“So, where are we going?” Melanie yelled over the noise of the wind. “The beach?”
There was no reply to Melanie’s question just a smile. They were travelling along a main road to the next town, as the town approached the sky began to glow orange. All thoughts were driven from Melanie's mind. she forgot Max and her dad, tucked up safe in bed, one could say it was thoughtlessness, but that was not true. She though of herself and what she knew would keep her sane and happy. The bike drove to the town centre, Melanie was clueless but not caring where she was being taken. When they arrived at their destination Melanie smiled.
“You never strike me as the ice skating type, no offence”
“Offence is taken to the highest degree, and I have moves” to demonstrate this point he did a pirouette on the grass. There were two paris of skates next to the door of the arena, they both strapped on a pair and set their blades onto the ice. Melanie had skated before, a long time ago though, and she felt extremely wobbily as she slid around on the ice.
“So tell me something, how’d you manage this? Even you can’t be that lucky to come across a rink with two pairs of skates lying unprotected by the door.” Melanie asked as they skated around the edge of the rink, their arms bumping as they skated.
“Magic” he smiled, Melanie looked at him, her eyebrows raised critically. “okay, my cousin works here, but I promise you that I am the next Harry Potter.”
“You are full of surprises Jackson Hughes-Taylor.”
“Whoa! That’s what my mom calls me when I get into trouble.”
Melanie shrugged “It’s your name” she added simply. “What’s with the ‘Hughes-Jackson’ part?”
“My mom’s a feminist, they argued, she won and got her name into the title when she married my dad.”
“So nothing pompous at all then?” Melanie smiled at him as she said it. In retaliation he grabbed her arm and he started pulling her around the rink at high speeds. Melanie screamed out of delight and fear, the rink was whirling past her as they picked up speed. She was trying to pull her arm out of his but it was a futile attempt. A piece of chipped ice caught under Melanie’s skate and she stumbled and fell onto the ice. The cold began to soak through her tartan pyjama bottoms, it bit at her skin as it went right to her bones. She could hear a laugh circling around her. each time she tried to stand, she slipped and the laugh got louder. A pair of skates stopped in front of her and a set of hands offered to help her up off the ice. She held on as he pulled her back on to her feet.
They were really close, he was looking into her grey eyes,and her grey eyes looked back into his. Her heart was beating faster, the sound of it was thumping in her ears and her breathing quickened. He leaned closer and she let him, they were so close that they were practically sharing oxygen. Time slowed. He leaned in. she leant closer.
“Hey you two!” a voice shouted, startling them both, they pushed away from each other. “I didn’t give you the skates so you can lower the tone of my rink with your gushy canoodling.” The voice laughed and it quietened as the owner of the voice walked away.
“My cousin. The bane of our family. Not all lights on upstairs if you know what I mean?” Jackson Hughes-Taylor added jokingly, not meaning what he had said.
“And here I was thinking that that was you” Melanie laughed.
“I’ll push you back onto the ice if you’re not careful and leave you there all night”
“You can try but you have to catch me first” and with that she began to skate away, everything becoming a blur around her. Patches of colour zooming past her, mixing together to make new shades. Melanie, however, was not paying attention to her surroundings. She was focussing on the boy she could hear advancing behind her, her hair was flying out behind her as she picked up speed, the smile on her face was clear. She was happy. And that happiness was accompanied with a rainbow of colour across the portrait of her life.
For the next couple of minutes all that could be heard was the sound of metal clinking onto ice as they skated competitively around the rink, until an arm caught a waist and both bodies hit the ground laughing.
“Beat you” Melanie puffed.
“There was no winning”
“There never is when a guy loses. Whereas, us girls of the world are happy to accept our fate. Clearly our gender is the best. Unless you are just afraid that I have tainted your masculinity?” Melanie laughed. She could feel the ice and the wet seeping through her clothes, its icy touch grabbing at her.
“Now see that is an outrageously feminist comment, and I denounce it. You hear, I Jackson Hughes-Taylor denounce that feminist claim. Without men you women couldn’t survive.”
“You will find, Jackson Hughes-Taylor, that without women, men couldn’t survive either. You have stupidly forgotten the ‘What came first, the chicken or the egg?’ enigma. And so shows of your incapability to think at the same time as talking. Men and your inability to multi-task” Melanie nodded her head disapprovingly.
“You know, I never figured you’d be a feminist.”
“Oh, I’m not, it’s just funny to see you get wound up” with her comment Jackson received a peck on the cheek before Melanie got onto her feet and skated off the ice. She could hear Jackson Hughes-Taylor stumble onto his feet and skated in her wake.
“How do you do that?” he asked. Seeing Melanie’s look of confusion he added “Win.”
The reply was obvious to both of them; they stared at one another, panting due to them being short of breath. For both of them, the reply was what kept them wishing and hoping, it was a shared secret. Before Melanie replied, Jackson leant in and kissed her brightening the contrast of the colours in her life. He was gentle and reassuring, but fun and wild; he seemed so perfect to Melanie that it was as if he were a book character, carefully written to be flawless and yet not perfect. She pulled away from him, and with a smile she said:
“Magic”.
YOU ARE READING
A Portrait of Whyte
Teen Fiction"She could jump; she had done it before, a simple movement that even three year olds can do. She stretched her leg, feeling the force of the wind. And then, still with her leg out, she held her breath and lent forward..." Melanie's life is a grey...
