What if I ain't no violinist?

30. Twoset Skaters

Eddy was an absolute beginner skater and was too busy trying not to fall over, so he could not look to see where all the shouting came from until he managed to slowly get back to the barrier and grab the railing.

He turned around towards the centre of the rink to find out where all the yelling and screaming came from.

An irate young man was arguing with his coach, who also raised his voice, looking just as pissed.

"That was total rubbish!!"

"Oh my god I cannot believe you cannot say one positive thing about my run through!!"

"Hey, I've got plenty of nice things to say about your program, it's your bloody execution that was so rubbish!!!

"Oh my f*cking god how could you say that!?!?!?"

"How? I'll tell you how. Your turns were sh*t, you hesitated before entering all of your jumps, both your spins lacked edge on entering and your spinning axis was all wobbly. Even your steps were completely off the beat today, tell me, what positive thing could I possibly say !?"

"That is absolute bullsh*t !!! I actually nailed my landings!!!"

"You don't say you nailed them if you hesitated on take off! Every !! Single!! Time !!"

"This is ridiculous. This is just a roast."

"Oh yeah? If you think this is just some roast, you really have no idea how to see yourself objectively and receive feedback. Why don't you just spend the rest of the lesson practising your cross-overs because they were f*cking appalling as well?"

"Oh why don't you go fu.. aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!"

Eddy recoiled in horror as he saw the young man storm off the ice.

Eddy noticed his skating session had ended so he stepped off the ice and returned his rental skates. He then went into the men's locker room, thinking he'd use the bathroom before he would leave the rink.

He couldn't find the toilets. He realised there must be a separate men's bathroom and that the locker room must be for the more serious skaters as he noticed the young man in the lockers area. This was the guy who had a screaming match with his coach. He was sitting on one of the benches with his hands covering his face.

"...Hey, are you okay?"

The young man looked up. His hair was drenched with perspiration and wisps of his dark bangs hung down as close to his nose. It was difficult to see his eyes through all his pitch black hair.

"...Yeah, sorry about all the noise we made, it must have been unpleasant to listen to."

"Um, that's okay..So are you guys going to be okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, will you still be on speaking terms with your coach again?"

The young man seemed surprised. He flipped his head to rid his wet bangs and showed his eyes. They were a deep dark brown, laced with long eyelashes. He looked towards Eddy and smirked.

"Oh yeah, of course. We were just blowing off some steam, y'know."

"Oh...um, that's okay then. Um, look for what it's worth, I overheard some other skaters saying he's a really good coach. And I saw how you skated and I thought you were amazing. So um, I hope you guys resolve your differences and get along okay."

The young man gave out a chuckle.

"Yeah, I know he's a good coach. Don't worry, we'll be fine. Thanks."

The young man stood up and extended his hand to Eddy. He was about Eddy's height.

"I'm Brett, nice to meet you. Thanks for looking out for me, that was really nice of you to do so."

"Eddy."

Oh my god I can't tell him now that I just came into the room by mistake.

"Eddy, would you like to grab a coffee with me? "

Say what?

"..Um, aren't you in the middle of your lesson?"

"It's alright. I need time off the ice for a bit to cool down. I'll just go tell my coach."

Time off the ice to cool down? That doesn't even make sense.

".. Yeah, sure, okay."

Brett turned around and poked his head out of the men's locker room.

"Hey Dad!! I'm talking a break okay??"

Brett turned back around to Eddy who looked like a surprised Pikachu from a popular meme.

"HE'S YOUR FATHER !?!?"

"Oh, I thought you knew."

"How the heck was I supposed to know that!??!?"

"Hmm, oh well, there ya go."

Eddy face-palmed himself with embarrassment.

"Oh my god I feel so stupid now..."

"Hey, don't. What you did for me was really sweet. I liked it."

Brett quickly unlaced and removed his boots and as he carefully wiped his blades, he placed them into his soakers to protect them from condensation.

He reached down and slipped on his Converses that were under the bench and took his skates to his locker and put them away.

"Okay, thanks for waiting, Eddy, let's go"

Eddy noticed that Brett was in fact significantly shorter than himself, it was his skates that made him look taller before. He smiled to himself, to Brett and then headed out the locker room with his new ... friend.