Beating You

Chapter 22

We're up to number 5! I cannot thank you all enough, so amazing! Thank you! :) Your comments and votes are really motivating and I love some of the dedication, so thanks for that as well! I hope you enjoy this chapter, so please vote and comment, and of course, enjoy! :)

Chapter 22

I groaned, feeling the cold air embrace my skin as I skated over to Josh to help him up. He had fallen over a total of ten times in the past hour whilst trying to do the triple axel; I was beginning to worry about concussion.

"I've nearly got it!" he exclaimed, getting to his feet and brushing ice shards from his trousers.

I glanced over at Cooper and Dale who were sat by the bench with Clara and all of them seemed to be stifling laughter. Josh tried to slide across the ice again, but it wasn't working with him. It was rough under his skates and tripping him up whenever he moved one of his feet in front of the other.

"Josh, arms up!" I hollered as he turned the corner and tried to go into the axel for the eleventh time. He jumped up from the ice, but his skate caught and he looked like he was trying to do a ballet jump but failing. As expected, he fell to the ice with a thump and a yelp.

"Dude, if only Layla could see you now!" Dale hollered and Clara slapped his arm, but was laughing nonetheless.

"You're looking a bit on the feminine side," Cooper added through laughs and I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling.

"It's Ally's fault! She's giving me the camp movements!" he exclaimed, reaching out to take my hand which I quickly withdrew and gave him a look.

"Ally is also trying to keep your ass off the ice so show her some respect," I winked and the others just laughed harder. I put my hand out for Josh to take and he got back up, rubbing his bum.

"Sorry," he muttered and grinned at me, taking off on another lap around the rink.

Cooper, Dale and Clara were here with us and doing some band practise whilst we were on the ice. Apparently, Josh didn't really do much in the music making; he just sang what Cooper wrote so he was free to have a skate around. I would be going back to Cooper's house whilst Cooper had some time to do some band practise. He had been adamant against leaving me, so I had to practically force him to go.

I decided to leave Josh to practise the axel whilst I perfected my lutz jump and layback attitude.

The ice was like water beneath the skates, running free whilst it was being contained by the controlled strokes of my blades. I stopped and twirled on the toe piece; picking up speed and feeling the world vanish around me. The rink and room were spinning so fast that I couldn't make anything out when I put my arms up and ran them down my torso before leaning back and lifting one of my skates up from the ice. Sometimes it felt as if life moved at that speed, so fast that you couldn't grasp what was happening, yet so miniscule that you don't remember half of the things that you have seen.

I pulled my body into an upright position and pushed off from my skate, twirling into a perfect axel and then going into my lutz. The balance was perfect as the cold breeze kept my body upright, my leg went up and I twisted again. For a moment it was almost as if I weighed nothing and as if nothing mattered, until I felt the jolt from beneath me that reminded me that everything was real. I had landed again and slowly skidded to a stop.