A Jade Christmas

Chapter 8

"Look what I found!" Jackson shouted from the storage in the hallway. He had been looking through it, searching for old memories.

"What love?" Cade's voice echoed from the kitchen. He was making sandwiches for tea.

"I found some old skates! We used to go ice-skating when I was a kid. There's a bunch of them here. I found two that'll probably fit us!"

"Wanna go?" Cade already knew the answer.

"Yeah, we can bring the sandwiches and hot chocolate!"

"Are you sure? Maybe we should wait til' tomorrow, it's almost eight o'clock and pitch-black outside..."

"Which means everyone will have gone home by now."

"You really want to do this, don't you..." Cade was now standing in the doorway behind Jackson, looking down on the boy holding the two pairs of skates in his hands. Jackson turned around and looked up at Cade.

"It's nice..."

"Yeah" Cade said, and bent down to kiss Jackson. They tried on the skates and Jackson was right, they fit. They quickly got ready and left the house behind them in the car.

"Are you sure the lake'll be safe by now?" Cade asked, staring out at the dark nature outside the car window.

"Yeah, it's got to be. It's been below freezing since we got here. Not much people come there though, so it'll be good." Jackson still knew Cade was worrying about their privacy. Not in the sense he didn't like PDA but sometimes he just wanted Jackson to his own, like this last week.

"I'm not worrying about that, I'm looking forward to see if I'm still safe on the ice, with you. And it's not like anyone's going to care of they see us... I just don't want you to fall through the ice when it's all dark outside or something else stupid."

"If they have marked the ice with sticks and stuff we wont go skating, don't worry." Jackson said, and the words made Cade feel a bit calmer. He really did want to swirl around with Jackson, wanted to see him smile and laugh when he tripped, as he was sure he would do.

Jackson finally stopped the car and turned the engine off. There was a small light shining down on the glistering surface of the frozen lake. To their relief no one was there except for them. They got out of the car, and made their way down to the bench with their skates. There was a sign confirming the lake was safe for skating, and the warning stick was far out on the ice, so they figured it would be ok. Jackson quickly got his skates on and he stumbled out on the ice. To his surprise his balance wasn't so far off as he had expected. But Cade, on the other hand didn't seem to be as experienced as him. He could hardly make his way to the frozen waterside without tripping.

Jackson would've helped him if he wasn't already laying on the ground himself from laughing so hard at Cade. The older boy kept his pride though, and humbly reached his hand out to help Jackson up, once he was standing steady (at least for the moment) on the ice. The brown haired boy didn't trust Cade though, and he got up by himself, still chuckling slightly.

"Sorry, but I think both of us know you're the one who'll need my help." Jackson smiled at Cade, who just shrugged light-heartedly in response. "Here, take my arm and I'll guide us." Jackson said and Cade grabbed his upper arm, feeling the comforting shape of Jackson's biceps through the jacket. The younger boy eagerly built up the speed, and Cade concentrated hard not to give in to his fear and tell him to go slower. Instead he flexed every muscle in his body, staying stiff by Jackson's side and just let himself get dragged along.

"You have to loosen up, or you're gonna fall if you lose your balance in one part of your body. Your different limbs have to be strong and independent of each other, like a backup." Jackson cooed at Cade's left.