Leah and Trent

Chapter Thirty

December 31 2016 - Saturday

~

Jessie

(Song: Royals/Team (Cover by Paradise Fears))

It was Saturday night, New Year's Eve, and the last weekend before school was set to start back up. I wanted to be able to have some last minute fun before school started, and a couple girls from school thought it'd be a good idea to go skating. My mom was out clubbing, so I didn't have to sneak out in order to meet up with my friends. My little brother stayed home alone, but he was mature enough to look after himself. All he ever did was watch TV, anyway. I had invited Valentine to join us, but she wanted to stay home with her family. Her family was pretty cool, so I sort of understood why she wanted to spend Saturday night with them. Her parents were always so nice whenever I went over to her house.

The girls picked me up from in front of the house, and we all belted and tried to dance in our seats to music on the radio. It wasn't that long of a drive, probably only about fifteen minutes. The skating rink was in what was once a church. On the outside, looking at the pillars and the arched windows, you'd never expect it to be a roller rink on the inside. The inside had the appeal of a rave with bright colorful lights and music blasting from every wall. We rented some skates and sat on the side putting them on. We were talking when a group of guys decided to crash into us and try to squeeze in between us to sit down.

"Hello, ladies," one of the guys said sitting next to me and trying to wrap his arm around my shoulders. I recognized the voice almost instantly.

"Go away, Carl," I said pushing his arm off of me.

"Any of you girls interested in a couples' skate?" one of Carl's friends asked.

"I hope you guys realize how rude you are," my friend said.

"We never claimed to be gentleman," another one of Carl's friends said.

We managed to evade them on the floor and had a good time skating and fooling around. I wasn't an amazingly great skater, but I knew how to stay on my feet. The hardest part about skating in a crowd was trying not to bump into people. And you always had to watch the floor in front of you. The worst thing was having your wheels hit a stray scrunchie or something and then landing on your face.

We stopped for a break once the heat of the room started to get to us and skated over to the concession stand to get some slushies. It didn't take long for the boys to come crawling over and sit at our table. The guys started joking around with the other girls, and I watched as the girls started responding to the guys flirting with them. Some of them even flirted back. I tapped on Carl's shoulder, who was sitting next to me, and he turned to me grinning.

"What did you do all winter break?" I asked.

"A little bit of everything- I went to this uniform party."

"I'm sure that went well."

"Well, almost got my a** kicked- twice, but other than that it wasn't bad. What about you?"

"Not much. I stayed with my dad for a while, but he's a pill."

"A pill?"

"Yeah."

"Who says that anymore?"

"I do."

"I think you're someone's grandmother in a hot body."

"Hot body?"

"You heard me."

". . .You're an idiot."

"Thank you." He reached and grabbed the slushie in front of me and put his mouth on my straw. I hit him on the shoulder, and he grinned. The guys stayed with us and even skated around on the floor with us. Then the DJ played a slow song and called for a couples skate. The guys and girls started to pair off with each other, leaving me and Carl together in the middle of the floor. "My lady," he said bowing and holding out his hand. I scoffed and skated past him. He caught up to me, and we just skated around the rink with our hands in our pockets. Neither of us said a word. I couldn't think of anything to say, and I thought it would be less awkward to not say anything, but the tension was starting to make me nervous.