It's My Life - Stacie Ramey Page 0,47
about me. Like I’m just part of his favorite family.
I stumble a little bit on my way to Ian’s van, but Rena helps me. There’s a little fighting for seats, but Eric says, “Jenna gets the middle row, captain. No arguments.” And no one does.
That’s the easiest seat to get into. I wait for Julian to join us, but he jumps in the car behind us.
Rena sits next to me, the boys in the back. Rena grabs my hand and leans in. “This is pretty cool, huh?”
“Pretty cool,” I agree.
Dylan, the guy driving, doesn’t turn on the headlights until we are halfway down our street. I rub my hands together and blow on them. My nose is freezing again. So I tuck it into my coat.
Eric throws a worried glance my way and then cranks up the heat. “You feel that, kiddo?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Rena unhooks her seat belt and moves next to me. “Scoot.”
I do and she sits next to me, squished onto my seat.
“Hey,” Eric says. “You need to get back in your own seat, Rena.”
“It’s like three miles. Chill.” She wraps her arm around me and rubs my arms until I start to warm up, even though I’m also sort of worried the entire time about her not being in her seat belt. That’s how my family rolls. Not happy unless we’re worrying our heads off.
When we get to the rink, I relax a little. The guys from the back seat cruise past us to get out. They don’t exactly bump into us, but they’re still kind of awkward and brutish and I’m grateful I wasn’t standing up when they did it.
“Take it easy, you hoodlums,” Eric yells.
Rena helps me out of the car, and I hobble forward, strap on my crutches, then move more surely.
The other car pulls up behind us, and those guys race to the front door of the rink, waiting for Ian to get there with the keys and the security code. Once inside, Eric flicks on the lights and looks around. “Love this place.”
He hands Rena my skates—I need special ones, of course—while he ducks behind the desk to pull out the right ones for her. Rena and I get ours on, and Eric bends down to tighten my laces and hers. “You gotta get this right or it won’t work,” he says.
The guys are already on the ice. It takes my breath away to watch them.
“You coming?” Rena asks.
“You go ahead.”
I lean against the wall. Julian skates by, then turns around and stops in front of me, shaving ice as he does. There’s something sexy about the way he moves, creating an ice pile out of nothing, and I realize I am officially lovesick. I mean, who thinks some shaved ice on an ice rink is romantic? I’ve got it bad.
“You ready?” Eric stops next to him, but says it to me.
I want to go out there, but my body is so tired. “I don’t know…”
“Come on, Jenna, we need everyone on the ice,” Julian says in an almost flirty way.
Someone jumps in the booth and flips on the music and some disco lights. It’s a party now.
With Eric on one side and Julian on the other, I am pretty stable on my feet. We skate around the rink twice. Then there’s a big screech and some laughter, and I see Rena on the floor. Eric breaks away to help her, leaving me with Julian.
“Love Shack” comes on. Julian laughs, but I start to stumble, so he glides in front of me, turns around, and starts skating backward as easily as he was skating forward. He slips across the ice, holding me up like we are dancing. “Beats English, huh?”
I laugh. “Yeah.” I wish Ben could see this. Also, what would it be like to actually dance with Julian with a silky dress on, my body pressed against his?
“Can you keep a secret?” Julian asks.
“Sure.” I look down, try to keep my feet from crossing over.
“I’m not going to school tomorrow. Skip day for hockey players.”
The feeling of him trusting me is perfection. My heart wraps itself around that thought. He is confiding in me. Me, not Elsa.
I almost tell him I’m going to be out too, because after tonight I am for sure going to need a few days to recuperate. It feels like something friends should tell each other. The words present themselves to me, dance on the edge of my tongue, ready to be dispatched at my command. Then