The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,34

of my skates fitted, I helped loosen her laces. “That should help. The girl who had this before you must’ve had tiny bird ankles.”

“I have Big Bird ankles. Or maybe Snuffleupagus ones.” She tried to stand, then held her arms out like a surfer. She warned, “Don’t touch me, or I’ll bring you down with me. No mercy.” Cautiously, she made her way to the wall, toward the metal support bar that new skaters were clutching like their lives depended on it. She wobbled and bobbled as she held herself up. When she tried to let go, her arms would flail like she was talking with her hands. It was hard to believe that she was the one who really wanted to be here.

With small, hesitating steps, I rolled up alongside her.

“How’d you learn to skate like that?” she panted, clinging on to the rail.

“I’ve only been once before, with my mom, like ten years ago.” I remembered kinda hating it then too. I’d begged Mom to leave so I could go home and play games online with my friends, not knowing that my time with Mom would be cut short.

Offering my hand, I waited for her to unclench the bar. Together, we made our way to the rink. Like a new driver merging into traffic for the first time, we found a little pocket of space and rolled into the chaos. Raina used both hands to feel her way along the rink’s outer wall. After we reached the other side of the rink perimeter, she said, “Let’s exit. I can’t do this.”

Maneuvering around so many inexperienced skaters trying to enter the arena proved difficult. “’Scuse me, pardon me, sorry!” I pulled Raina off the rink right before the horde of new entrants swept her back into the skating sea.

She tried to make her way to the wall but did one of those cartoon banana-peel slips and pulled me down with her, saving herself from falling alone. I tumbled forward and landed with such a hard force that the wind got knocked out of me. As passersby bent down to assist, I flapped my hand and wheezed, “I’m okay,” shooing everyone away. Raina scrambled upright and called out, “Uh, I’ll come back!” as she unintentionally rolled away from me.

Slowly, I tried sitting up, still light-headed from the temporary oxygen deprivation. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings. But when I did, I spotted just behind Raina…

Nate. And a pretty blond girl, engaged in conversation.

Damn, she was really pretty. Hot pretty. So much in fact that I had trouble keeping my eyes off her, like she possessed a magnetic force deep within her core. Her roll-out-of-bed, no-makeup beauty was the polar opposite of the zombified, hairnet look I’d shown Nate the first day I met him. She had these Miracle-Gro eyelashes that any girl would die for.

I never understood how a face could launch a thousand ships until now. She even made her ratty rental roller skates look sexy.

Oh God, please don’t look over here. Please. No.

“Kate!” yelled Raina, huffing and puffing toward me. “Kate! Make room! I’m coming for you!”

As if his spidey sense tingled, Nate tilted his head and stopped talking to his beautiful companion. He stared at the commotion, a.k.a. train-wreck Raina, and followed her blazing path with his curious gaze.

She headed straight toward me, at ramming speed. She hadn’t practiced braking yet. Her face went from smiley to “oh shit!” as she bent her knees, perhaps thinking that being closer to the ground would mean less injury. But all it did was make her speed up.

Shit.

BAM! Her right skate slammed into mine, and she fell face forward on top of me, and I went down a second time. Like a championship lady wrestler, she had pinned me down underneath her with no way to escape. All we needed was someone to count to three and call the match.

“Sorry,” she said, blowing a puff of air upward to clear her bangs from her eyes.

“Thanks for the fun night out,” I coughed. “Really, this has been great.”

“Need some help?” A hand reached down and hoisted Raina