I pushed out through the doors and headed for the parked Mazda sitting out front. I could see cars starting to pull in as a local junior hockey team came for their afternoon game. After putting my skate bag in the back seat, I slid into the passenger side.
“I was about to die from hunger,” Erin said as soon as my butt landed in the seat.
“How ever did you survive?”
She put a hand to her forehead. “I could have withered away.”
“You do look more wrinkly.” I made a show of looking her face over, earning a gasp and a glare.
“Bitch.” Her words lacked any sort of heat. We both knew her skin was flawless and glowy.
“Where do you want to go to get lunch?”
“Alessandro’s.” Erin didn’t even hesitate. Should have known she’d pick our usual spot since it wasn’t far from our apartment. Pizza did sound pretty good. I typically had a strict diet when it came to skating, but I had the rest of the week off, so I didn’t mind splurging.
“Fine by me.” I shrugged. Erin did a little wiggle in her seat as she pulled away from the rink and headed toward Alessandro’s.
“How was practice?” she asked a few minutes later.
“Good. The routine is almost ready for the competition next month.”
“That’s great. You’re gonna kill it like always.” Erin had been my best friend since I was fifteen. I had just moved here to Buffalo so I could train with Marcy. I was already nervous being at a new rink, but when a clumsy dark-skinned, curly-haired girl my age stepped onto the ice and immediately fell on her butt, I had no clue I had just met my best friend.
I helped her up, and the first thing she said to me was, “This is the worst sport imaginable.” From then, we became inseparable. While I practiced on the ice, Erin sat on the sidelines reading her books. Now, ten years later here we are. If anyone was my ride or die, it was her.
“Yeah,” I agreed, but it didn’t come out that confident.
“Are you still worried?” Erin glanced at me before looking back at the road.
“No? Yes?” I laid my head back with a sigh. “I’m ten years older than half of the competitors.”
“So? Em, have you forgotten you literally have four Olympic medals?” She shot me a look that clearly saidbitch, please.“You’re an Olympian, and you’re worried that you’re older than somekids.”
I know it was stupid to be worried about my age, but in my sport, most people retired at twenty-five and weren’t going for their third Olympic win. Yes, I was a known Olympian with my silver and bronze medals, but I wanted gold, and this would be my last shot.
“You’re an incredible ice skater, Emmie. You’re someone little girls look up to when they want to skate.” I knew Erin was trying to make me feel better, but I couldn’t help the pit that formed in my stomach.
I haven’t told her the exact reason I was stressing about upcoming competitions. Let's say I make it back to theOlympics, and I bomb. I straight up fall on my ass and come in last. Then what? Everything I’ve ever worked for would go down the drain. No one would remember me as a two-time Olympic ice skater. No, they would only remember that I came back and failed.
That was my biggest worry. Maybe I should have retired after getting silver. Retired on a high note.
But I couldn’t say that to her. I didn’t want to voice that quite yet.
“Do we need to go home and stare at your medals until you start believing in yourself again? Because we will.” I knew she meant it, too. A smile formed on my face as I snorted.
“No, not necessary.”
“You got this, Emmie.” She said it with so much certainty.
“Thanks, E.” Not wanting to think about it anymore, I shoved all those feelings into a little box in the back of my mind. “Also, I don’t have practice until Monday now.”
“Wait, you have the rest of the week off?” The surprised look on her face had me smiling. It’s been ages since I’ve had more than a day or two off from practice. “Does this mean we can actually go out this weekend?” The excited wiggle she did in her seat had me laughing.
“Yeah, we can go out this weekend.”
“Hell yeah!” Erin put her fist in the air like a complete dork.
She chatted away about what we could do as we found a parking spot around the corner from Alessandro’s. With a growing list of ideas, the two of us stepped out of the car and headed for the restaurant.
