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“You wanna go skating?”
Eman echoes Yronica’s question, taking a quick sip of hot chocolate from her mug.
“Is that not normal?” She tilted her head, laying back onto the reclining leather couch.
She shrugs, “I— no? I don’t think so, I’ve never been skating before.”
Yronica pauses before shooting up from her seat. A half surprise and half mock disappointed expression on her face. “You’re joking?”
Silence.
“You live in Lakeview and you haven’t gone skating once ?” She lets out a dramatic sigh, “How do you call yourself a real Lakeviewian?”
“First of all, I would probably fall on my ass if I did. Second, please never say Lakeviewian again.” She says, deadpan.
The two were hanging out at Eman’s house. Winter break had finally rolled around after the gruesome rounds of exams and culminating assignments were over. Apparently Yronica’s parents were out of town, and she didn’t want to be stuck with her siblings. Not like Eman could relate, being the only child and all.
“You never know if you don’t try.” Yronica nudges her with her elbow, plopping next to her on the larger sofa. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“What do I even get out of this?” Eman grimaces, the idea of gliding around on a huge block of ice wasn’t exactly appealing to her. “It’s not— That’s my cup!” She lunges forward, trying to snatch her coffee cup back, but she was too late as the other was already stealing a gulp or two from her drink.
The reaction earns a chuckle from Yronica, who returns the now half filled mug to Eman. “Okay, to be fair, I did tutor you for like, what? Most of your subjects? That’s why you didn’t fail half of them.” Yronica leans in closer to Eman with a pout of her face. “Please?”
Okay, now that was unfair.
Yronica knows exactly what she’s doing, and Eman doesn’t know whether to love it or hate it.
In a split second decision, she pulls away swiftly, creating distance between the two. She has the hot chocolate in one hand as she tries to focus on not spilling it, ignoring the growing ripple of warmth spreading across her face.
Her eyes flit back to Yronica, who was looking up at her with hopeful eyes.
How could she not give in?
“...Fine, fine. When are we going?”
Victory dances in Yronica’s eyes as a lazy grin crawls onto her face. “Today? Right now?”
Eman shakes her head, “You’re not even giving me time to prepare and do research?”
“The time is now, my disciple.” She states in an overly sophisticated and exaggerated voice. “I’m not even gonna question the research part.”
—
Getting on skates was harder than Eman had expected.
She fumbles with tying the thick laces. Yronica’s nags and poor attempts in helping turns into background noise while Eman is entirely focused on her shoes.
“That’s the wrong hoop!” or something along the lines of “Just tie it like a normal shoe! You wear boots for God’s sake.”
Yronica eventually goes silent, watching Eman try and try again while she wears her neatly tied shoes.
“Are you not gonna help me?”
Yronica grins, a shit-eating one. “No, not really,” She hums. “This is quite entertaining.”
Eman lets out a frustrated groan as she continues to try.
While Yronica was alone with Eman, it would either be: Option ‘A’, endless bantering and teasing, although nothing like the girl’s typical attitude at school. Or Option ‘B,’ Yronica acting like an absolute dickhead, though lacking her usual venom that is replaced by a sly smirk instead.
After a solid minute or two, the staff must have realised that Eman is clearly— tying it wrong in some shape or form. A blonde in the skating rink uniform struts up to the two of them, a bright smile plastered on her face.
“Hey! Do you need help—?”
“No.” Yronica cuts in sharply, void of any of her previous humour.
Eman slowly looks up at them. Shoving aside the fact that Yronica is staring into the poor girls’ soul like she’s seconds away from verbally murdering them, she can see a second thing in Yronica’s gaze. Thought that wasn’t her priority right now: she needs to defuse this situation— before Eman has a grumpy and pissy Yronica in her hands.
She stands up, wobbling over to Yronica with her half-worn skates. Her attention is focused on Yronica’s hand, waiting for herself to take the leap.
Eman grabs Yronica’s hand, mustering the best smile she could at the moment as she looks back at the woman. “It’s okay, she’s got it.”
The blonde lingers around for a few more seconds, before a look of realization comes over their face, a light bulb clicking on over her head. “Alright! I’ll leave you two lovebirds be. Please do call me if you need any more help.”
Before Eman could clarify any further, the woman shoots a wink at Eman before sauntering off to help some other unsuspecting victim to these cursed skates.
Yronica shrugs her hand off of hers, the tips of her ears flushing into a familiar tint of pink. “...What was that for?”
“You sounded like you were going to tear her apart.”
“You’re acting like I don’t do that everyday.”
Eman threw her hands up in surrender, knowing this would be an argument she would lose if continued fighting. “Right.” She swallowed the lump down her throat, along with her pride. “Can you help me tie my laces now?”
Yronica doesn’t speak as she kneels down and knots the skate laces efficiently, each move precise as she does what Eman couldn’t in mere seconds.
She huffs, “See— I don’t understand why you took so long.”
Eman blinks at Yronica’s words, snorting. “Maybe because someone didn’t help me, and shooed away the person that was willing to.”
The scowl on Yronica’s face tells her to shut up.
–-
“Are you not going to step on the ice?”
Yronica mumbles, already sliding left to right on the ice near the entrance. The rink is nearly empty, except a few other kids fooling around and tripping. Eman nearly winces as she watches one of the kids fall onto the ice, getting up with a very obvious bruise growing on his jaw.
“I’m gonna end up like that kid.”
A subtle grimace grows on Yronica’s face as she extends her hand out towards Eman. “Don’t be a wuss, I’ll catch you.”
“We’ll both fall—”
“Do you trust me?”
“Not really.”
Yronica takes her wrist and yanks her onto the rink.
For a second, Eman thinks she was about to trip and break all of her bones.
Yet… she's standing.
Her arm was slung over Yronica’s shoulder, who was shuffling away from the entrance, trashing Eman’s previous escape plan.
They skate— more like limp, for a minute or two in silence. With Eman always slipping and Yronica catching her by grabbing her waist, a firm yet gentle hold.
“Okay, you know what…” Yronica breaks the silence, leading the two of them closer and closer to the wall.
Eman didn’t know to be scared or a synonym for scared.
“Uhm, Yronica…?”
There is no response as Yronica pulls them both over to the railings, gesturing to them wildly as if to make sure Eman got the point.
“Hold.”
Eman blinks, not hesitating as her hands leave the warmth of Yronica’s shoulders to grip the frigid railing. A small pang of regret lingers in her mind once she realizes how cold it was. She stumbled for a brief moment, before steadying herself and holding on the rails for dear life.
She hums in approval. Wth Eman off her shoulder, she notices how the girl slithers around with such control and grace. Has Yronica always been a figure skater? Eman swears she learns more things about her every day.
She does a quick lap around the rink, throwing in a few fancy spins and jumps.
“How long have you been skating for?” Eman asks, leaning against the metal poles for support.
Yronica pauses. “I don’t skate anymore, but I did proper training a few years ago for about three months.” She says as she slides back over by Eman’s side. “Are you not going to skate?” A slight hint of amusement can be heard in her voice.
“I’m going to fall and die.”
Yronica shrugs, skating backwards to ensure Eman doesn’t try to grab onto her. “Sucks to suck.”
Something must’ve flashed across Eman’s face, cause Yronica’s eyes soften ever so slightly.
“Okay, fine, can you stop looking like a kicked puppy now?” She sighs, and Eman wants to retort she was the one who acted like said kicked puppy earlier, but the retort dies on her tongue as she notices Yronica’s thoughtful expression.
Turns out, she was racking her brain for beginner tips. “Bend your knees and just, try, okay?”
Eman is stuck in the phase of removing herself from the wall, skating for a few centimetres, before falling again. She slowly got used to the feeling of— well, face-planting into the rink. It actually wasn’t so bad, maybe because of the girl by her side giving her constructive feedback everytime she falls.
And then she does it.
She starts skating, without making a fool out of herself.
Eman looks over at Yronica for confirmation as if to make sure she was not losing it from falling onto the hard and frosty surface too many times. The gleeful expression on the other’s face filled Eman’s heart to the brim, her feelings threatening to spill over. This was the difference between them, Yronica feels nothing, Eman feels everything.
“You’re doing it!”
“I’m… I’m doing it! I’m skating!”
The two of them start cheering like little children, completely missing the weird look the kids that were hanging out on the ice gave them. They quickly exit the rink, presumably because two teenage girls seemed to be giggling frantically over… frozen water.
Eman stumbles slightly, but she keeps her balance as she slowly shuffles forward with her knees bent. Yronica trails behind her, matching her speed with a satisfied smile on her face.
“I’m such a great teacher.” Yronica boasts, her lips quirking up into a smirk.
“Debatable.”
That earns an eye roll from Yronica.
They skate across the sheet of ice together in silence. With Yronica never missing a beat in following Eman to make sure she doesn’t fall on her face again. Despite their usual banter, they both know they would cherish this moment with each other, as if this won’t ever happen again. The end of their first senior exams technically signify a major part of their last high school year done. Though Eman was never the biggest fan of school, something tugs at her heartstrings as she realizes that this might be one of the last fun memories she ever shares with Yronica.
Eman’s mind floats into a spiral, skating on auto-pilot mode. Her speed slowly builds up as her confidence grows.
And maybe Eman bit off more she could chew.
She starts practically flying across the rink, the two of them not noticing this before it was too late.
“Uh, my so-called great teacher Yronica?” Eman calls out, albeit a little sheepishly as she tries to slow herself down but to no avail. “I don’t believe you taught me how to slow down…?”
Yronica’s head turns in alert, snapping her out of the moment they were sharing.
“Oh— for fuck’s sake.” Yronica sighs as she tries to catch up with the other girl. “Put your feet into a ‘V’ like this!” She shouts as she demonstrates for Eman.
“I can’t!”
It turns into a game of uncontrolled cat and mouse, one that Yronica is winning because Eman can see a hint of brown hair and white beanie entering her peripheral vision.
“Slowly, very slowly, shuffle them closer and closer to each other.”
“I—”
“You can, Eman.” Yronica says in a calm voice, perhaps the calmest Eman has ever heard her speak in. One that she could get serenaded to deep sleep to.
Slowly but surely, Eman starts to slow down, but not quite coming to a halt.
Yronica slips in, taking Eman into her arms to stop her. A sigh of relief escapes both of their lips, before sharing a heartfelt laugh, intertwined in each other.
They spend maybe a little too much time a typical pair of friends would stay in an embrace. Both missing the wistful look on each other’s faces as they pulled away.
Yronica is the first to recover as she shakes her head. “You are such an idiot.”
“To be fair… it’s my first time?”
The shorter girl lets out a ‘tsk’, stretching her arms out in a way that reminds Eman of a cat.
“Come on, let’s go again, we’ll get you to maybe half of my level in no time.”
Eman snorts, the humouring expression on her face melting away when she sees the determined look on the girl’s face.
“Oh , you’re serious.”