Trombone Crush

6

During the next few days leading up to Saturday, I master the art, of ignoring my feelings. Every time I want to cry because of how nice Jesse is to me, or because I'm actually starting to make some friends or because my dad is going on about how excited he is, I immediately repress it. In order to keep myself distracted, I spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect Halloween costume. Eventually, I settle on a tinker bell costume and buy it on Amazon.

Then the weekend of Halloween arrives and I get ready to hang out with Jesse. We decide to go ice skating. I wear one of my nicer long sleeve shirts and some jeans and a hoodie and I let my hair down for the first time in a while. Content with how I look, I have my mom drive me to the skating rink to meet Jesse there. On the way there, my mom tries to talk to me about the whole moving thing, but I just tell her that I don't really want to think about it for now.

I get to the rink and see Jesse already renting some ice skates. My heart rate picks up a little, this is the first time we're hanging out, outside of school. I come up behind him while he waits and poke his side gently. Jesse laughs in surprise and turns to see me, "Well hello to you too."

"Hi," I say, a bit breathlessly once I get a good look at him. He's wearing a nice button-down shirt, it's green and it compliments the green in his hazel eyes. His messy curly hair brings a smile to my eyes, "You ready to get destroyed by my ice-skating skills?" I threaten absently wondering if his hair is as soft as it looks.

Jesse cracks a grin "We'll see about that."

We both get tickets and our ice skates, put them on and then go out onto the ice. The cool air is biting and I pull my sleeves over my hold hands. I step onto the rink and immediately grab the wall for balance.

Jesse raises a teasing eyebrow at me as he steps onto the ice as well. "Where did all that confidence go?"

I shrug with a smile "I lied."

He shakes his head and laughs, "Here." He offers me his hand and I feel my face immediately flush.

"Th-thanks." I take his hand gently, as my heart bursts into a thousand little spazzy pieces. His hand is surprisingly very warm, and a bit rougher than mine. I feel tingles go up my arm as he guides me around the rink. I desperately hope that the fact that it's cold explains away how red my face is. After a few laps around the rink, I'm a lot more confident.

"You wanna try skating on your own?"

I hesitate and then nod a little. "Yeah, I think I can do it." So, he lets go of my hand and I immediately miss the warmth and comfort of it. That feeling is very quickly replaced by mild fear, as I'm careful to keep my balance on the slick ice. After a few moments, my confidence grows "Ah! I'm doing it." I smile proudly as I glide across the ice, picking up speed as I go.

"Good job!" Jesse calls after me "Don't go too fast!"

"Psshh it's fine I'm f-" I lose my balance and slam into the hard ice.

"Lana!"

"Frick," I mumble as I attempt to stand, and slip again.

Jesse skates up to me, as gracefully as ever and gently helps me up. "You all right?"

"Yeah." I wince, "Only my pride was damaged."

He laughs and guides me off of the rink. I take off the skates and try to recover from that humiliating tumble.

"Would you believe that that was my first-time going ice skating?" I smile sheepishly at Jesse as he takes off his skates in front of me.

"Really?" he glances up at me with a teasing smile, "I never would have guessed it."