THE PLACE TO SKATE

“Tracy, I can’t believe I’m asking you this, but what does one wear to ice skating?”

It’s a saturday and Heather is standing in front of her floor length mirror in a short a line skirt and a sweater. It looked like a perfect ice skating outfit, but maybe she should wear jeans? What if she falls and hits her knee and because she had her leg bare she get’s a hideous bruise?

So she called Tracy for help, while her relationship with Tracy was bumpy lately they still were besties and she knew that Tracy would help her.

“A sweater, because it’s winter,” Tracy said, “And maybe a cute skirt with leggings?”

“You’re a fashion genius, Tracy,” Heather said, grinning to herself in the mirror. After a quick goodbye to Tracy, Heather runs over to her dresser and began sorting through it for a pair of white leggings.

“Perfect,” she says as she pulled out of pair of white knit leggings. She pulled them on and then goes back to her mirror. Now she looked good, and like she was ready for some cold weather. She then pulled on some black booties and stuffed the necessities into her purse and headed out the door.

So why was Heather worrying about what to wear to ice skating so much? Well she had a date. It had been a really long time since she last had a date, and it was kind of a shock when the other day Bachelor carter approached her at lunch and asked if she wanted to go out with him this saturday.

She couldn’t say no.

Though admittedly Bachelor was not her type, she liked the more artsy guys. Not the jocks, but any smart person would be able to see that dating a jock would increase her popularity a lot. And Bachelor was kind of cute, he was tall, and dark, and maybe even handsome in a teenage jock kind of way.

So Bachelor was coming to pick her up any minute now, and she was annoyed to find that he was late as she stepped out the door. She looked around and saw no car in sight. She let out of frustrated breath and sat on the porch swing that was at the corner of her porch. Her house was an old victorian style house, the same as almost everyone elses in Broad Meadows. Even when the Brown family redid their house they kept it looking victorian, but it wasn’t old anymore.

Heather remembered when they redid their house, it was big news since it was only about a year after Mrs. Brown’s husband died and he had originally helped design and build the house all those years ago. Some people thought it wasn't right for her to do it.

But that wasn’t the point right now.

Heather checked her phone for the time and confirmed that he was ten minutes late.

“And this is why I don’t date jocks,” she murmured to herself.

Finally the sounds of a engine went through the neighborhood and there he was in his big SUV.

“Gas guzzler,” Heather said, again to herself.

She sighed and got up and over to the car. He grinned at her as she opened the door and climbed into the big car.

“Hey, babe,” he said.

Heather wrinkled her nose. Was this really worth the popularity?

“Okay, no babe,” he said, noticing her distaste.

“Hey,” she said.

“You look good,” he said, now looking a tad nervous.

“Of course,” Heather smiled, “thank you.”

Now her made a face, then shrugged and they got moving. It was an awkward silence on the way to the skating rink and Heather was relieved when he finally pulled up to the big building. The sign said “THE PLACE TO SKATE” in big light up letters. Heather thought it was kind of tacky.

Heather waited to see if he’d get out and open her door for her, but he just sat there staring at her as if waiting for her to do something.

Heather rolled her eyes and opened her own door and got up, practically falling. Already this date was looking to be a disaster.

Once inside Heather rented some skates, remembering the times she and Tracy went and how Tracy had to bring her owns kates.

“Why would anyone wear shoes that someone else has worn?” Trayc would say with disgust.

Heather had to admit that if you really thought about it then it did seem a bit disgusting. But she made a habit out of not really thinking about anything, Tracy did that enough for the both of them.

After getting her skates on she waited to see if Bachelor would help her get to the rink, and maybe hold her hand as they skated. But nope, he just grinned at her then got on the ice and left her behind. He zoomed right away.

Heather scoffed at him and made her way onto the ice alone, but she didn’t feel much like skating now. She just skated around in circles, sometimes Bachelor would pass her and shoot her a grin.

She couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing, he couldn’t actually be this terrible of a boyfriend. Not that he was her boyfriend yet, but he would never be if he continued to act like this.

Heather skated with her arm crossed, a sour look on her face waiting for Bachelor to notice. and finally after about fifteen minutes of him grinning and zooming pass he slowed downa nd started skating ebsid eher.

“Hey, uh, are you okay?” he asked.

“Finally you notice,” Heather said, glaring at him.

He frowned, confusion clear on his face.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ve been skating alone for the past fifteen minutes!” Heather exclaims, throwing her hands up and causing a few stares.

“Oh,” Bachelor grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “you want to go home?”

Heather almost pushed him. How could he be so ignorant? First he ignores her and then when she shows a little bit of emotion he wants to get rid of her? Did he know nothing about girls?

What she wanted was for him to say sorry and hold her hands and skate with her for fifteen minutes. Then she wants him to buy her a burger, and she wants to only eat half of the burger and say she’s full. She wants him to eat the rest of her burger, then she wants him to drive her home and when she get’s home she wants him to walk her up to her door and tell her that she looks beautiful. And then she wants there to be a an awkward silence until he finally kisses her. And she wants some fireworks to go off during the kiss.

She wants go inside after all of that and call Tracy and tell her all about it. She wants to hear Tracy be excited for her. She wants to go to sleep thinking about the date. She wants him to text her goodnight.

Instead she says “yeah, take me home.”

And sure there is an awkward silence, but it lasts the whole car ride and instead of walking her up to the door he just says a quick goodbye and he’s gone before she even gets to the porch.