JJ Talks Sense To Eric

After Zoey has left the pair, JJ and Eric silently finished their walk up to the small frozen pond. The awkward silence lingered hard between the pair, Eric knew he had just insulted JJ's best friend while being ousted for some of his worst deeds and JJ was still trying to put everything together in his head. The things that he had heard didn't sound like Eric at all, JJ knew him to be a good guy, someone with a strong conscious but cheating on two girlfriends and trying to bypass it was all wrong. There had to be something that he was missing, something that was overlooked that could make sense to Eric's actions.

The two men reached the pond and quickly put on their skates, "Want to run some drills, like the old days?" JJ said, finally breaking the silence between them,

"Sure, why not," Eric lowly replied with a shrug.

The two skated out onto the ice and immediately JJ and Eric separated, each taking to one side of the pond before turning and staring each other down, "Cool if I practice my spin maneuver?" JJ asked,

"Go for it," Eric replied with another shrug,

The black teenager lowered his head and took off heading directly to Eric at full speed. Eric skated forward at a leisure pace closing the gap between them a bit quick. Just before the pair collided JJ quickly shifted his weight, pretending that he had a hockey stick in hand and puck at his feet the black teen spun to Eric's left with impressive ease. "Heh, cake," JJ grinned as he and Eric took to opposite sides once again, "So, we gonna talk about that?"

"About what?" Eric replied as they began to run the drill again,

"Come on dude, you know what I'm talking about. What's been going on with you since you got here? Zoey and Anna? Hell, Nicole? Spill man," JJ pressed the teen,

"It's nothing I really want to talk about JJ," Eric grunted back,

"Well sucks for you, because I want to, so go on, tell me, dude," JJ replied with a grin as he finished spinning around him again causing the pair to reset,

"Dude, just drop it, please?" Eric lightly begged,

"No, I want to know what's going on with you man, you don't sound like the dude I know anymore," JJ replied with a frown and a hard glare,

Eric let out a scoff and shook his head, "I fucked up, alright?" He finally said causing JJ to skate over to him slowly, "I wasn't over Anna when I started dating Zoey but I didn't think it mattered, I was all the way over here and she was all the way back there, you know?" Eric started to explain, "Then we ran into her, Nicole, and Kenny. Things were awkward but I thought hey, maybe I can put things to rest here and move forward, well that all went to shit when I finally got alone with Anna and I couldn't help myself. I kissed her, and I knew I wanted her back, damn the distance."

"And Zoey found you guys making out?" JJ assumed with a raised brow,

"No, well, I'm not sure actually. We only kissed but we both talked after that about still feeling this connection with each other and that I needed to end it with Zoey before we could move forward. So that was my plan, me and Anna stayed on hold until I ended it was Zoey, which we did,"

"Okay...but..." JJ replied leaning a little closer,

"But then everything happened between Zoey and Kenny, which led to Kenny and Nicole being done, which lead to Nicole coming to me and basically jumping on my fucking cock. Look, before you say it, yeah I hate myself, I know I'm a scumbag and I know I don't have an excuse. Nicole tempted me and for whatever fucked reason I let it happened and Anna saw us. Now she can't stand either of us," Eric finished while letting his head drop,

"Damn...you really fucked up dude," JJ merely replied in shock of Eric's actions as well as his honesty,

"I know!" Eric snapped back, "But what can I do?!"

"Nothing bro," JJ hardly replied, "I'm not trying to be a prick here Eric, and I'm not doing this to put you down but you literally can't do anything. You messed up and I know Anna well enough to know that bridge is burned forever. So you can do one of two things man, you can either stick around and do whatever it is you're gonna do with Nicole or you just leave. Word is gonna spread though and I'm not sure how many fans you'll actually have up here pretty soon though,"

"Fuck..." Eric sighed while lifting a hand and rubbing his face slowly, "I never wanted to be this guy, I never wanted any of this,"

"We all make mistakes bro," JJ replied while reaching out and resting a hand on his shoulder, "But at the same time, we gotta accept responsibility for them,"

"Yeah...I know, I know," Eric murmured back in agreement, "Maybe I'm not being honest, maybe I wanted Nicole more than I want to admit. It'd make more sense than me just saying I made a mistake," Eric added on with a shrug,

"Maybe dude," JJ nodded back. A silence then returned between the pair as Eric kept his head down thinking everything over, "Want me to give you some time?"

"Do you mind?" Eric asked with a near pitiful look in his eyes,

"I gotcha, I'll just head back to the lodge," JJ replied while skating back to his bag to change, "Take some time to think everything over, maybe you'll even think of something better than what I thought, you never know," The teen added on as he watched Eric skate to the edge of the pond and take a seat on a small bench that was built around the edge. JJ let out a low exhale of disappointment in his friend then quickly changed back into his boots and headed off, heading back to the lodge.