Take Me to the Winter Games - Chapter Twelve

“So… guess we won’t have a second date?” Chelley asked with a teasing glint in her eye. I was standing outside the women’s locker room waiting for Lara to return from changing back into her street clothes when Chelley had emerged and smirked at me. The night before we’d had a great time on the ice together. She was fun to hang out with and a fantastic skater, more talented than Lara and I combined.
 “Sorry about that,” I said.
“Eh, I think we both knew where that was heading,” she dismissed with the wave of her hand. “Too bad though, pairs skating was growing on me.”
“You were catching on pretty quickly,” I complimented. “Thanks for being so understanding.”
“You’re too young for me anyway.” Chelley patted my head playfully. “I hear Thomas Lamb recently had his heart broken. Maybe I’ll give him a call.”
“Very funny.” I grinned. Just then Lara exited the women’s locker room, and my attention was drawn away from Chelley. I absentmindedly dismissed her. “Tell Lamb I said hello.” As if she would ever contact him. Whatever. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to Lara.
“Hey.” Lara tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“You want to go find a bite to eat and a quiet place we can talk?” I asked, reaching for her hand. What used to seem commonplace and normal suddenly felt charged and awkward.
Lara slipped her hand into mine and followed me without a verbal response.
As soon as reporters realized Lara and I were together, they gathered around us and started firing off questions.
“How long have you secretly been dating?”
“Have you been hiding your relationship from your coach? What about your parents?”
“Are you planning to propose to Lara?”
I looked up at the reporter with a shocked look. “Seriously? We just started dating and you’re jumping to a proposal?”
“Jordan, come on.” Lara pulled my arm gently. “We don’t have to talk to them.”
“Lara, how will this change your relationship with Thomas Lamb?”
That stopped me again and I took an offensive step toward the reporter, narrowing my eyes. Lara pulled me away with greater insistence. I reluctantly followed, not really paying attention to where we were going.
Suddenly we were in a dark, empty board room and Lara slammed the door shut behind us. We were away from reporters and able to talk in private, for a moment anyway.
“What the heck was that about?” she asked. “Do you want to get us kicked out of the games?”
“How long have you been in a relationship with Lamb?” I asked, balling my fists with stress.
“I went out on a date with him last night, remember?” Lara smoothed a hand down my arm, attempting to calm me down. “And two nights ago, at the lodge. I’ve been out with him the past few days more than you. Other than the one time we were on the ice together for practice when we were fighting.”
“They should all know better,” I snapped.
“Well, they don’t,” she said. “I barely know.”
“How could you not know?” My voice grew husky with emotion. “I’ve loved you forever.”
“Well, you sure have a strange way of showing that.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“What do you mean? I can’t keep my hands off you. We’re admittedly inseparable. You can’t keep your hands off me either.”
“You’ve never asked me out.”
“We’re together all the time,” I defended. “What do you want me to do? Say, hey, I know we just spent the past six hours together, but do you want to spend more time together? The only time we’re apart is when we’re sleeping. Do you want to start sleeping together too? Because I’m pretty sure our parents would have a problem with that. Not that I wouldn’t want to.” My voice trailed off.
“You’ve never kissed me. You’ve never told me you loved me.” She started ticking things off her fingers. “You’ve never tried to make a move on me.”
“Lara, I’m afraid to make a move on you,” I admitted.
“Why?” She calmed down and her voice softened.
“Because I won’t want to stop,” I mumbled, almost incoherently.
“What was that? I can’t understand you when you mumble.” She tickled me playfully, breaking the seriousness of the moment.
“I won’t want to stop.” There, I’d admitted it. “I’m an eighteen-year-old guy who’s never been kissed—until today. Do you have any idea what my body is going to want to do now that I’ve opened that Pandora’s box? You think I won’t want to sleep with you? Forget sleeping. Forget keeping my hands off you. Forget being inseparable. Forget standing around watching you flirt with other guys. You have no idea how badly I want to lock that door behind us and peel off every single layer of clothes from that incredible body I’ve had the honor to hold all these years in a supposedly platonic relationship.”
I had to stop. My breathing was hard and fast, and I was barely maintaining a level of control appropriate for a gentleman in the presence of a lady. She seemed to understand that I needed a minute to regain composure and she didn’t respond.
“Lara, I’m in love with you. I have been for a long time, and I was too scared to admit my feelings. I don’t want to mess up what we have. I don’t want to try to fix what isn’t broken. You’re my best friend. You’re the only girl I want to date, kiss, sleep with, marry, spend the rest of my life with.”
“We’re a little young to be making those kinds of decisions, don’t you think?” Lara asked quietly.
“No, I don’t think we’re too young,” I said. “If I had just met you on the street, yeah, maybe we’re too young. But I’ve known you all my life and I’ve loved you all my life.”
“You don’t know anything else besides me,” she reasoned. “You don’t know how it would feel to kiss another girl because you’ve never stepped outside our little bubble. You’ve never held another girl in your arms or taken another girl on a date. You have no idea how many girls are out there in the world who you haven’t even met yet. Until you search the world for more, you won’t know if someone else is out there and waiting for you.”
Panic flooded my heart, hearing a breakup coming before our relationship has even started. I reached for Lara, but she pulled away.
“We’re heading off to different colleges in the fall,” Lara said. “You need to lead your own life and I need to lead mine. Let’s just get through the Winter Games and finish high school and then we can figure things out from there.”
“Lara don’t do this,” I begged. “I need you.”
“You need to learn to stand on your own two skates without me holding you up. Without me holding your hand. You need to let go of the wall and learn how to skate on your own before you make decisions that affect the rest of your life. A few years from now, when we’re older, if we decide we want to get back together, then we’ll talk. Until then, I’ll see you on the ice.”
There was a moment of light through the open door as Lara slipped out of the room. I heard the clicking of cameras and questions from reporters, but in my mind’s eye I could see Lara’s nose in the air, ignoring the reporters, striding down the hall.
I slumped to the floor and sat there, too stunned to even cry.

​(As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. -Julie)
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