What if I ain't no violinist?

31. Twoset Skaters II

Brett's POV

I was kinda surprised when that cute guy came into the locker room. I knew he came in by mistake, expecting to use the toilets. The locker room I was in was actually a dressing room, reserved for competitive skaters who took lessons on the rink.

I knew he was a beginner skater, possibly an absolute who would've just stepped onto the ice for the first time. For starters, I remembered him wearing those awful rentals skates. They were in a horrible shade of purple that could not be coordinated with anything. They must make them that ugly so that no one would want to steal them. Not that anyone would because of the heinous quality of their blades with shoddy edges, or lack of.

And then I saw him skate. Oh my god it was so distracting to see him make his way around the ice rink like a newborn fawn. He was absolutely adorable. You'd just want to skate right up to him and scoop him up, take his hands and help him skate, yeah ?

I was glad he stayed close to the barrier though, unlike some of the more reckless beginners who venture into the centre of the ice. It's so dangerous trying to do a run-through with people like that around, I would've hated taking him out by colliding into him. Although he was a pretty big guy, I may have just bounced off him. No, seriously, I think I could have knocked him out cold if I bumped into him the wrong way. That's definitely not what I would've wanted to do to him. Maybe something else...um...what am I saying ?

Anyway, so I was completely distracted by this guy which didn't help but there were other things that were bothering me such as uni work and other commitments which were getting out of hand and too hard to handle.

It can get pretty lonely training as a competitive skater, I've missed so many classes because of my training and there's so much pressure in getting so much stuff done. In addition to training on the ice, there's actually a lot of drills and practice to do off-ice as well. It's so hard to prioritise all these things that all scream importance.

So I was feeling kinda down and the cute guy in the ugly purple rental boots was really the one thing that put a smile on my face that day. I hadn't had the chance to tell my coach, my dad, about my other problems yet because although we are very close, we only ever discuss stuff about skating when we are on the ice. But I got so frustrated today, wondering why Dad could not make any correlations between my sh*tty run-though with other things off-ice that may have been bothering me. He was so displeased with my skating and made sure that I knew of his disappointment. I hate disappointing Dad, as much as I hate disappointing myself. So I was pretty pissed.

What I was not expecting was this guy to take my argument with Dad so much to heart. Like I said, I knew he only came into the dressing room for the toilets and he could have simply walked out but I was really touched when he actually bothered to ask me if I was alright. I had a pretty intense moment with Dad and I must have still looked pretty worked up so I thought it was pretty brave of him to ask me to show that he cared. It could've been the nicest thing anyone had done for me in ages.

The hilarious part was when he found out that my coach was actually my dad. I called out to Dad to tell him I wanted a coffee break and when I turned around, man, you should've seen the look on this guy's face, it was priceless.

I really liked him from the start. He just seemed like a really nice guy, you know. He even said something nice about Dad even though he was just a hysterical coach from this guy's perspective. And he even complimented me on how I skated, too. He obviously didn't know who I was, he knows nothing about figure skating. Heck, he didn't even know who Dad was. So I decided to introduce myself. Just my name. Yeah, just my first name. No frills. I wanted him to just know me as a guy who appreciated his kindness. None of that competitive skating talk. Does it bother me that he's not a skater? Heck, no. It's... refreshing. What, you think I was a bit forward? Perhaps, but it's only coffee, right?

He said his name was Eddy. He was tall and nicely built. We were just about the same height when I had my boots on. I offered my hand as I introduced myself and we shook hands. His was huge. Would've made a good stable dance or pair skater out of him, if only he could skate, of course.

I think he was surprised to see me shrink several centimetres (a few inches) when I took my boots off. But he smiled, so maybe he doesn't mind shorter men. I really hope he doesn't.