Claire Bear (M.A.D)

Chapter Nineteen

On New Year's Eve we travelled into Belfast City to go to Winter Wonderland. It was wonderful. We arrived about 7pm and our skating-time wasn't until 9pm so we wandered around for a while. We had hotdogs and hot chocolates as we watched the fairground rides tip and turn and spin. Michael won me a Minion on the darts game and I bet him I could beat is score. I did, by almost double, and gave him another Minion in return. He laughed and I kissed him on his cool cheek.

Eventually, it was skating time. My first time; Michael's first time in a long time. This would be fun.

I held up my phone and pressed record as Michael approached the rink. We were purposely one of the last to get on the ice and so we took our time. He stepped carefully onto the ice, gripping the barrier tight. His feet slid uncontrollably for a second or two before he regained control and stood quite still on the ice, still gripping the barrier.

"Come on. Your turn." he held out his hand. I put the phone away in my pocket and took his hand in mine, gripping the barrier with my other hand. I stepped gingerly onto the ice. It was more slippery than I imagined and I didn't very much like not having full control over my feet but I managed to stay upright; that was something.

Michael started moving forwards along the barrier and dared move his hand away after just a few steps. He fell. We laughed. I took his hand and tried to help him up but ended up on the cold damp surface too. We laughed some more before a marshal came and helped us both back to our feet. We were fine except we were now slightly damp and fairly cold. But it was still funny. Michael now stood behind me and he put his outside hand on my hip and I put my free hand on his as we continued to try and get used to the ice, holding onto the barrier for dear life.

By the time we'd gone around the rink once, Michael was skating with his hand in mine as I still kept my other hand on the barrier for support but by the second time around he had convinced me to let the barrier go and to trust him. Almost instantly, we were on the floor once more, laughing. This time we picked ourselves up before a marshal came to help, still laughing at our own clumsiness.

We skated hand-in-hand, chatting and joking. Michael pretended to be falling over at one point and I thought he was actually going to fall. He ended up with his ass on the ice. He pretended to look hurt when I laughed at him and one of the marshals came over, thinking he was actually hurt. We reassured him we were fine and Michael stumbled back up to his feet.

We were skating around for about half an hour before Michael let go of my hand.

"Hang on a second." He said before skating off. Still unsure and unstable, I couldn't follow, so I continued at an attempt of skating as I watched him disappear through the crowd.

A few moments later someone skated up from behind me and grabbed my hand. I was shocked at first and was about to pull my hand away when I realised it was Michael. He pulled me along through the crowd at a fairly quick pace. The wind blew in my face and hair. It wrapped itself around me in its feeble attempts to stop me moving forwards. Michael continued to pull me. It felt wonderful.

Then he stopped himself against a barrier and turned quickly. I slid into him, our hard skates crashing and our bodies forced against each other by the momentum. We kissed, our cold lips warming as they touched.

Skating time was almost over so we skated around some more, at a slightly faster seed than before as I was now a little more confident. I fell once and Michael had to pull me back up. He would have been concerned except that I was laughing.

When we got off the ice and had put our shoes back on we wandered around the rides and things for a while longer. They had a firework display at midnight and so we weren't being picked up until 12:30. We got hot dogs and went on the bumper cars and the Waltzers. We ate candyfloss and kissed with sticky faces.

Eventually, the countdown began.

We found a great spot, standing on a bench that ran around a tree covered in fairy lights in the midst of the crowd.

"8...7...6...5..." Michael looked at my lips and bit his, he moved a piece of hair from my face. "2...1..." We kissed, long and sweet full of chocolate and hot dogs and candyfloss and memories of this year. There, at midnight, under a tree hung with fairy lights and the sound of a large crowd greeting and embracing each other with "Happy New Year"s, I felt all our memories and all my feelings towards this boy who'd stuck by me since we were three. This boy that defended me in nursery school when everyone was being horrible to me because I was clumsy and had been my best friend ever since. This boy who had turned up at my house at twelve-years-old with a bunch of flowers from our favourite field to hang out and asked if I would do the honour of being his girlfriend because he'd realised that we really can be lovers and still be best friends.

In that moment, the stars were aligned just for us, and we were infinite.

You and me against the world.

Always.