✔ Icebound » Justin Davis » Spinning Out

F o u r

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Gone But Not Forgotten

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The newcomer moved with perfect accordance on the ice, her body flowing through the sweet melody as though she was a flower carried delicately by a foreign breeze.

Alaska had her drawbacks, insecurities, and fears, but on the ice, no one could tell either of those things about her. No one could anticipate that once she would leave the ice and open her mouth to speak, she would guard herself and her heart, or when she would finish her training for the day, she would leave the rink as fast as she could, shrink and fade into the background as though she was never really there. 

In those fading moments of importance, her focus was directed at herself and only herself, as though she was the only one there, but she had a feeling everyone's eyes were following her movements, the way they always did whenever she skated, suddenly stopping in their tracks, slowing down on their own skating, fumbling on their unspoken words.

Alaska was far from a perfect skater, carrying a fair share of losses and disappointments under her name, but she had something many other athletes lacked. Skating wasn't just a sport for her, it was her best, and perhaps her only, genuine form of communication. Through it, she could express everything she feared to say without uttering out a word. Her sorrow, her joy, her love, or lack thereof. Her pain stuck to people, as did her internal beauty, that's what made her a good skater, her aura, that shone compared to so many skaters around her and lured people in to take a closer look, to bask in the reality of being human.

But the moment she posed for the ending of her graceful routine, it was as though she suddenly sunk deep underwater, her senses awakening all at once in an attempt to rescue her from the menacing feeling of drowning. She sent a panicked look to the one who always watched her from the stands back at home. The one who gave her flowers each time she finished a competition, even if she didn't place well, the one who prepared warm baths for her when she returned from an exhausting day of training, the one who made her hot chocolate when her mom wasn't around to scold her for her poor diet, the one who held so much of her love, and had the ability to take all of it away. She searched for him with a yearning expression on her face, but he wasn't there, and he would never be there, because he was gone, and with him, so was a part of her. 

Instead of finding what she was looking for, her eyes landed on the dirty blond who seemed to constantly reappear in her life, noticing the way he studied her features, as though he recognized the lost expression on her face, one which he had truly worn many times before. Alas, as quickly as her heart emerged beyond her well fortificated walls using her tender expression, it dissolved into thin air and the girl furrowed her brows warningly at the boy, as though looking at her direction was a dreadful crime.

"Again"! Her mother's voice rung turmiously in her ears as Alaska loosened her body and let out a shaky breathe, one finally showcasing all the effort it truly took to complete the routine, for on the ice, she looked as though she moved with ease, barely lifting a finger to accomplish her elements. Perhaps that sigh was also one of frustration directed at her mother, for never being satisfied enough with her daughter's work. 

"No, not again. I've done it multiple times already, I'm exhausted. Just because I don't have a partner doesn't mean I'm going to lose all of my skills, mom" The girl looked at the former single skater, who despite signing Alaska for the pair skating discipline and getting her a coach, still greatly insisted on training her daughter for additional hours. There was a time in her life Alaska argued with her mother about their training sessions, urging Charlotte to understand that the training her daughter received with her partner and their coach was more than enough, but her mother refused to hear it, and eventually, Alaska had no choice but to yield into it.