ariatriton:
“That’s a friendship bias if I’ve ever heard one,” Aria pointed out, knowing that, depending on the week, she’d probably say the same of one of her friends. And by one of her friends, she meant Fitz. Weren’t friendships great? Who needed romance when you had friendships?
Gods, she was spiraling. But at least her years of putting up a facade, plus her drama club experience, was keeping that from being at all obvious. Small blessings.
Continuing to listen as they essentially power walked to the ball, Aria nodded along to everything the male said, realizing the more he spoke that she really didn’t know too much about him. He had always just sort of been there, being supportive and tossing out ideas. Had she accidentally forgotten that he was a person with his own interests too? “I’m unfamiliar with garbage tv, but figure skating and gymnastics I know a little more about… mostly because I’ve tried to steal skaters and gymnasts for the cheer squad. Bendy people who enjoy throwing people or enjoy being thrown are kindred spirits,” she pointed out, ignoring the part about looking great in spandex because she simply could not afford to process that one in that current moment.
Shaking her head in response to his actual question, Aria offered a slight shrug before diving into an answer. “You would think, since Lena is one of my best friends and I’ve therefore been in suitable climates on occasion, but no. Last year at the charity ice skating event for Students Keeping the World Clean, I was on hot chocolate and cup cleanup duty. If I’m surrounded by water it’s not frozen. Plus, there’s that totally rational fear of falling and getting accidentally skated over by sharp blades and like… dying.”
Friendship. Yikes that one hurt. Finn took a deep breath and smiled anyway. “Well yeah. That’s what friends do. Totally. Kindness with a little bit of teasing so you always stay humble.”
“Trust me when I say you probably don’t want me on the cheer squad. Not because I wouldn’t do it, because I would.” He had threatened Andie with it a few hundred times, saying that he would love to stand on the sidelines and wave pom-poms in a cheer skirt for her. And it also meant that he would get to see Aria doing the same thing. Why hadn’t he joined cheerleading again? “I just worry I wouldn’t have the time to commit to it. I thought about trying out for the team but I didn’t see any other dudes and I was worried it wasn’t a co-ed team.”
There was no shame in being seen with girls. He loved his sister and his best friend was Andie, though sometimes he wondered if she even knew what a dress was or if the very idea of them scared he so much that the next time he needed to heard her into a corner he’d use one of Freya’s old smocks.
“I’ve seen you a few times. Cheering I mean. And when you do your shows in drama club. Sometimes I just go see stuff like that on campus. I love classical theatre. I was a big Shakespeare buff for awhile, and I want to say I grew out of it but I don’t think I ever did,” He smiled. If this was his moment to know as much as he could about Aria then he would take it. “What’s your favorite performance you’ve ever done?”
And then she talked about ice skating. It was absolutely appalling for him to think that she hadn’t ever done it before. Finn stopped in his tracks. “Whoa whoa whoa! I’m sorry are you telling me you’ve never ice skated before? We are fixing that. Trust me, Aria, let me teach you. You’ll be skating with a professional. Literally. Back home I teach kids to skate all the time and I have a few medals to prove it.”














