The Bet Between Ice And Heart

There was a long silence.

All students in the hall looked  at Ayla with wide eyes, their cups frozen half way to their mouths, with conversation halted mid sentence. Kael was leaning his head away from the impact and had his hand slowly lifted up to his jaw.

Ayla's hand was still raised, but it shook now that the moment had passed. The face in front of her came into focus as her heat fogged brain realized that what her body had been doing had been something she should have paid attention to.

Not the boy who was trying to force her to dance. 

"Kael?" she whispered, a sense of dread in her tone. "Oh - no. No, I didn't, I thought YOU were-"

She was never able to complete the senses.

The first laugh came, a loud one, a happy one, and it spread easily across the hall. "This is just what I was looking for!" Darius said as he made his way to where Kael stood,  clapping  his hands together and grinning  at Kael as if he'd been given the greatest gift in his life. "The golden boy, captain of the team, the future alpha! Daddy's heir, future professional star - and he already has somebody who hates him so much that she slapped him in front of the whole academy. Imagine your very first hater coming from inside! The academy! Tsk, she is even your sister's best friend."

There was a nervous laugh that went around the crowd, mostly from the players of the rival team.

"Don't you dare..." Kael hissed, shifting his focus back to Darius.

"I'm just saying." Darius smiled. "You already have your first hater even before you signed your first pro contract... that's not a lie now is it?"

"Shut up, Darius." Kael warned. 

"Make me." Darius laughed. 

The crowd slowly formed a circle around them.  Riven was now motionless as he stood next to Seraphina, and Seraphina herself glanced between her brother and Ayla, her eyes wide and uncertain, not knowing what to do.

"I-I'm sorry." Ayla begged, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Get out!" Kael barked, so hard it made Ayla flinch.

"So-sorry." Ayla mumbled as she left the hall, crying.

"Ka-Ayla..." Seraphina said as she followed Ayla, Riven right behind her. 

Kael's pride was already bruised, and was cracked by each and every eye in the room. He knew it - the mutterings were beginning, the golden captain slapped in front of his own celebration. He wasn't going to let Darius have the final word. Not tonight.

"What makes you think she is a hater?" Kael smirked. 

"Oh common, we do not need a seer to tell us that the lady here hates you. She slapped your face and called you a pervert. Now she doesn't look like a lover to me at all." Darius mocked.

"I have all the girls in this school going crazy for me. Why would I bother myself about the one girl who doesn't like me?" Kael hissed, his hand itching to rub his burning cheek but his ego stopped him from doing that.

"Oh... so you admit she does not like you?" Voss laughed, adding salt to Kael's injury.

"She doesn't like me...now." Kael hissed. "I can get her to like me without moving a single muscle. I am just not interested in her or girls like her."

The room went silent and still.

Darius lifted an eyebrow, he was obviously happy with the night's developments. "Is that so? You can actually get this lady to like you without moving a single muscle? Is it that easy for Kael to get girls?"

"It is." Kael said. 

"Then let's make it interesting," said Darius as he clutched his sides and enjoying  the experience. "If you actually manage that -you get your number one hater to love you. I'll take back everything I've said about you, every bad word I've uttered against you I will swallow it.  I'll even shake your hand and say that I was wrong about you being a daddy's boy. l will admit in front of the whole world that you are a better hockey player than I am. Only! And only when you get that lady to fall in love with you." He stopped and became more serious. "But if you don't succeed, and you will not, then the professional contract that awaits you after graduation moves to me."

Some students wheezed in wonderment. And many began to mumble. 

Kael's jaw clenched and he felt the sting of the slap, his pride refusing to take a second defeat, not in front of all of the world. "Fine," he said. "Deal."

Darius grinned as if he had won, and he said, "Deal."

"What's in it for you?" Kael asked all of a sudden. "Aside the contract?"

"Let me worry about that huh?" Voss said, a cocky smile on his lips. 

And with that... everyone knew what was in store for Ayla...except Ayla. 

The next morning, Ayla's head ached and her recollections were as disjointed and unpleasant as a thousand small thorns.

The party. The heat. The intruder who wouldn't leave her alone.

Kael.

She immediately sat up straight, the last one fitting like a puzzle piece that fully formed had fallen into place, and she covered her face with both hands.

"Oh, no," she murmured into her hands. "Oh no, no, no. What have I done? Kael already hates me." 

She had slapped him in the face, in public. She could hear it now, loud and horrible, followed by a silence.

She couldn't recall the bet. She was unaware of its existence. All she knew is that she owes Kael Valen an apology, the best one she has ever given to anyone, and she was going to give it to him when she saw him.

But the problem was...How?

She waited outside of his lecture hall just before the first class of the day, arms around her books, rehearing her apology.

Then Kael reappeared with Riven at his side and she approached. "Kael, can we talk? I want to explain-"

He walked right past her as though she hadn't spoken.

"Kael-" she called out again. "Kael please wait. I need to talk to you. That night, I was not stable, I got my period, and the drunk boy... the drunk boy.... I was already triggered and when you came I did not realize that was you and I... Kael are you even listening?"

Nothing. He continued along his way, Riven looking apologetically back over her shoulder before running to catch him up.

For a long moment, Ayla felt her half-formed apology rise in her throat, and she stood there with her arms crossed.

When he didn't listen she would write it.

She used the leisure time to write the letter, cross it out and redo it a second time until she was content. Before the first bell, she put it in his locker neatly folded with her name in the bottom.

She didn't know if he'd read it. She hoped he would.

Still, at that afternoon, she couldn't leave it up to chance and was once again desperate to make things right, she found Riven between classes that day.

She asked him, "Can I ask you something? Can I get Kael's number? I want to sincerely apologize, but he won't look at me!"

Riven paused, eying the hallway where Kael had vanished minutes ago. "Sure." He said as he  called out the number.

"Thank you Riven." She said before walking  back to her dorm. 

"Hello, it's Ayla. I got your number from Riven. I'm so sorry about last night. I was not myself; I didn't mean to hurt you. Please, I will do anything you want...please forgive me...please let this whole thing be over." 

She sent it and awaited.

His response was almost two hours later and one line that made her gasp upon reading it.

"Interesting you got my number from Riven, rather than asking your best friend. Stay away from me Ayla...it's not over until I say so."