Bottled Up

The Rink

The Rink

Nate's POV

My breath puffed in little icy clouds in front of my face. I couldn't feel my nose, or ears, or really anything on my face.

My heart pounded, my lungs burning as I skidded across the ice. Faster - just keep it one skate ahead of the other guy.

And then - there was the puck. It was flying towards me at a frightening speed. I gave one final push, my body screaming at me not too, and caught the small, black disk on my stick. And then I was alone - all others behind me. Just me and the goalie and - and score. One moment the puck was in my possession, the next, it was in the net. I grinned.

Our coach blew the whistle, and I caught my breath as we all made our way to the side. He gave us one of those you-did-good pep talks, especially congratulating those who had scored. I grinned through my helmet before he let us go.

That had been one of our better scrimages - it left me tired and excited. Maybe I'd go unwind in the free skate rink...

At this time, the rink next to our hockey practice one was open for the public to skate in. I waddled through the food court area on my skates, hobbling down the stairs and taking off my helmet on a bench. I stuffed most of the extra padding and unneeded equiptment into my bag before entering the rink, just circling and skating at a more normal pace.

John, a friend of mine on my team, entered the rink a minute later. He had his helmet under his arm, his hair black hair flattened to the top of his head. His face was flushed my the cold and the exercise, but he grinned.

"Up for a race, Nate my boy?"

I looked around. "As enticing as that sounds, we can't in the free skate rink. We'll run somebody over."

"So?"

"True."

We set up and took off, swerving in between many people wobbling around on the ice. I grinned, the rush of cold air familiar on my face. I slammed into the wall, laughing as John got stuck behind a family with young kids. He came slamming into the wall a minute later.

"I would say I won that." I said, running a hand through my hair. John scowled.

"It was only cuz of those people."

"Hey, it was your idea to race in the public skate rink."

John rolled his eyes and laughed with me.

"Listen, bro, I should probably go. My mom insisted on picking me up." he rolled his eyes and groaned. I smirked.

"I'm driving myself - have fun in the mom mobile."

He made a face and skated away. I went back to circling the rink at a slow pace, just enjoying myself.

"Oh, hey Liz." I said. Wait - Liz?

She looked up at me. "Nate? What are you doing here?"

I rolled my eyes. "I happen to practice here, my dear. I'm not banned from the public skate rink."

She gave me a look before skating off. "Trin! Come on!" she called over her shoulder.

Somehow, I should have expected this.

Liz quickly circled back to me. "If I were you, I'd keep away from her. She doesn't know you're here yet, so you should probably keep it-"

"Nate?" Trinity said. She was clutching the wall of the rink, her face filled with terror and annoyance. I raised an eyebrow.

"Trinity..."

"What are you doing here?"

"Seriously?" I said, and groaned. "It's not illegal for me to come to public skate. I just finished a hockey scrimage, if you needed to know."