I hear a slap. The sweet aroma of pancakes engulfs my small room. I wake up and wait for my eyes to adjust to the brightness.
I mope out of bed and chuck on some comfy clothes and a beanie.
As I walk down the stairs, the chatter of my family snaps me out of my dreamy state.
"Good morning sweetie" my mum says flipping a pancake.
"Morning" I reply glaring at my unresponsive father and brother.
My dad groans and slightly nods his head in my direction.
I raise my eyebrows and wander over to my mother who was cooking the pancakes. She slaps one onto the plate beside her but before she can even think about offering it to anyone, I have already taken it.
"hey!" she yells grinning.
"sorry" I say with a mouth full of pancake.
"where's mine!" my brother, Nate shouts from the other side of the kitchen winking at me.
"what was it with him and winking lately?" I thought.
Mum slaps another pancake onto the plate and I chuck it to Nate.
"here you go dear brother" I chuckle.
"Double hey!" says mum, eyebrows raised "don't throw food, I don't know how many times I have to tell you Eliza!"
"Ooh full name, I must have angered her" I laugh inside my head
I always preferred people to call me Liz rather than Eliza, my full name. It sounded too... serious. This, however didn't always flow with everyone, my brother didn't really call me by anything to do with my name and my dad thought it was too "punk" which was a load of sh-
"how did you sleep?" my mother asks breaking me out of my thoughts.
"alright" I say tilting my head back and forth.
"what's your plan for today" she questions still flipping pancakes
"not sure, I might meet up with Bronte"
Bronte has been my best friend of four years. We met in year seven but only became close in year eight when we were partnered together for a geography assignment. She has seen the best and the worst of me also stuck with me during my hardest times.
I could never ask for a better best friend.
I scoff down the last of my pancakes and head back up to my room to call her.
I grab my phone off charge and click on her name.
After three dials, she picks up.
"baeeeeeeeeeeee" she drags on.
"yasssss baeeeeee" I chuckle "wanna do something today?"
"sure" she says, I can practically hear her mildly jumping around.
"what to do though, what to do.."
"hmmm..."
After a good five minutes deciding, we finally settle on ice-skating. We agree on a time and hang up to go get ready.
I bounce around the house, excited to go on an outing with Bronte, we always have the best time.
I quickly shower and change my clothes into suitable ice-skating wear. I throw my hair up in a bun just as I hear her honk her car horn outside my window.
"ooh" I squeal with excitement and scramble downstairs.
I kiss my mum goodbye and walk out the door.
"Get in loser, we're going shopping!" I hear her yell as I approach the silver car. We both laugh and I hop in.
We finally arrive at the ice-skating rink. The carpark was merely empty except for a few cars and trucks.
"I wonder why?, it's normally packed!"
I push the thought away and we enter the building. A rush of cool air made my neck hairs stand on end which instantly told me to put on my jacket.
We pay our fare and head to the rink.
I grab my sized shoe and wobble onto the ice. Bronte comes up behind me and holds my hand as she wobbles on too.
Before too long, we were confidently skating around the rink. We start competitions of who can reach the other side first.
"1...2....3...GO!" Bronte yells and I dash across the middle.
About half way across, I see a figure heading towards me in the opposite direction. I try to slow down but fail as we crash and topple to the ground.
I lay down and laugh, clutching my aching belly.
"I'm so sorry!" A voice says scrambling off of the ground. The voice was raspy and deep but at the same time, caring. I finally sit up, recovering from my fit and look up to the owner of the voice. A boy, he looked around my age. He holds out his hand to help me up and I accept. I take it and stand up, brushing the ice off of my pants.
As I finally regain my balance, I get a better look at the boy. He was a smidge taller than me with dark hair and green eyes. He was gorgeous. His skin was an olive-brown and he had a very muscly build.
"Again, so sorry" he says with worry in his eyes.
"No, no aha, it's fine, my fault" I laugh.
He sticks his hand out.
"Koby Redford...and you?"
I mimic his action.
"Eliza Phillips, but I prefer just Liz"
"Eliza" he repeats "that's a nice name"
I thank him and by this time, Bronte had realised the fall and came skating over to where Koby and I were standing.
"Hi" she says with a small smile "my name's Bronte"
"Nice to meet you Bronte, I'm Koby. I uh-" he hesitates "kinda knocked over Liz here aha"
"I heard" she chuckles "quite literally actually, you both screamed pretty loud"
We all laugh and decide to skate together around the rink.
We tell stories of past life and share information about each other and laugh.... A lot.
"How about some lunch?" I clap my hands together.
"Yes, I'm starving" Koby says
"Do you wanna just go to the cafe here? Orr...." I trail off leaving the options open-ended.
"Nah" Koby shakes his head "I've eaten here before and egh" he sticks out his tongue "it's terrible"
"Where do you guys wanna go then?"
"Hmmm" Bronte looks at the clock on her phone "well there's a fish and chip shop not too far from here and we've got about three-four hours before it shuts"
"Yeah!" I give a fist pump to the air and look to Koby for agreement.
He nods his head "sure!"
