AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chandler skated over to her and said, “I didn’t have all night. I got back to my room after eleven and, you know, had to sleep. Then, I woke up and came here.” She held out her hand for Belle to take. “Want to skate or not?”
“I am a glutton for punishment,” Belle replied and gave Chandler her hand.
“Let’s go. Pretend you like me for the next, like, ten minutes.”
“Smile. Everyone, smile,” Belle joked as they skated to center ice with little to no flair.
“Let’s just skate around, holding hands, other arms out for a warm-up.”
“Should I still smile?” Belle joked again.
“Belle, this is serious. If you’re not going to take it seriously, what am I even doing here?” She dropped Belle’s hand.
“Okay. I’m sorry. This is weird to me. I’m not used to skating with someone.”
“Just… Let’s just do some synchronized toe loops. I need to make sure you can actually land one of those.”
“You realize I’m not auditioning for anything, right?”
“Belle!” Chandler skated away from her.
“Fine!”
Minutes later, Chandler was more watching Belle skate than skating with her. She still had it. Her form was great, even though Belle hadn’t been training seriously for years. She landed all her loops and an Axel, which she just did on her own without Chandler telling her to do it. After that, Belle took Chandler’s hand, and they tried to synchronize a few jumps before moving on to a spin. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than she’d imagined.
“Want to throw me?” she asked when they paused.
“Sorry?” Belle asked back.
“Practice a throw jump.”
“You want me to throw you? On ice?” Belle pointed down at the ice as if to make her point.
“Better than the dart board with my picture on it, right?”
“Chandler, I’ve not trained to throw another skater.”
“No, but we can start off easy. Just a gentle toss to test your strength and see how it goes.”
“I don’t know. I–”
“Oh, my God. You just toss me. What is so hard about that?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, and I’m the asshole here?” Belle fired back. “Just toss yourself.”
“Belle, you just have to toss me into a jump. It’s mostly on me.”
“Maybe if we’d worked on that first, yeah. But not here. Not just right on the ice when I know you’re trying to make a pretty important team, Chandler. I won’t be responsible for you getting hurt.”
Chandler smiled softly at her and said, “Okay. Fine. No throw jumps. Want to practice some actual choreography?”
“Shit. Is that the time?” Belle asked, looking up at the clock.
“Huh?” Chandler turned and saw the clock as well. “Shit. That’s the time?”
Belle laughed and said, “Yeah. I guess we got a little carried away.”
“I’m going to miss my flight. Fuck. I missed breakfast with my sister.”
