Always There

Chapter Thirty-Three

Songs for this chapter:
• Winter Things - Ariana Grande
• human - Christina Perri

Chapter Thirty-Three:

Bryce's POV

"I'm going to die, Bryce. I am literally going to fall and hit my head and die," Blossom whispers, her ankles wobbling as she holds on to me for dear life.

It already took me far longer than necessary to get Blossom onto the ice after spending quite some time lacing her skates for her thanks to her squirming, but now that she is on the ice, she's refusing to move.

She was able to skate a few feet holding my hand but now she has her arms circled around my waist as she stands completely still, having a hard time balancing on her skates.

Jordan and Mateo are casually skating along as they talk to once another, hopefully not a continuation of the weird ass conversation that we had had earlier.

Blossom and I never got to finish after they interrupted us this morning and I'm still fucking pissed about it.

Charlie and Jasmine are chasing each other around the rink like idiots, leaving me with a shit ton of questions about what sort of relationship they have with each other at the moment.

"Can't we just go sit down and drink hot chocolate? I regret agreeing to come along today. This is freaking scary," Blossom whines, squeezing me impossibly tighter.

I tug the baby pink hat that she's wearing down over her eyes and she scowls at me. I know that she doesn't want to let go of me, though, and so she doesn't lift the hat from over her eyes as I bargain, "If you skate with me for fifteen more minutes, I'll buy you a hot chocolate and then I can drive you home so that you can take a hot shower. Deal?"

I push the hat up over her eyes so that I can use her expression to try and figure out what she could possibly be thinking. To my surprise, her response is, "Only if you agree to shower with me."

I feel my eyebrows fly up before I break into a huge grin. "You really are turning into a little sex addict, aren't you?"

She smiles back at me, her eyes not leaving mine for even a second before she says, "What can I say? I learnt from the best."

I lean down to press a kiss to her forehead, eliciting a soft giggle from her lips, before I reply, "Of course I'll take a shower with you later. I'd love to finish what we had started his morning before we were rudely interrupted by those assholes."

I nod my head towards Jordan and Mateo and Blossom giggles some more, carefully releasing her grip on my waist. She immediately reaches for both of my hands, holding tightly for balance.

I let go of one of her hands so that we're able to skate side by side and it takes Blossom a few seconds of wobbling before she's able to balance. I give her a reassuring smile before taking off, moving slowly so that my girl can skate at the same pace.

To her credit, she doesn't actually fall on her face or on her ass as we skate around the rink. She refuses to let up the death grip that she has on my hand but she doesn't complain even as she stumbles, allowing me to catch her around her waist before we continue on.

When I suggest that she tries to skate on her own without holding on to me, she shakes her head rapidly, giving my arm a tug, and then tells me, "I wouldn't want to let go of your hand anyway. I always feel safer with you."

It would be impossible for me to say no to that shy smile and twinkling set of hazel eyes and so I lean in to kiss her on the lips before taking her hand and skating her around the outside of the rink once more.