"Woah!" Teagan laughed and turned his feet so that his wheels wouldn't catch on the floor and make him fall, letting Irena spin him around. Finn was getting more comfortable now, still mostly focused on what he was doing rather than Teagan and Irena spinning, but he was doing pretty well. "What time do you want to go bowling?" Teagan asked Irena curiously.
.jpeg)
Irena slowed the spinning, but continued it anyways.
"I think we should all meet at the intersection we always part ways at, at about half past midnight. It'll take us about 25 minutes to get there, so cosmic bowling will be just about to start, or already started depending on our pace I guess."
"Sounds good to me." Teagan shrugged, content to spin for now. Finn faltered for a moment, but caught himself and continued skating around the rink. "What time is it now?" He asked curiously watching his brother as well as he could while spinning.
Irena smiled and looked down at her watch.
"Nine." She told him.
"we can leave now or stay until the rink closes at ten." She suggested.
Teagan nodded a bit. "We should stay a little while longer, at least. Finn seems to be having fun now that he's gotten the hang of it." He laughed softly. Finn kept going around the rink, smiling to himself.
Irena let go of Teagan's hands and skated up to Finn, catching up to him easily.
She made sure to stay next to him while the music played and echoed in the empty rink, in case he fell and needed help getting up.
Finn waved to Irena when she approached and then stuck his arms back out again to keep his balance. He wasn't going especially fast, but he seemed more stable and like he was enjoying himself anyways. "This place closes pretty soon, right?"
Irena nodded.
"In about an hour." She told him kindly.
She skated in front of him and turned around, skating backwards again.
"Do you think you're ready for this?" She asked teasingly.
"Ah? Ready for what?" Finn asked, confused. He continued skating normally for now, but kept his eyes on Irena with a bewildered expression. "What are you plotting, woman?"
Irena shook her head and grabbed Finn's hands, spinning him in a circle.
"Do you think you're strong enough to lift me while skating?" She asked curiously.
"Uh, I'm strong enough to lift you, I'm not sure if you want to trust my balance with both of our weights, though." Finn replied, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "I'm really not very good at this yet." He held tighter to Irena when she spun him, nervous about falling again.
Irena laughed and nodded.
"I was just joking anyways, but we have to try and do a lift before we graduate at least." She said quietly, letting go of Finn and making sure he wouldn't fall.
She then began to skate around the rink as fast as she could, letting the twins only get glimpses of her as she passed.
"Alright, if you say so… I'll need some more practice before then." Finn laughed softly and watched her go, his eyes widening upon seeing how fast she was able to go. He kept out of her way as well as he could since he couldn't go nearly that quickly.
Eventually, the rink was closing and they had to return their skates so they could head out.
As Irena was taking off her skates and slipping her thin feet into her black slip on vans, she pulled out her phone, read the text she had just gotten from Beatrice and frowned, groaning in anger as she stood up to walk out.
"Cam ditched Bea you guys." She announced to the both of them "she's like really upset, she keeps asking me if I think she's unlovable…"
"Hm?" Finn and Teagan looked up from tying their shoes when Irena spoke. Teagan scoffed as though he'd expected something like this to happen, and Finn looked concerned. "Is she okay? Is she back at your house now?" Finn asked. "We should probably go check on her."
Irena nodded and smiled at Finn's consideration for her younger sister.
"yeah, she's at home, I told her we're on the way." she checked her phone again "but she said she doesn't want anyone to see her the way she is, apparently the date went really bad and he ditched her halfway through to hangout with another girl that was wherever they went and she came straight home, she walked like an hour to get home and is looking pretty…bad is what she said."
"Well, we're coming anyway." Finn huffed, crossing his arms. "And we'll give that stupid Cameron kid a piece of our minds, right Tea?" He turned to his brother, who seemed slightly surprised to be addressed, but nodded anyways. "Right. Let's get going, then." Finn headed out, gesturing for the others to follow him out.
Irena shrugged and slipped her phone into her pocket and they left the rink, waving to the employees and calling their thanks to them.
once they got to Irena's house it was dark and the streetlights were casting their yellow glow on everything.
Irena unlocked the front door with her house key and led the two of them inside, shutting the door after them.
Finn followed Irena into the house and looked around, but didn't see anyone obviously. Beatrice was probably hiding in her room.
"Beatrice! We're back!" Finn called out. "You can come out now!" He sighed and crossed his arms, waiting to see if she would come down. "Maybe she'll want to come to bowling. Do you think that would cheer her up?" He asked Irena.
Irena shrugged.
"I don't think you guys would understand but… when something like this happens it hurts and Beatrice is already self conscious enough, imagine what she felt like when Cameron ditched her for that other girl, her self confidence is probably destroyed." She told them and began to go up the steps.
She knocked softly on Beatrice's bedroom door and it swung open revealing a disheveled Beatrice.
He shirt was hanging off one shoulder, showing her bra strap, her hair was wind whipped and her cheeks showed mascara tracks. Her eyes were puffy and red.
Beatrice saw Finn and Teagan behind Irena and slammed the door, the click of the lock could be heard. "Go away." Beatrice shouted through the door.
Irena turned to Finn and Teagan and pointed to her open bedroom door.
Go. She mouthed at them now.
"Yeah… I just don't really know what to do to help her." Finn sighed, following Irena upstairs with Teagan in tow. They stood behind her, looking concerned when they saw Beatrice and jumping when the door slammed in their faces. Upon being directed to leave, Teagan did so, and Finn reluctantly followed him. They sat on Irena's bed, quiet for a moment.
Teagan looked over at Finn and noted how genuinely concerned he seemed, feeling a bit guilty for not being as bothered. He wasn't the biggest fan of Beatrice, if only for the way she always seemed to drool over his oblivious brother. But she hadn't really done anything wrong. He'd figured that something like this would happen with Cameron, so he wasn't surprised. Finn always saw the best in people, and he was clearly upset and worried for Beatrice despite not returning her feelings. He was still trying to think of something he could do to help, but it didn't seem like Beatrice wanted them around.
Irena knocked again and spent five minutes trying to persuade Beatrice to come into her room with them, she finally agreed, but not before cleaning herself up a little first.
Irena walked into her room and Beatrice followed, her thick chestnut brown hair now brushed, her skinny jeans on correctly, her tight crop top now on correctly and her cheeks mascara streak free, as she had reapplied it when cleaning up, her lashes were now curled and long. Her eyes showed traces of being puffy and red, but not as much as before.
Beatrice avoided eye contact with both Finn and Teagan and made her way to the corner, sitting in Irena's beanbag chair.
"Tell them what Cameron said." Irena instructed, Beatrice looked at her in terror. "come on Bea, you'll be lucky they don't kill him once they hear this."
Beatrice shook her head and then looked down and muttered something no one could hear.
Finn and Teagan were uncharacteristically quiet when Irena had finally convinced Beatrice to come into the room. They both looked up, and Finn hopped up to his feet, ready to do whatever was needed of him. He kept quiet at first, not wanting to make anything worse or interrupt anyone, but even his heightened hearing wasn't enough to catch quite what Beatrice had said. He took on a confused expression and tilted his head to the side a bit.
"Ah? What was that? Are you okay?" Finn asked worriedly. Teagan looked confused as well, but kept his mouth shut.
Beatrice took a deep breath.
"He doesn't want to date someone like me, im to flat is what he said." She paused "And he doesn't want to be my replacement for Finn either, is what he also said."
She looked down at the ground, purposely avoiding eye contact with all three of them.
Irena sat with her mouth agape and quickly snapped it shut, her teeth clinking together.
She hadn't expected Beatrice to say the last part out loud, just the first. And now she wondered if now once she stated this, that Finn would know she liked him.
"Ah?" Finn looked angry at the first part, and then confused for a moment at the second. It took him a few seconds to do a sort of double take and flush, and he looked over at Teagan, who gave him a look that implied that he'd known all along and Finn was dense for not noticing.
"W-Well he… he shouldn't say stuff like that! It's shallow and douchey and if he's gonna treat you like crap, you shouldn't hang around him anyway." Finn eventually managed. He huffed and crossed his arms to further push his point.
"Yeah, freshman guys suck in general, but that's still low." Teagan added, crossing his arms as well.