I Guess They Never Disappear

V

Alana POV

Zoe laces up her skates carefully, probably because she's done this before. 

Apparently one of the few things that she does remember from her childhood that was actually a decent experience was going to the ice skating rink with her family a couple of times. 

She says it's one of the few memories that isn't marred with arguments. 

I know it's the truth. 

Right now, though, she looks like she might be a child again, for, however, she's acting. A smile on her face, snow falling into her light brown hair that she tried and failed to cover with a beanie, a bright scarf around her neck. 

When she's done, she turns to me.

"You ready, darling?"

I smile. 

"Yeah," I say. 

She gets up from the bench easily, balancing on her skates without a care in the world. 

I try to copy the motion.

I'm.... slightly less graceful. I manage to stand up for a second, but then I start wobbling; the only solution is to fall back on the safety of the bench. 

Zoe tries to contain her laughter. 

I frown. 

"It's fine, 'Lana," she says in between giggles, "Not everyone is good at standing in the presence of beautiful people."

I whack her lightly and the laughter slowly fades away. 

"I'll help you up, okay?"

She braces against the wall and offers me her hands. And slowly, slowly, I manage to stand up on the skates. 

How am I going to actually skate if I'm struggling this much with just standing?

Zoe smiles. "Good job!"

"I can't stand without holding onto you, that's not good, Zoe."

"I mean... fine, I guess I see your point. But as your official girlfriend and therefore dedicated Appreciative Person, I think you're doing well."

A little kid glides by us on the ice, a direct mockery of me. 

I wince. 

"Maybe you can grab onto the wall?"

She lets go of one hand so I can get a grip, and then she lets go of the other. 

I stay up. 

"Progress," Zoe says, smiling. 

"Yeah," I say. 

"Now all we need to do is get you onto the rink."

"F...lowers."

She whacks me. 

"Children, Alana, children are around."

I lower my voice. 

"I know, and they're showing me up!"

Zoe bursts into another round of laughter. 

"Maybe we see about walking?"

I give her a dirty look.

"It's easy, come on! Just baby steps and you can hold onto the wall the whole way."

Surprisingly, she's actually right about this. Walking doesn't seem to pose a problem for me, and we make our way to the gap in the wall fairly quickly (although it still probably takes longer than it should; I'm being really careful, maybe more careful than I should be).