“Isaac is here, Levi isn’t,” I said. My older brother went to school several hours away, so it wasn’t a surprise. “Brandon’s coming too. He’s on his way from work. Alexis and Kendra are going to come too.”
While the three of us had been close in high school, there had been some distance in the last couple of years. Their lives revolved around university. They had been enjoying their time living in residence, with copious amounts of alcohol andsleeping in. I’d had fun when I’d joined them, but that couldn’t happen very often. Their school year was almost the same as my skating year. That meant that when I was actually free on a regular basis and not treating my body like a machine, they were off and trying to earn money for the next school year. Even so, they’d always been supportive of my skating. Outside of our families, they had been the most convinced that we would reach this point in our skating career.
“Wyatt, Ethan, and Zain said they’ll try to come. It may be because they know my parents will pay for their dinners, but I’ll take what I can get.” Dom sounded like he was joking, but I knew there was a kernel of truth to that. His friends were impressed that he was a national champion and the level of athleticism needed to get there, but they weren’t interested in the skating itself. He had never said that the stereotypes of male figure skaters bothered him, but I knew they did. The taunts about figure skating being a girl sport irritated the shit out of me, and the jabs weren’t even aimed at me. I’d seen the way the muscle in his jaw twitched as he ground his teeth through them. He may act like he is impervious to that sort of thing, but he is only human.
“Is Emma coming?” I asked. For all the questioning he’d done about me not telling Brandon about this tradition until recently, he hadn’t mentioned her at all yet.
“That would be awkward, since we aren’t dating anymore,” he said.
If it were anybody else, I would curse myself for putting my foot in my mouth. Since it was Dom, I just said, “Sorry. Your call or hers?”
“Mine,” he said. “I got the sense that she was interested in Dom, the national champion and Winter Games hopeful, more than me as a person.”
A wave of guilt washed over me. With the argument Brandon had started after the amusement park, texting Dom that evening to tell him had completely slipped my mind. “I got that sense too,” I said.
“And you didn’t tell me?” he said. He sounded surprised rather than angry.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “But I’d only seen her that one time. There was a chance she was asking about our skating to be polite. I didn't want to say anything if she was just trying to bond. I was going to keep an eye out for you, though, I promise.”
Dom chuckled. “You think I need you to protect me? There are a lot of good things about you, Hazel, but you are neither scary enough nor strong enough to intimidate somebody.”
I wanted to argue that, but I had to admit that he had a point. When you were short, people were too confident that they could overpower you to be afraid of you. There weren’t many times in my life I had wanted to intimidate somebody, but it would have been nice to have the option if the situation were to arise. Like now, for instance. The butterflies flapping around in my stomach might stop if people were too critical to say something to my face.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost time. I had to get stretching if I didn’t want to push the schedule for the whole night back.
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Domvolunteeredtobethe one to run out to check that everyone was there when we finished warming up. He seemed to think it was the gentlemanly thing to do. I had long since gotten over any modesty issues I may have had. Walking around in a dress with a skirt so short it barely covered my butt had become routine years ago. But if he felt good about being the one to go out and talk to people, so I let him. He was dressed in an old costume as well, but it looked much more reasonable than mine with its black pants and long-sleeved shirt. True, the shirt was silk and nothing he’d wear in real life, but it wasn’t so out there that there wasn’t somebody who would wear it as part of an everyday outfit.
When Dom got back, I had already tied up my skates. I could do it in my sleep, so it hadn’t taken long. I was waiting for him near the exit, skate guards still on to protect the recently sharpened blades I was balancing on. He tied his skates up as fast as I did, the black boots perfectly moulded to his feet after all this time. He pushed himself up and walked over to stand besideme. “You ready to go show off?” he asked quietly. His dark eyes focused on a spot in the distance.
“Of course,” I said, even though my stomach was doing flips. Normally, this only happened when there was a panel of judges analysing my every move. We had trained long and hard, so I had no doubts about our ability to skate clean. If I could just shut my emotions off, things would be great.
We walked out together and stood by the boards. We could have stepped onto the ice then, but we didn’t. Neither of us needed to say that we wanted a second to wait. It was one of those things we just knew about each other after all these years. I scanned the small crowd that had gathered to look for everyone who had said they were going to come. My friends were sitting on the bench furthest back, talking to Dom’s three friends. They didn’t interact very often, but they’d been around each other enough to have a small sort of rapport.
Without comment, Dom and I slid our skate guards off at the same time. I unzipped my jacket and placed it off to the side. Usually I would hand it to Olga or Mark, whoever was closest, but they weren’t around now. It didn’t matter if the jacket got dirty this time, not really, so it was fine that nobody was around to take it from me.
I still didn't set foot on the ice, waiting for him to complete our ritual. Just when I was starting to wonder what he was waiting for, the back of his hand bumped against the back of mine twice. I couldn’t remember when the routine had started. It had been too long. It was definitely before our first international competition, back when we were on the junior circuit, but I couldn’t be more specific than that.
Without a word, we grasped hands and stepped onto the ice. Even though our audience comprised solely of family and friends, we still raised our clasped hands above our heads in one fluid, practiced motion and waved with our other hands. Thiswasn’t officially part of the skate, but it was as much a part of the routine we’d have to perform in front of judges as the rest of it. I didn’t have to look at Dom to know that he had plastered his performance smile on his face, too.
We separated our hands and took our own paths to centre ice. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him shaking out his legs, while I did some deep edges. It only took a few seconds to arrive at our starting spot. We slipped into our well-practiced positions easily. One of his hands settled around my waist, while the other slipped into mine. Our eyes met while we waited for the music to start. My heart pounded, the adrenaline of performing this for the first time in front of people making the silence seem to last an age. The corners of Dom’s mouth twitched up slightly. I knew that small smile anywhere. It was his way of telling me without words that we had this.
Finally, the music for our free skate started a second later. Normally, this would come a day after the short program. When we'd discussed tonight, Dom and I had both said we wanted to do it first. To break the ice, so to speak.
It felt like the wait was a lot longer than usual. It had been long enough that my anxiety started building. But as soon as the opening notes of the music played, my nerves disappeared. I didn't even think. I moved on instinct. We had done this so many times that I didn’t need to think about the steps or what I was supposed to be doing with my hands. I gripped Dom’s hand tighter in my own and we started moving.
The opening seconds of the program were easy, getting us warmed up. A touch of our free hands here, a spin there. Then he took the lead, guiding me by the hand as we made sure our speed was just right. Even a fraction of a second off in timing by either of us could be disastrous, especially when we were hoping to land a quad twist in competition. We skated backwards together, then his hands settled around my hips and I gently placed myfingertips against them. My knees bent to prepare for the twist and then, with his help, I was up in the air and flying.
We hadn’t mastered the quadruple twist yet, so we did a triple that night. I landed effortlessly, keeping my hands up above my head so I wouldn’t touch him on the way down. The thrill of flying through the air, even for such a brief moment, was unparalleled.
The rest of the program went by in a blur. We had a minor hiccup with our side-by-side jumps, with a hand touching down on the ice. That would be a deduction in competition, but everything else went smoothly. I grinned at Dom before turning to everyone in the stands. We were both breathing heavily as we skated closer to where everyone was. We’d have a better conversation when we were at dinner, but for now we would need some time to catch our breath.
Alexis and Kendra were near the boards on the other side of the glass. I’d watched them walk down when they saw me skating over. Alexis’s nose was pink in the cold arena air and she was bundled up in a jacket and mittens. I wasn’t surprised that she seemed cold, but at least she was also smiling. “You did so well!”
“I’m glad you guys could make it,” I replied. We had to raise our voices to be easily heard through the glass.
