~*Being that I received a review in another story requesting more of this one, here it is. And thanks Nicci for being my Minnesota location advisor.*~



The next few weeks were quite possibly the hardest Larissa ever lived through, with the exception of when her mom died of course. She spent every free moment she had at the rink, pushing her muscles to the limit, demanding more and more of herself. She had slipped away from the real world, barely ate, rarely talked. Even Hannah couldn't get a word out of her. The Ducks were worried, but no one could really say anything to her, it was in fact their star player that had driven her to this. A mere shell of her former self. Being with Adam had made her weak, yet when he was near a rage unmatched by any other natural force brewed in the pit of her stomach. Seeing the way he looked at her in the hallway or across the lunch room was both a blessing and a curse. Reminding her of how things used to be, how they could never be again. Not since his lips had found solace in someone else's kisses, his body discovered warmth in someone else's embrace, his heart had uncovered love for someone else.

Those heart breaking thoughts stayed with her as her loops became spins, her spins became jumps and her jumps became something new. The rink door opened with a squeak and closed with a heavy thud, Rissa stopped in the center of the ice and shuttered at the sound of skates scratching the surface. Who dare invade her sanctuary? Whoever it was had better had a damn good reason. That better had not been Banks going out to try to talk to her like he had so many times in the days that passed. She wasn't ready to hear his excuse yet, maybe she never would be, deceit was on thing, betrayal other. Those only Larissa probably would have forgiven, but he had lied to her. The memory of what exactly he had said her the night of homecoming came flooding back to her as the intruder grew closer.

'Larissa, I didn't kiss Nicky, she kissed me. I wouldn't kiss her. I wouldn't do it because I don't want to be with her. You're my girlfriend Rissa, you're the one I want to dance with, to kiss. You and only you. You're the most gorgeous person both inside and out I've ever met.'

She had been gorgeous enough to keep him from falling back in love with Nicky, but not out of love with her or into it with Veronica. Life just didn't seem fair. What had she done to deserve this, to warrant the loss of her mother and father (whom she hadn't spoken to since the charges against Adam were dropped) and the first boy she ever gave her heart to. It was almost an intolerable pain. Maybe it was her own fault though, perhaps she was to young to let herself have those kinds of feelings, far to naive to control them. All she knew was she was alone, with the omission of the person on the ice behind, who she still hadn't turned to look at.

A hand come down softly on her shoulder and she jerked her arm forward forcefully. When she heard the gratifying dull thump of human flesh hitting the ground she whipped around with an evil grin. Instantly she felt bad as she saw whom she'd flung to the ice, Kenny was sprawled out at her feet looking up shocked and chagrinned.

"Oh Ken I'm so sorry." She held out her hand to the Asian boy spread eagle across the ice. "Are you okay?"

"I came to ask you the same thing. Are you always that violent?" Ken dusted the ice flakes from his pants

"I thought you were him." Larissa couldn't even bring herself to say Banks' name, despite the fact she'd been whispering it often, followed by a long trail of unkind descriptions.
"You're still not talking to Adam?" Kenny raised his dark eye brows and they vanished beneath his bangs.

"Nope, don't really intend to either."

The boy looked at his watch and realized it was already 7:00 P.M. in the time it took him to notice Larissa not at dinner, return to get his skates and then track her down, they'd missed the meal completely.
"Do you wanna go some where for dinner, we can talk?"

Larissa had no inhibitions about leaving campus with Kenny, she knew he wasn't going to put the moves on her or anything. He'd always been friendly to her, even during Banksie's trial when the rest of the Ducks thought she was the enemy, Ken treated her with respect. Larissa settled into a booth at Dairy Queen while Ken went to order. It was nice to be doing something almost resembling fun for the first time since Ronni waltzed into her life and completely trashed it.

"Here you go." Her companion lowered the tray to the table in front of her and the two began to eat.

Larissa chewed hard of her French-fries for a few minutes, as much as she didn't mind talking to him, she was not going to start the conversation. As if reading her mind Ken looked up from his burger and began to speak.
"He's really sorry he hurt you, I know he misses you a lot."

"Is that why he's taking Ronni to the senior banquet?" Rissa threw the fry in her hand at her plate with an angered sigh

"You heard about that."

"Everyone's heard about it, it's all over the school. I'm surprised they haven't written about it in the Eden Hall Gazette. Adam Banks dumps frumpy freshmen Larissa Saunders, for sizzling senior Veronica Broadbent. Can't you just see the head line?"

"Larissa you're far from frumpy. You could get lots of other guys."

"I don't want lots of other guys Ken, I want Adam, or I wanted Adam. I don't even know what I want. All I know is at that stupid homecoming I felt like such a princess with him on my arm. Like I was living in a fairy tale that would never end. And suddenly that pristine bubble was shattered. You know I was so excited about going to that banquet, I want out and bought a new dress. Well it wasn't actually new, I got it at a consignment shop, but it was beautiful. The fabric the color, I loved it and I paid for it with my very own money. Now it's just going to hang in my closet at a constant reminder of a love lost." Tears were trickling down her cheeks but still she kept her voice steady.

"Whoever said 'It is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all' was clueless huh?"
"Yeah."

"Hey, Rissa do you want to go with me? I mean I know I'm not Adam or anything but it could be fun. I even know how to dance unlike Banks." Ken offered trying anything he could to cheer her up

"I dunno…"

"Oh come on what other choice have you got, sit in you dorm and sulk all night?"

" Okay, you're right, sure, I love to go with you."

"It'll all be alright." He flashed her a reassuring smile across the table

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now let's talk about something else."

They sat there for two straight hours talking like old friends. Mostly about the one thing other then Adam they had in common, figure skating. Kenny told her how thanks to the fact he was a male skater and also quiet and sensitive, people usually thought he was gay when they initially met him. Larissa laughed at that. A true honest to goodness heartfelt laugh. And it felt great.