POLAROIDS︱18+

Nineteen

LOGAN

She sat there shivering in my passenger seat and guilt dawned on me, I should have offered her a jacket seeing as she couldn't exactly go grab one from her dorm with Penny and Caden relocating their little catch up there.

"Cold?" I question and she batted her eyes up to me looking slightly annoyed as the obvious answer was yes. She was funny when she got playfully angry like that, her eyes not showing a hint of happiness but her lips gave her away. Lips that couldn't stayed downturned even if they tried.

I reached into my backseat and scooped up the soft blanket for her, throwing it to her in the front seat as she smiled gently and hopped out of the car with it wrapped around her shoulders. She walked quickly through the empty carpark as I trailed and watched the smoke from the warmth of her breath contrasting with the early winter night trail up into the air above her.

I grabbed an old credit card from the centre console, checking there was indeed no one but us on the premises briefly before using the card to jimmy the lock open. The mechanics were full proof besides that little error and the rink back in Ravenswood had been the same which inevitably led to Caden and I getting in some deep shit as teenagers. No one would be using the rink until early morning tomorrow and so by then we'd be long gone, no one would be any the wiser.

"What if we get caught?" She asked shyly as the door popped open and we slipped inside, her hands wrapping around my arm until we got some dim lights on in the place.

"Then we hide." I muttered back, dropping down onto one of the benches and slipping my skates on as she made her way behind the counter and grabbed a pair for herself. Lacing the boots up quickly like she'd done it all before, she made me sort of curious about whether living in a small town where ice hockey is the main form of entertainment meant she'd know how to skate.

She shrugged the blanket off her shoulders and folded it up before placing it down with my car keys. Making her way over to the rink, no help required. In a way I figured I'd be the one holding her up and caching her when she fell but from the looks of it she was in no hurry to ask for my help.

I quickly followed her, intrigued to see if she had some hidden talent I didn't know about and sure enough, she glided around the outside of the smooth ice effortlessly.

"I thought you said you couldn't skate!" I shouted across the vast plain of ice, her feet carrying her perfectly as she finished her spree with a double axel and my jaw dropped as she stuck the dismount perfectly.

Why in God's name did I not know she could do that?

"It's been a while." She countered happily, pulling up into a triple Lutz which she again stuck perfectly. If that's what she looked like after a while then I hate to go up against her when she was regularly training.

With my jaw still halfway to the floor, I finally stepped onto the ice. Her figure danced around the rink while I watched her jump, spin, and glide around beautifully. For those minutes it was as if I wasn't even there, her body taking over as if there was music playing and I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Her silhouette glowed in front of the spot lights as I stood back admiring her technique, strands of her hair flying around as she moved.

Her pace increased as she jumped again, stumbling as she landed but staying upright and spinning hard on her skate until it looked like a blur and she pulled out of the momentum, tripping again and falling to her knees.

"Faith- are you alright?" I started, skating over to her she hushed me away, refusing my help as she got herself back up on her own, damp patches over her knees and sleeves.