Tightrope

6

THEN

BECCA

"Faster, Becca, come on!" Will said, skating circles around me.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I called back, trying to use my whole body to propel me forward so I could go faster.

Will was around my height, if not shorter, but he was fast. He was so incredibly fast at such a young age, and it irritated me a bit because he didn't even seem to notice it.

Will stopped a couple of feet away from me and waited for me to arrive at that same spot.

"Let's race," He suggested, and I agreed. 

"On three. One, two..." Will counted, and I took off, skating as fast as I could.

"Come on, come on, come on," I murmured to myself, feeling the chilly breeze bite my cheeks and nose, and enjoying the way my skates felt against the rough ice of the lake.

I laughed, thinking I had finally beaten Will, that I had left him behind for once.

This was, until I looked to my side, and found Will skating backward, keeping up with me.

"Come on!" I exclaimed, frustrated, and Will just laughed, resuming his forward position and taking off, leaving me several feet behind.

We arrived back at the spot where the race had started.

"God, Will! How are you so fast?" I asked, slightly out of breath.

"I'm not, you're just slow." He shrugged, teasing me.

We both knew that wasn't true. We had skated against classmates, and we had always been the two fastest kids, among the girls and boys alike. Still, I could never seem to beat him.

"Well, at least I can score better." I shrugged smugly. It was true. When we played together, every single shot I fired at the net would go in. Once we switched, and I was the goalie while Will scored, only half of his shots actually went in. I stopped the other half.

"Fair enough," Will said, skating over to where we had left the pucks and sticks. "Don't be mad, I'll be the goalie first if you can score." He said, placing himself in front of the tree branch net we had made.

I smiled at the thought. I liked scoring better than goaltending, so this was a truce I could agree on.

I shot the pucks, and as expected, every single shot went in. 

"Dude, you're awesome!" Will exclaimed, a bit surprised. He always acted excited, and so very supportive whenever I scored.

"Okay, your turn," I said, taking his place in front of the net.

Will shot, and didn't score. He tried again and didn't score again. It wasn't until the third time he tried, that the puck went in the net.

I cheered for him, even though I was the goalie. His shots were amazing if I was being honest. They had so much strength behind them, much more than one would've thought Will possessed from his small frame. He wasn't a bad player, I was just a great goalie.

Another figure appeared on the lake.

"Hey Will, who's that?" I asked him, hoping he would recognize the person.

Will squinted. "Oh, it's Peter from school."

Peter was a friend of Will's who sometimes skated with us as well. They had met in the bathroom during lunch one day.

Peter and I got along just fine, but we weren't good friends. Not like Will and I were. It wasn't that there was something wrong with Peter, he just didn't know many things. Will was a completely different person with Peter than he was with me as if his instinct to hang out with boys his age was allowed to exist whenever Peter was around, but not with me. With Peter, Will fought and talked about destroying things. With me, he talked about everything else. It didn't bother me, since I knew that it was important for Will to have guy friends too, just like I had girlfriends to talk with about stuff that Will didn't get.