My Roommate

Chapter 26

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Ashley's POV—

"And...here we are," Evan says as she suddenly stops walking.

I've been too busy looking at the entire scenery around us to really pay attention as to where she was taking me. What can I say? The bright lights hanging on the trees, acting as borders around the windows and even lights wrapped around the street lights are pretty.

I'm a sucker for nice, little things.

Shoosh.

So when Evan suddenly stops walking, I finally really take a look as to where we were heading. Almost immediately, a smile breaks onto my face as the memories of previous visits here in the past floods my head. Each one containing races, falls, and a warm treat afterwards.

"This is where you planned on taking me?" I ask Evan as I watch several, more like a few dozen people skate around on the ice. Some are zipping by while others are moving more slowly. Some are children, as young as probably around five. And some are older, around their middle age perhaps.

Either way, everyone skating on the ice has smiles on their faces. That or their faces contain a lot of frustration as they accidentally lose their balance and fall, landing on their butts. I flinch, as they do, when they hit the ice.

"Yeah. I just thought that it would be fun, you know? Besides, I already told you I didn't want our first date to be so stereotypical, or something you'd expect. You know, like going out to eat, or going to the movies...those'll come later—" my face reddens at that word.

Later.

Meaning more dates with her in the future. Or at least, that's what I got from that. Even just thinking about the possibility of us continuing to go out with one another makes me smile even more.

"—but for tonight, I thought this would be nice. It's been a while since we last went ice skating together," she trails off as she gently tugs on my hand, leading me towards where we'll rent some skates, considering we don't have any with us.

I haven't been ice skating in years.

Evan and I used to go ice skating several times every winter when we were younger. Either her parents would take us, or mine would. Jax would usually come with us as well. Roxy and Mathew never did at the time because Mathew was too young and Roxy just wasn't that interested.

She was more concerned that she was going to slip and fall.

It was fun, though.

But, along with multiple other things, that tradition died out once we reached middle school. Of course, Caleb would always try to invite me to go with them when they would go. But every time he'd ask, either Evan or myself would snap and say something about it.

Completely hating the suggestion.

I know I went a few times since I stopped going with her, but I stopped entirely before I turned 13.

"Oh! But we don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can do something else," she suggests as we get in line for the skate rental, sounding unsure about this now. I can only shake my head with a smile across my face as I turn my head to look at her.

I've been looking at the skaters up until she suggested that.

"No, this is cool. I want to go skating with you. Just...it's been a while since I last went ice skating. So you'll have to catch me if I fall," I tell her. With that, her sudden hesitance washes away as we take a couple steps forward, getting closer to the front of the line.