A Lesson In Ice Skating

"Please slow down, I am literally the worst at ice skating," Joey groaned as he clutched the side of the relatively empty ice skating rink. His friend Meredith laughed and proceeded to skate backward in front of him. "Now you're just showing off," he grumbled.

"No, showing off would be doing this," Meredith giggled and then took off completing a large circle around the rink and skidding to a stop beside him, "you have to let go of the side sometime Joey," she said.

"I'm good thanks, the side is my friend," she rolled her eyes.

"It's because you're so tall, you're all limbs,"

"What am I supposed to do about that?" Joey argued, "We're only here because you begged me to come,"

"I didn't know you'd be so bad at it!" Meredith replied squeezing Joey's arm.

"Don't feel like you have to be stuck here with me if you want to go off and skate, I'm happy just watching."

Truth be told ice skating was very high on Joey's list of most hated activities and he had only come because Meredith's cat had passed away and he wanted to distract her. He hobbled to the exit with Meredith's help and then watched her zoom off clearly in her element. Joey took a seat in the bleachers and watched the people effortlessly gliding around the rink. There were a couple of families and a few obvious dates happening as cheesy Christmas music filtered through the sound system. There were two safety skaters in high vis jackets in the middle of the rink practising turns and jumps when they thought no-one was looking. God he wished he could skate like that. They flew around the rink with a practised ease, skidding to a stop to help a small child get back up again. He was starting to get cold sitting down; he wiggled his glove covered fingers and pulled his beanie further over his ears as Meredith appeared beside him.

"Come on grumpy, let's try again, the skating will warm you up," She held a hand out to him and he rolled his eyes but acquiesced.

He made it a couple of times around the rink holding Meredith's hand and just as he was finally getting enough confidence to let go of her hand he completely lost his centre of gravity and fell flat on his back, smacking his head on the ice. Joey closed his eyes and groaned loudly, throwing a hand over his face in embarrassment. He could hear Meredith laughing loudly somewhere in the distance and then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"Thanks for finally stopping laughing long enough to ask," Joey replied sarcastically. He moved his hand and was met with someone who was definitely not Meredith. She had long chestnut hair and deep brown eyes that were staring back at him in concern.

"You bumped your head pretty hard," she said crouching down beside him, "you think you can sit up?" Joey flushed bright red and heard Meredith cackle behind him; he was glad that his pain was at least making someone happy.

"Yeah," he said, placing his hands on the ice and pushing himself upright. The girl tucked her hair behind her ear and he noticed she was one of the girls in the high vis jackets who he had spotted helping a young girl skate backward earlier.

"I'm Lauren, can you tell me your name?" She asked kindly.

"It's Joey,"

"Hi Joey, it's nice to meet you," she smiled softly at him and held up three fingers, "I'm just checking you don't have a concussion okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

He stared back at her, distracted by the slight poke of tongue between her teeth and managed to divert his attention to her fingers.

"Three,"

"Great job," she grinned, "now let's get you up," she held her hand out for him and dug her skates into the ice for balance.

He placed his hand in hers and pushed off of the ice with his other hand to stand up. His skates wobbled beneath him and he swore he could still hear Meredith laughing at him. He reached for her other hand and managed to stand up fully. Lauren squeezed his hands forcing him to look at her instead of the ice.