Bruised & Broken

Chapter 12

I had a small smile on my face as we walked, thinking about us singing in the car. We stopped in front of the door and, like a gentleman, he opened the door and let me go in first. I couldn't see anything because it was dark inside as soon as I stepped in and Nate closed the door behind us. I could hear him fiddling around with something until I heard the sound of a switch, and I was suddenly surrounded by light. As I looked around in front of me I saw the backside of two giant bleachers with a walkway in between, so I walked closer and I could see what looked like an ice skating rink.

"Are we going ice skating?" I asked as I turned to look at Nate.

"Yeah, I thought it'd be a great first date experience." He replied, scratching the back of his head.

"This is so cool! I've always wanted to learn how to ice skate." I said excitedly jumping up and down slightly, "where do we get the ice skates?" I asked looking around.

"They're on the counter over there." He said pointing to a mini building, that I hadn't noticed earlier, next to the bleachers on my right, it looked like someone cut out a window space but instead of a window it had a counter on the bottom where the windowsill would be. He started walking towards it so I just decided to follow him. Once we got to the counter there were 2 pairs of ice skates on top.

"I didn't know your size so I kinda just guessed, if it doesn't fit I could grab another size." Nate said, scratching the back of his head. I grabbed them and jumped up on the counter, then took off my purple converse and switched them out for the white ice skates.

"They're perfect, just my size." I grinned, slowly getting off the counter.

"Great." He smiled, grabbing the other pair of skates. I started slowly walking towards the rink with the other shoes in my hand, but I didn't get very far before I lost my balance and tripped over nothing, I closed my eyes and braced for the impact, but before I could fall warm arms wrapped around my waist to keep me steady. My eyes snapped open in surprise to see Nate holding me close to his chest.

"Be careful Alex, we don't want you to get hurt on our first date would we." He chuckled, dropping his hands from my sides.

"T-thanks." I blushed, as I realized how close we were, and looked down.

Suddenly I was lifted in the air as Nate held me to his chest, bridal style, and I quickly put my arms around his neck in order to not fall.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked in surprise, as he started walking towards the ice rink. He looked at me with a small smile, and I blushed at how close our faces were.

"I'm carrying you to the ice rink so you don't fall and get hurt." He stated, with a hint of playfulness to his tone. I just blushed and said,

"O-okay." With a small smile on my face. Where'd this nice, caring guy come from? I thought.

When we got to the ice rink he set me back on my feet next to the gate, to get inside the rink, and he walked over to a bench not far from me and started taking off his shoes. While he was doing that I stepped into the ice rink, and started to slowly glide across the ice while holding onto the wall. I had roller bladed before, the school I went to made us learn in PE, but I've never ice skated and I think they're practically the same thing... except one is on pavement with wheels, and the other is on ice with a sharp blade. As I rounded the rink once, slowly gaining confidence, I saw Nate step into the rink, looking at me with a small smile, as I got closer to him. When I was close enough to him he skated close to me.

"Here let me help." He said gently, grabbing the hand that wasn't holding onto the wall of the rink. "Have you ice skated before?" He asked, looking at my feet and guiding me away from the wall.