My First Bet

Chapter 5: Roller Skating

We get to the arena around 5 o'clock since we left so early. After the bridge, Chase had to let go of my hand since he needed to shift gears but now that we were stopped in the parking lot, the engine still running, he reaches over and grabs my hand once more with a slight grin. He shifts his body slightly towards me after putting his emergency brake on and turns the music down slightly before he looks me in the eyes. I want to say something and I can tell he does too, but when I open my mouth to speak my phone buzzes inside my purse. Quickly shutting my mouth so I don't embarrass myself, I pull out my phone and unlock the screen to see who is texting me. I smile as I open the message from my best friend Maggie but no sooner than I read the first sentence, a frown takes it's place on my face.

'Hey Zoe, I'm so sorry but we're not going to make it tonight. Natalie got sick again so I have to stay home to help and Matt has a headache so he doesn't want to go. Not that he wanted to go in the first place...I'm really am sorry though'

Chase looks at me in wonder and I flip my phone towards him so he can see. He reads the message carefully before looking at me once more.

"Oh, that's a bummer" he begins. "What do you want to do before we go inside? We've got half an hour before we can start skating.."

I look at him with a question mark masking my features.

"You do still want to skate dont you, Z? I mean, we came all the way here and besides, part of our agreement was me taking you out to do things to win you over."

Chase gives me a cheesy grin as he softly squeezes my hand. He didn't seem affected at all by the news it was just going to be us tonight.

"Yeah. I guess."

I give him a small smile, still nervous that I was going to be alone with him for the evening. I knew he was a gentleman just by his actions, but I wasn't sure how clear I can keep my mind if he keeps holding my hand and smiling at me with full force charm.

"Awesome! I promise I'll make sure you have fun. You'll forget all about the others."

With this, Chase lets go of my hand so he can get out of the vehicle and walk around to open my door. He holds out a hand for me to support myself and gracefully pulls me up to my feet. I just stand there, half in awe of his mannerisms and half trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do next, when he takes my hand in his once again. He starts to pull me towards the door as he reaches behind himself with his other hand and clicks the locks on his car. Yet again as we reach the door, he steps in fronts and opens it for me and allows me to walk inside before he follows directly behind me. We order our roller blades, both of us proffering the straight line of wheels rather than the blocky skates, and he pays for the tickets.

Walking inside to the rink, I look around and realize that it's not too busy for a Saturday evening but there's enough people so that we're not too noticeable. Chase saunters up to my side as we sit down at a booth and begin to put on our skates. Chase manages to lace his up first before I can even finish one of mine and he kneels down to tie the second for me.

"Thank you," I murmur, slightly embarrassed.

I was happy when he backed away and I was able to stand up on my own. It wasn't long before he was once again reaching for my hand and guiding me into the skating rink.

"Chase, I don't think we're supposed to start for another 10 minutes. We were sort of early and our skating session doesn't start until 5:30..."

Chase looks around and shrugs his shoulders.

"I really doubt they'll care that much. There's only about ten people in here and that's including us. Come on Zoe, live a little. Besides, what are they gonna do if we skate an extra ten minutes?"