Come Home to Me (Dylan Holland Fanfiction)

Ice Princess

I squeezed Dylan's hand extra tight as we got close to everyone else. "There they are!" Seb exclaimed. "Let's go inside."

Dylan kept rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb as we followed everyone around to the back door of the ice rink and went inside. Seb led everyone passed the zambonis and through the first ice rink to the lobby. Mike, the owner and Seb's coach, was just chasing the last of the kids from public skate out the front door when we got there. He greeted us all with a smile. "You're not gonna burn the place down are you? You know I wouldn't just let any group of kids in here after close."

Seb raised his hand like he was on oath. "I swear we'll keep it clean and not break anything."

"You'll lock up?"

Seb pulled a set of keys out of his back pocket. "I got it Mike. We've done this a bunch of times. It's the same people it always is."

Mike nodded and scanned over the crowd of us. There were only about ten of us total and with the exception of Dylan and one or two of Brett's friends, we were all regulars at the rink. "There's some new faces, but I'll trust you to keep them all in line." He slapped Seb on the back and started heading for the door. "I'll be calling you first thing in the morning if anything's out of place."

Seb grinned. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

We all called out our collective goodbyes and Seb unlocked the door the skate room where all of us novice skaters were going to get our gear. Seb guarded the door for a second. "Okay. None of you are stupid, but don't break anything, don't touch anything you don't need, and clean up anything you mess up. It's pretty simple. Don't break any limbs either. That's a lot of paperwork for someone and Mike hates when we make people do paperwork. Hockey skates only! We don't let ballerinas in here after close."

Addie shoved him out of the doorway and headed for the size six hockey skates, grabbing a pair for herself and for me. Dylan let go of me to grab his own pair like everyone else when Addie came to hand them over. Addie smirked at me. "Having fun?"

I shrugged. "I'm just nervous about Brett."

She rolled her eyes. "It's going to be fine. Seb's gonna introduce them before we hit the ice."

I sat down on a bench and started putting my skates on, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to tie them tight enough to not hurt my ankles. I never could. Brett must have seen me struggling because he walked over with his skates on and grabbed my ankle to tie it for me. I leaned back and smiled at him as he pinched my skate between his knees and started pulling on my laces. "Thank you," I told him.

His lips pulled up a little, but not the whole way to a smile. "I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself before the dance because you didn't tie them right."

"You still want to go with me?"

He dropped my one foot and stepped back so I could put the second one on. "Of course I do, Annah. You just caught me off guard. I... I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. It was a jerk move."

I shook my head as I lifted up my second foot. "You don't need to apologize. I would've been mad too. You should've been. I led you on for awhile and I'm sorry for that."

He sighed and pulled my skate extra tight. "It's not your fault. If I wouldn't have gotten hurt it wouldn't have happened. I know you didn't mean it. It just took me a couple days and few brotherly lectures to realize that." I followed his eyes to where they were focused on Dylan and Seb across the room.

"He really isn't the same kid he was back when you knew him," I said softly. "He's a good guy. He's sorry."

Brett dropped my foot. "I'm sure he is. Just don't get hurt Annah. I don't wanna have to punch him like Seb did."