Axel | Harry Styles A.U

01

Ryder's POV

"Perfect, Ryder. Good job today, we will work on legs tomorrow." My trainer says as I finish the last of my pull ups and let go of the bar, my feet landing back on to the springy gym floor.

"Thanks Alice, sounds good." I reply, grabbing my towel and wiping a few droplets of sweat from my forehead. "Will you be at the rink today?"

"Not today... I have a date," she adds quietly. I stop in my tracks and turn around to look at her.

"Alice freaking Burke! Since when do you go on dates?!" I exclaim a little too loudly.

She laughs at me and shrugs. "I'm shocked I'm doing it too. I met her in the cafe she works at. Really nice girl."

I smile at her and go over to give her a quick hug. "Enjoy it, lovely. And tell me all about it tomorrow, okay?"

I leave the gym and head home. I walk through the door, dropping my gym bag by the washing machine on my way through the kitchen before going into the bathroom and twisting the metal valve to turn on the shower. The warm water immediately starts falling, wetting the sleeve of my jumper. "Oh, for fuck sake!" I mutter, pulling it off and throwing it into the laundry basket.

After washing myself and wrapping a warm towel around my torso, I walk to my bedroom, pulling out some 'Nike Pro' leggings and a long sleeved training shirt from my wardrobe before changing and heading to the kitchen, finally having a chance to look at my phone. The screen lights up, showing the time. '7:26am'. Perfect.

Once I've eaten some cereal and cleared it away, I put my gym clothes in the washing machine and grab my skating bag before getting in the car to drive to the rink. I've skated since I was 7 years old, and ever since dreamed of becoming a professional. I train every day, including weekends, and am lucky enough to skate at one of the most prestigious rinks in the country, the 'National Ice Centre' in Nottingham.

Jayne Torvill was an Olympic gold medalist at the Winter Olympics, and has always been my idol. Being able to skate every day at the rink that she founded is such a huge honour, and my dream is to do the same as her. I want to be just as successful, bringing home a collection of Olympic medals. See, that is the ultimate goal. However, I can't compete in 'paired ice dance' competitions by myself.

Bailey is my ex boyfriend and ex skating partner. We met when I joined the Junior Great Britain team at 12 years old and we were partners from the age of 14.

After about a year or two of skating together, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes. It seemed like the perfect idea to be together - I had been having feelings for him for a while - but unfortunately you make mistakes. And he was one of the biggest mistakes I'd ever made.

But long story short, Bailey and I have ended up as neither a couple nor skating partners any longer, which means I needed a new one and I needed one fast. But a year later and still no one, which has meant my career in skating has been put on hold for a while.

Until Bailey and I broke up, I'd only ever known the same routine for as long as I can remember: Competitions every weekend, missing school, no social life. Without a skating partner, I haven't been able to do competitions. I tried to enter as a solo for the first month, but my head was not in the right place and it didn't feel right. As a woman, I feel guilty for pausing my life for a man, but it wasn't for him. It was for me.

I took 10 months out of competitions, and purely trained for that time. Bailey left a dark cloud over how I thought of skating after everything he did, so I took the time to find my love for it again. I needed to experience what a normal 19 year old girl does. Go to my first club, get drunk, kiss some guys - not dedicate my entire life to a sport. And now that I can finally say that I have fallen back in love with it, I'm starting solo competitions again.