Broken Ice

Chapter 13: As Long as You'll Have Me

This time, Michael walked me home. On the way home, we passed an open skate rink. "Teach me to skate, Kent."

"No way." I didn't have any plans to ever skate in front of anyone ever again, no matter how cute they were.

"Come on" He pulled me.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Fine, you leave me no choice." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the rink, running. I flushed, feeling the heat of his hand mixing with mine, even through our thick winter gloves. Somehow, I felt weightless and let him take me.

We pulled on our skates and I helped Michael waddle his way to the rink, laughing at him the entire time as he gave me a fake glare. "Now push off slowly. I've got you." Shakily, he pushes off and I hold his hands. However, his feet slip out from under him, sending him falling. I grab him just in time. "You're kinda heavy for me to spot you. I usually do this for kids half your weight." I groan from trying to hold him up.

"Rude," He tuts.

"I'm not rude, it's true." Even after 30 minutes, he could barely skate around the rink with me at a snails pace. "I'm going to be honest. You suck, this will never work."

"One day, I'm going to teach you baseball, and you'll know how sucking feels."

"I don't know. I've never experienced it." I shrug, joking. Michael dusts the snow off a bench for me, and we take off our skates, sitting on it.

"You're good, you know—at skating"

"Thanks." I say, half-assed, staring at the snowflakes floating to melt into the piles of snow on the ground.

'I mean it," He looks at me with an earnest look in his eyes and grabs my hand. "You deserve that win."

I sigh. "It's over, Michael. Even if I wanted to participate, I have no team and I can only use the rink for like...30 minutes without my aunt noticing. The second she does, I pack up my bags and I'm moving straight back to Canada. Plus, the competition is in February, I've only got 2 months to do what people have had 10 months for."

"But do you want to live never knowing?" He blurts out. "I'll never know if I could have been a real pro, Gianna. My dad certainly won't let me try with my cousin, Richard, gunning for the law firm. It's over for me, Kent. But not for you—never."

The little seed within me kept growing, becoming more and more greedy. Was it alright to hope? My parents would kill me, well, after aunt Clara had. But what other chance would I have. I might be in the best moments I'll ever have, and don't want to miss it. Risks were never my thing, but maybe I needed to take one last risk. A risk to gain everything.

"Fine. You aren't leaving me, though, right?"

"I'm here as long as you'll have me."

———

Hey guys, the last chapter was short, so I posted another.  School has been really busy lately since the semesters almost over so I don't know how posts will go, but I have a completed novel that's also on my account: Kin of the Damned.  It's a lot different from this but it's YA.  I hope to get started on its sequel soon.  Have a good weekend!