Kissing Will

Jay slips his ice skates onto his feet and steps gingerly onto the surface of the frozen lake. He glances around nervously as he glides out to the center of the ice, scanning the tree line for anyone who could see, who could reveal his secret. He sees no one, no fellow soccer players or concerned parents, just the winter air. Still feeling anxious, Jay places the blades on the ice, slowly revolving in large, calming circles. It doesn't look like much, but simply sliding on the ice brings him a small thrill.

Anticipation slowly erases his apprehension, and he turns into a lazy figure eight, winding up for a spin. Although Jay is nervous, having not attempted a proper twirl in quite some time, he sets his mind on it. If he falls, the ice will be there as it always is-- steady, solid, and sure. When the time is right, he leaps, twisting in the air. For a brief moment, he feels effortlessly weightless, as though he's floating underwater. Then, Jay lets the moment pass, landing on his skates before gliding on, grinning, the wind whistling in his ears.

He skates backwards, hands clasped behind his back, nearly losing his footing, and giggling when he just barely manages to keep it. His feet simmer with energy, twisting to and fro, dancing with an invisible partner, and Jay wishes that he hadn't gone away from the ice at all. He decides to attempt a jump, something he's never been particularly good at, turning around slowly. He bends his knees, biting his lip in concentration, and leaps. Again, that feeling of floating, laced with an electric excitement that he hasn't known in far too long.

Jay, unfortunately, does not stick the landing, planting his face directly into the hard ice. He bounces right back up, though, not wanting to waste a moment of this time. He gets low to the ground, close enough that he can see ice shavings flying off of his blades, going for speed now instead of bravado.

The scenery goes by more quickly than Jay has time to register, everything blurring out of focus except for the three things he has always been sure of: the sky, his own two feet, and the shiny white ice underneath him. Once he's reached top speed, Jay swings his left leg over his right, not really having to think about the motion, rotating in tight, grounded circles that get increasingly faster until he pops up into the sky like a jack in the box. His smile emits steamy clouds with the rising and falling of his chest.

Energy spent, Jay floats in a line, that turns into a u shape, which turns into an ellipse. A cool down skate, as his mom calls it. His feet are confident, placements certain, until, on his third circuit, he glances at the trees and sees an irregular form. A person. Jay's world of skating collapses, and he slips on the ice, falling hard on his behind. He sits there, stunned, while the ice fractures beneath him. The stranger on the other side of the ice waves cheerfully, all big blue eyes and rosy cheeks.

"Hey, there! Sorry for startling you; I didn't think anyone'd be out here." The guy looks up at the pale sky, smiling warmly at a lone, fluttering snowflake.

Jay scrambles to his feet, annoyed at being seen. "Yeah, neither did I," he mutters, stretching his sore legs irritably. It doesn't seem that the man is from around here, which makes Jay a bit less wary of him, but that doesn't mean that he's safe to talk to.

The guy just laughs, sitting his hands on his hips, hair tumbling over itself in the breeze. "I'm Will. That was some fantastic skating you were doing. Do you compete?"

Jay skates to the bank next to Will, cheeks a bit red because the skating was "fantastic", trying to look as ungraceful as possible. "No. And I wasn't skating for fun, either," he defends.

Will raises an eyebrow, looking amused as Jay snatches the skates off of his feet. "Oh? Then why were you out here?"

Jay stands with his socked feet in the snow, glaring at Will's winter boots. "I- It was a dare," he blurts, feeling his face glow brighter.