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Mel wasn’t the most graceful or coordinated person. She knew this and was mostly fine with it. Her mother always told her that not everything was for everyone, and she had mostly come to terms with that. But when Trinity had invited her to go ice skating, she was desperate to magically become elegant by the end of the week.
She went to the ice skating rink almost every day to practice. Trinity had asked her – as a friend? As a date? She wasn’t sure and was too scared to ask – on Monday to go ice skating with her on Saturday. That gave her five days to practice. She should have been doing school work or spending more time with Becca instead of disrupting her schedule, but she figured she was owed one week of being independent, one week of focusing on herself and her crush. Becca would understand. Her professors not as much, but she’d make it up.
Despite practicing every day, she still wasn’t good. She could almost stay up for a few minutes, better than before but not exactly breathtaking. Definitely not good enough to impress Trinity who she had seen do spins and twists and all other things that Mel didn’t even know the name of. She went from hoping to impress Trinity to hoping to not falling on her ass and even that might not be possible.
When Trinity met her at the local rink on Saturday morning, Mel immediately became flustered. She always did. She was wearing red mittens and a matching hat that made her look adorable, a black jacket that Mel was desperate to wrap her arms around, jeans that Mel wanted to do something completely different to. Something completely inappropriate to do in public, especially in the cold. When she said hello, Mel could barely breathe. She noticed that Trinity’s cheeks were red and let herself think that it was because she reciprocated her feelings, just for a moment, before logic set in and she told herself it was a normal reaction to the cold. Mel tried to say hi back, but she took to long to recover and Trinity was already heading towards the rink. She was always so fast, always moving, always so confident and sure of herself. Mel wasn’t just in love with her, she admired her.
Mel prayed to a god she wasn’t sure she believed in that her embarrassing moments today would be minimal. She knew she’d fall; she knew Trinity would laugh at her, probably think she’s a loser and regret asking her to come skate, how could she not? But maybe she could at least put off embarrassing herself for a few minutes. She could stay in Trinity’s orbit for just a little bit before it all came crashing down.
Trinity started out slowly and Mel knew it was for her benefit. She had seen her fly past everyone, circling the whole ring in just a few seconds. Normally, Mel would feel insulted and like the other person was patronizing her, looking down on her. She still kind of did, but when Trinity smiled at her and took her hand, she couldn’t be too mad. They were both wearing gloves, but Mel swore she could still feel her skin, still feel the shock she always felt when Trinity accidentally touched her, walking along the halls or handing her a book. It was purely platonic on Trinity’s end and Mel felt ashamed that it meant so much more to her.
“You can go faster.” Mel says after a few minutes. “I know you’re going slow just for me.”
“I’ll go as slow as you want me to.” Trinity says, almost coming to a stop. Her slowing down makes Mel lose her balance and she almost falls over.
Trinity catches her.
Trinity brings her over to the edge of the ring.
Trinity tells her to just say stop if she wants.
Trinity kisses her.
It’s so mind blowingly, spark flying, world changing, absolutely amazing that Mel almost falls again, but Trinity catches her. Mel hopes she’ll catch her for the rest of her life. But she mainly hopes that she’ll keep kissing her.