stopping by her room and saying good morning, but I stop myself. If I accidentally caught her changing, she'd be pretty upset. Sasha was hesitant to push intimacy, but I'd ultimately respect that. It's just hard when I know how pretty she is, when I know what it's like to have my hands touching her bare hips. She's so small my hands almost touch when I put one on either side of her body.

Eventually we'd get there, and I'd love every second of it. But for now I went back into my bedroom and got changed for the day. When I was done I just sat back down on my bed and stared off into space, worrying about the day ahead.

I'm broken out of my daze when I hear a knock at the door and I turn to see Sasha standing there.

"Hey." She says quietly with a small smile on her face.

"Hey." I say back and she looks at me sadly before walking over to join me on my bed. She sits down next to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. She then moves it up into my hair at the base of my skull, running her fingers through it.

"It'll all be alright." She whispers and I lean over on her shoulder. "I know you're worried, but just take it as it comes." I nod and feel the tension leaving my body. There wasn't anything I liked better than this, knowing I was important to her and feeling her fingers move through my hair. I turn more to give her a real hug that she gladly returns.

"Thanks Sasha." I whisper and she nods giving me one more good squeeze before pulling back. Then I kiss her forehead, letting my lips linger there for a second and she smiles.

The two of us get our stuff together and then head for my car to take the drive to school. The whole way there she reaches out and puts her hand on my shoulder or arm. It's a nice gesture, letting me know that she cares about me.

We reach the school and both seem to share the same 'well I guess this is it' look before hoping out of the car and walking up to school. We chat quietly and already I can feel eyes on me and heads turning. I just take a deep breath and keep moving, I know that I like Sasha and I'm sick of not showing her I care. This is the person I feel the closest to and everyone needs to know that.

We had our first class together, so we sat in the desks next to one another. We didn't speak very often, but we'd share glances that let me know everything I needed to. It was knowing somebody was there for you without them telling you.

Then we had to say goodbye and move on with our days. I had to go through the rest of my classes until lunch without her. All morning all I heard were whispers and laughter, the word was more than out that Sabrina and I were done. The word was also out that she'd cheated on me, which just made the whole situation ten times worse.

By the time lunch rolled around I was more than thankful, I walk into the cafeteria and notice my table looking at me. As if waiting to see what I'll do, but then I see Sasha sitting at another table and I immediately feel like smiling. So I walk over without a second of hesitation and sit down next to her.

"Is this seat taken?" I ask and she laughs.

"Not at all." She says with a small smile. "How's your morning been?"

"You know, a little awkward." I tell her and she nods.

"I know it's no fun, but everything will even out sooner or later." She reminds me and I nod. It really surprised me how supportive Sasha was about all of this. Her issues far exceeded my own but she was treating them like they were all that mattered. My guess was because it was helping her avoid her own.

"I know, I'm just toughing it out." I tell her and she nods. "So where's everyone else?" I ask and she shrugs.

"Micheal and Irene are at a competition right now. The other girls are in the library studying, normally I'd just join them so I wouldn't be alone, but I knew you'd be here." She tells me giving me a smile. I take a second to look up and see confusion on some of the people's faces at my old table. Sabrina looks disgusted and Jake looks unimpressed but I couldn't care less.

"I'm really glad I am, you know." I tell her and she smiles turning a bit red.

"I am too." She mumbles. She pulls out the apple she took of the counter this morning and bites into it while I find my sandwich. So far this is one of the best things I've ever done.

"Hey Carter." I hear and look up to see Malcolm standing next to the table. "Do you think I could join you?" He asks, I shrug and so does she.

"What's up?" I ask feeling very confused. "Why'd you defect?" I tease and he laughs.

"Because Sabrina won't shut the fuck up." He says rubbing his hand over his forehead. "She's pretty pissed at you and she's letting all of us know about it."

"Ah." I say, knowing the pain all too well. Sabrina couldn't let anything go and wouldn't stop talking about things that upset her.

"I'm Malcolm." He says reaching his hand out to Sasha and she smiles giving it a shake. "I know your name isn't Elsa....but help me out?"

"I'm Sasha, nice to meet you." She says with a small smile and Malcolm looks a bit too excited to be shaking her hand. Then I remember what he said the other week about how hot she was and I suddenly feel protective.

"So you're a figure skater?" He asks and I cringe knowing it's still a pretty fresh wound for Sasha.

"I-um, I was." She says with a shrug. "But I didn't place high enough to advance at my competition last week. So right now I'm taking a break, trying to live life a bit."

"Cool." He says with a small nod. "So how do you know Nate?" He asks and Sasha pauses as if waiting for me to let her know how much she can say.

"We used to be really good friends when we were younger." I tell him and he nods. "We just became close again not that long ago." He nods along but I can tell he isn't listening, he's looking at Sasha. She's completely oblivious, doesn't even know what's happening.

"You should come to a game sometime then." He suggests.

"Maybe." She says and he laughs too hard humouring her and she furrows her eyebrows at me, clearly confused.

"Hey guys." Someone else says, and I turn to see Adrian coming over too. He sits down across the table next to Malcolm and I can see the same look on his face that Malcolm had.

"I'm Adrian." He says and she nods shaking his hand too.

"Sasha." She says quietly and then tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. I can tell she's confused by all the attention, just last week these guys were making fun of her and now, here they were introducing themselves and trying to be friendly. Part of me even questioned why they were doing it, why now?

"Pretty name." He says and she slowly nods, clearly confused. "Does it mean anything?" He asks and even I'm starting to cringe at how pathetic their flirting is getting.

"I think it means....defender of mankind?" She says with a small laugh. "I don't know, dad named all of us something fierce like that." They both burst into laughter and she sighs uncomfortably.

"So are you coming to the practice tonight?" He asks and she laughs a bit.

"When did I say I was doing that?" She teases. "I'm taking a break from the rink for now. Besides, I have a lot of homework I need to catch up on."

"Oh come on! Screw homework, come it'll be fun." He insists and she presses her lips together. I know what's on her mind. She's thinking, why can't you leave me alone? And she knows her brothers are going to be there.

"Well I do go sometimes to watch my brothers play." She says quietly tossing her hair over her shoulder. Now I'm confused, she's returning their advances. "Maybe you know them, Alex and Nik Petrov?" She asks sweetly and now I understand. They look like they might shit their pants, Alex and Nik weren't questioned by any of the guys on the team, they were incredibly scary.

"Y-you're their sister?" He asks and I she nods.

"I am." She says with a smile. "There aren't too many Petrovs that go to this school." They're immediately stumbling all over themselves trying to reverse the shameless, pathetic flirting they were doing.

"You don't really look like them." Malcolm says and she laughs enjoying their squirming.

"Like a boy?" She asks through her laughter. "I should hope not."

Sasha was distinctly different than her brothers, they had dark brown hair and of course there was the fact that they were both over six feet tall and looked like they lived at the gym. I'd watched tons of girls come on to them and flirt but they never seemed to pay attention. If you looked really close though, you'd see they shared the same blue eyes as Sasha, they had that similar pale skin and there were similarities in their faces. They looked like her dad, whereas Sasha looked like her mom.

"No-I, well that's not what I meant-"

"Chill out." Sasha says raising her hands. "I'm just teasing a bit, my lips are sealed." She assures them and they relax a bit after that.

"Could we-could I.....well could we all hang out sometime?" Adrian asks making sure to include all of us in that statement and she shrugs.

"Well my schedule has cleared up a lot recently...." She says.

"How about someday after school?" He asks and I tense up a bit hearing her make plans with somebody else. I reach over and grab her knee under the table and she tenses up.

"Sure, how about Wednesday? You guys all practice together right?" She asks making it clear she wanted to go with everyone.

"Yeah we do, we'll see you after practice then?" Malcolm asks and she nods.

"Sounds good." She says and reaches her hand under the table to give mine a squeeze. I feel warm all-over and I see her faint smile as I squeeze her knee back.