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Alysa hates Isabeau.
Ok, that’s not entirely true. Truthfully she loves Isabeau. The younger girl was a perfect mix of little sister and best friend and Alysa felt fiercely protective over her in a way that surprised even herself. Even though Isabeau was younger and seemed to be in a constant good mood, she could be serious when needed and seemed to posses some magic superpower to always know what was going on in Alysa’s head.
However, that didn’t mean that sometimes Alysa didn’t hate it. In fact, after today Alysa made a mental note to train her poker face. At the end of the day though, it wasn’t Alysa’s fault for being so readable. It wasn’t even Isabeau’s fault for noticing. No, when all was said and done it was all really Amber’s fault.
So, the three of them are lounging around Amber’s room, too warped from practice to do anything more than lie down on whatever surface was most comfortable and half-heartedly watch the dubbed, Italian version of Grown Ups 2 that Isabeau had happened upon on the TV in the corner. Alysa’s stretched out on the bed, most of her attention on the TV as she tried not to nod off against the mountain of pillows behind her. No matter how appealing a nap sounds, she knows she’ll regret it when she can’t fall asleep that night. Amber and Isabeau are discussing their competition outfits and Alysa lets the sound of their conversation wash over her as she watches Kevin James shove himself into a tyre.
“I’m just not sure about it. My shoulders feel so exposed in it.”
“So? Your shoulders look good, you should show them off.”
“Yeah but you know some judges don’t like that.”
“Why don’t you try it on? I can give better feedback then.”
Alysa glances over, her attention caught by Amber pushing herself up from where she’d been lounging on the ground and rooting through her suitcase.
“Whatcha doing?” she asked through a yawn.
“Oh you’re alive over there?”
“Looking for my short programme dress.” Amber explained, too used to the two of them to even roll her eyes at Alysa flipping Isabeau off. “I want feedback on it.”
Alysa half-nods as Amber disappears into the bathroom, still trying to shake the sleepiness off. God, she had forgotten how tiring it was to train day after day. They still had another few weeks in Milan but Alysa found herself already looking forward to being at home and away from the constant cameras and eyes she felt on her everyday since she arrived.
“Ok,” Amber slid back the bathroom door and stepped out in front of the other girls. “Honest opinions?”
Alysa’s mind went blank.
Isabeau was talking, probably offering constructive feedback but Alysa couldn’t hear her over the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. Red was Amber’s colour, Alysa decided then and there. Her maroon dress had a lacy midsection where Alysa could make out the slight definition of what looked like an eight pack at least. The skirt of it was pinned up highly on her left hip, showing off her legs but the best bit, by far was the arms. They were long sleeves that started three quarters of the way up her arm, leaving her shoulders and back bare.
Amber and Isabeau were still discussing the pros and cons of her outfit. (‘What cons?’ some voice in the working part of Alysa’s brain yelled.) Alysa pulled herself together with a herculean effort until Isabeau decided her torture wasn’t over.
“Wait spin, let me see the back.”
Was Amber flexing or did her back just always look like that? Alysa couldn’t help but trail over the skin on display, eyes drawn to every place Amber’s skin rippled as she twisted to show them different angles. Alysa felt her hand twitch at her side, tempted to reach out and map her own path with her hand. She can see it in her mind, how Amber’s head would twist to the side at her touch leaving them a breath apart as Alysa’s hand continue in its path. She’d say something smooth then, maybe Amber would laugh or smile at her, that special smile she had that made Alysa feel like it was just the two of them and then she’d lean in -
“Alysa?”
Alysa startled at her name, tearing her eyes away from Amber’s back to see the other two staring at her expectantly.
“Huh, what?”
“God that practice must’ve really taken it out of you.” Amber laughed lightly. “I asked what you thought of my outfit. Are my arms too showy?”
“God no.” Alysa blurted out. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Isabeau staring at her with her patented ‘What the hell is happening?’ look. Alysa cleared her throat and tried to give her better, more platonic-teammate advice. “I mean, like Isabeau said, you worked hard for them so show them off.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Amber conceded, giving herself one last look over in the mirror before she started towards the bathrooms again. “It’s too late to change it anyway.”
Thank God.
“What was that?” Isabeau asks the moment Amber’s closed the door.
Alysa feigned nonchalance as she settled in against the pillow mountain again. “What was what?”
Isabeau raised a knowing eyebrow at Alysa who ever so maturely ignores it and reaches for the remote again. “There has to be something better than this on.”
Isabeau’s quiet for a moment, until Alysa’s heartbeat is hammering in her chest and she chances a quick glance at the bathroom door to make sure Amber wasn’t stepping out through it again. Alysa’s flipped through nearly all the channels and landed back on the same movie before Isabeau speaks up again.
“You can’t hid anything from me. We’ll talk about this again.”
Alysa’s saved from having to answer by Amber joining them again and she focuses on the TV once more, content to avoid Isabeau’s knowing looks for the rest of the night.
/ / / / / / /
Alysa forgets about Isabeau’s threat after a while.
The days seem to fly by in Milan and she’s too concentrated on perfecting her own routine to spare much thought on empty promises. She really should know by now that when Isabeau latched onto something, she didn’t let it go until she was satisfied.
They’re hanging out in Amber’s room again. It seemed to be their de facto ‘chill out room’ and more often than not, Alysa found herself lying around in there with the other two ‘Blade Angels’. This time Isabeau had managed to find an English channel playing a horror movie none of them had seen before. At first, Alysa was really looking forward to it. Horror was her favourite movie genre and Amber had managed to produce two bowls of popcorn from God knows where because Alysa had never seen it in the dining hall.
But then about fifteen minutes into the movie, Amber got up from the nest of blankets her and Isabeau had arranged on the floor and joined Alysa where she was settled comfortably on Amber’s bed.
“Back pain,” she had offered as an explanation, laughing lightly as she slid onto the bed. “Perks of being the oldest figure skater here”
And so began the best and worst hour of Alysa’s life. The single bed didn’t offer much space and Alysa was all too aware of everywhere they touched. Feet knocking at the end of the bed, the warmth of Amber’s leg against her own and worst of all, Amber’s face hidden in her shoulder at every scary scene.
“I can’t look. Is it over?”
Ambers breath was warm against Alysa’s neck as she spoke, leaving an incriminating trail of goosebumps in her wake.
‘Almost.’ Alysa whispered back, letting herself sink into make-believe before she had to face reality again. Boldly, she stretched her hand out to Amber and was rewarded with Amber sliding her hand into Alysa’s and tightly lacing their fingers together. “I’ll tell you when.”
“My hero.” Amber teased and Alysa thanked her lucky stars for the minimal lighting Isabeau had insisted on for hiding her blush.
“So.” Isabeau started the moment Amber had waved them goodnight. She dragged the ‘O’ out until Alysa turned to her.
“So, what?” Alysa asked without breaking stride. She had a bad feeling she knew where this conversation was going and had no interest in participating in it. Quietly she cursed whoever put her and Isabeau’s rooms two floors away and leaving her no choice but to field the younger girls questions.
“Lys, come on. I know it might’ve seemed like it was just the two of you tonight what with all the giggling and flirting but I was in the room too.”
“We weren’t - “
“And when you almost started foaming at the mouth when she showed us her short programme outfit.”
Unfortunately, Alysa has no response for that and instead quickened her stride down the hallway and up the stairs, too pent up to bother waiting for an elevator.
“You’ve got the hots for Amber, don’t you?”
Isabeau’s words landed with the force of a stone brick in Alysa’s stomach and not for the first time, she cursed Isabeau’s ability to notice seemingly everything. Yeah of course she thought Amber was hot. She was human after all and you’d have to be inhuman not to think that. But that was old news. She’d been dealing with her attraction to Amber for nearly a year now and while sometimes, the force of it overwhelmed her, (see: short programme outfit) she had been doing relatively okay at ignoring it.
The new problem was the feelings that were going hand in hand with her attraction. Before, when it was just attraction,it had been easier to manage. She could acknowledge it and brush it off as something minor.
Now, it wasn’t as small as she thought. Every day they spend together in Milan, eating, training, recovering, exploring was another day down the rabbit hole for Alysa. Amber was kind and funny and one of the biggest nerds she’d ever known. She carried herself with the kind of quiet determination that Alysa admired and she was breathtaking on the ice. More than once this Olympics, Alysa had gotten distracted from her own practice when sharing the ice with Amber. She had a special, infectious smile for when she landed a particular difficult jump that Alysa couldn’t help but mirror when she saw it.
“Seriously Isa, just leave it.”
“Come on, I’m like your best friend. You always talk to me about hot girls.”
“She’s not just a hot girl!” Alysa comes to a stop outside her room and whirls around to face Isabeau. “She’s not just someone I saw when I was in a cafe or another athlete I passed in the village, ok? It’s Amber.”
“Oh my God.” Isabeau’s teasing grin vanished as she looked at Alysa, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she studies her. Alysa resists the urge to fidget under her stare knowing her little outburst was more showing than she would’ve liked.
“You like her.” Isabeau realises out loud and Alysa feels her face heat up. “She’s not ‘just’ a hot girl to you and that’s why you haven’t talked to me about it. You have feelings for Amber.”
“Oh my- be quiet.” Alysa hissed, glancing up and down the hallway as if expecting Amber to suddenly pop out. ‘Why don’t you just stand up in the dining hall tomorrow and tell everyone?”
“Alysa. It’s ten o’clock at night and this hallway is empty.”
Alysa rolled her eyes but she knew Isabeau was right. She fidgeted with her room door handle as she let the heavy silence settle over them, praying for Isabeau to get a sudden case of amnesia and forget this entire conversation.
“Are you going to tell her?”
Well there goes that dream.
“Tell her what? There’s nothing to tell.” Alysa took a deep breath and turned back to face Isabeau trying to inject as much rationale and calmness into words as possible. “You’re caught up in the emotions and adrenaline of Milan and imagining things, ok?”
“Alysa, - “
“Goodnight Isabeau.”
Alysa opened the door and slid inside her room without waiting for a response. Yes her denial of liking Amber was not for one minute believable and yes Isabeau would definitely not let this go but that was a problem for tomorrow.
Isabeau was a hopeless romantic and while Alysa knew she only had good intentions she couldn’t listen to Isabeau’s encouragement tonight. She’d spent enough time wistfully pining over Amber and what good did it do her ?
No good. It just led to countless sleepless nights and dozens of practices with her landing flat on her ass as she got distracted by the thought of Ambers arms, her smile, the little giggles she got when she couldn’t hold her laughter in.
Whatever. Alysa was done with all of that.
If only her stupid subconscious brain got that message.
/ / / / / / / /
For the first time since Alysa had known her, Isabeau actually listened to her.
She stayed in bed the next morning when she woke up to put off going down to the dining hall until the very last minute, determined not to be pulled into a one on one interrogation by the younger girl. She switched between Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, even going so far as to clear out her emails before she couldn’t avoid breakfast any longer.
When she eventually got down to the dining hall though, Isabeau was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Amber was sitting at a table by herself finishing off a bowl of porridge.
“Hey.” Alysa said as she neared the table with her own tray of food. “No Isa-baby today?”
Amber grinned at the nickname and shook her head as she scrapped up the last of her porridge. “She left like 5 minutes before you came down.”
‘Success’ Alysa thought to her herself, proud her plan worked so well.
“You heading over now?” she asked aloud, nodding at Ambers now empty bowl.
“Nah I’ll wait and head over with you.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Alysa protested even as her heart skipped at the gesture. Damnit had she not given herself a pep talk about getting over these pesky feelings just last night?!
“I don’t mind.” Amber shrugged before she grinned conspiratorially at her. “Besides who knows what the headlines will be tomorrow if all three of us eat separately and then go to the same practice rink separately.”
“Yeah,” Alysa laughed along as she grinned back at Amber, forgetting all about why the three of them had eaten separately. “ ‘Blade Angels Break Up’ “
“Break up?” Amber snorted, blindly unaware of the somersaults Alysa’s stomach was doing at the noise. “We’re not a band.”
“We should be.” Alysa shrugged as she dug into her french toast. “I could be lead singer.”
“Oh please,” Amber rolled her eyes teasingly. “I heard your attempt at karaoke after Worlds last year.”
“Hey!” Alysa protest indignantly. “I thought you Texans were supposed to be polite and well-mannered. Didn’t your Dad ever teach you not to insult a girls singing voice?”
“No for some reason he left that out of the parenting handbook.” Amber deadpanned. “Now hurry up and finish your breakfast. I want to get to the rink sometime today.”
Alysa made a show of cutting her next piece of toast in slow motion, addicted to the grin Amber tried to hide as she watched the younger girls antics.
“Dweeb.” Amber sighed leaning over to push Alysa’s hat down over her eyes.
Alysa just laughed back, pushing up her hat and quickly finishing off her breakfast. Yeah she’d promised herself last night she’d work properly on getting over Amber but it feels nearly impossible to hold herself to that promise when the girl in question was sitting right in front of her laughing at her stupid jokes and unknowingly setting her insides at fire.
‘Tomorrow.’ Alysa swore to herself. ‘I’ll work on it tomorrow.’
/ / / / / /
She’s quieter on the walk over to the rink and she knows Amber notices but thankfully she seems to know Alysa doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d gotten off lightly at breakfast and now she was worrying how she’d make it through two hours without losing her mind.
What if Isabeau made a throwaway comment in front of Amber? Or teases Alysa about it and gets overheard?
Thankfully, Isabeau barely glances at the two of them as they arrive or indeed, for the next two hours. She seems intently focused on her routine and Alysa breathes a sigh of relief as she steps onto the ice herself.
It’s not until they’re finished practice and packing up their bags that Isabeau even speaks for the first time.
“Do you guys want to go for coffee? Christina told me about this coffee shop that apparently makes the best cappuccinos on the planet.”
“You don’t even drink coffee though?” Alysa pointed out, alarm bells sounding in her head as she looked at the other skater.
“Yes Grandma but they have other drinks on the menu, don’t they? Besides, I was being thoughtful.” Isabeau continued ignoring the middle finger Alysa was holding up. “I know you’re a caffeine monster and Amber’s basically a millennial and we all know how crazy they act about coffee.”
“Woah!” Amber exclaimed. “I am nowhere near a millennial!”
“Anyway,” Isabeau said as she dodged Ambers slap. “Do you wanna go?”
“Sure,” Alysa agreed “but I need to shower and stuff first.”
“Yeah I hope so.” Isabeau wrinkles her nose at her. “You stink right now.”
Alysa narrowed her eyes at her and then lunged, ignoring Isabeau’s squeak as she took over running. Alysa chased after her, smiling as the sound of Ambers laughter behind them grew louder until it echoed around the indoor rink.
/ / / / / /
Twenty minutes later Alysa’s showered, changed and waiting at the front door for the other two girls. She scrolls through her phone absentmindedly trying to figure out Isabeau’s angle.
The younger girl, who looked for any opportunity to tease Alysa and who actually believed in soulmates, didn’t care about one of her teammates having feelings for another of their teammates? Yeah right. Alysa was the oldest of five siblings. She knew Isabeau was up to something.
“Hey!” She was startled out of her thoughts by Amber’s arrival.
“Hey.” She replied and then frowned when she saw Isabeau wasn’t with her. “No Isa?”
“I thought she’d be with you.” Amber echoed her frown as she pulled her phone out from her pocket, presumably to see where exactly Isabeau was. “Oh she just text me.”
“Everything ok?”
“Yeah. She said she feels sick all of a sudden but we should go without her.”
And just like that Alysa sees Isabeau’s well attempted but futile setup attempt. What movie did this girl think she had stepped into, Romeo and Juliet? Whatever. Alysa had had plenty of solo time with Amber before, one coffee date wasn’t going to break her.
They wandered down the streets of Milan, taking in the sights and the people around them as they strolled. The coffee shop Christina had apparently told Isabeau about (Alysa was beginning to think even that detail had been a lie) was half-hidden on the street, bordered by a tall hotel on the left and overshadowed by a huge shopping centre on the right.
A blast of warm air greeted Alysa as she followed Amber in, making her realise just how cold it was outside. They ordered and settled in at one of the window tables, content to continue their people watching and chatting mindlessly about Alysa’s cats and the new TV show Amber had started.
“Is everything ok with you ?” Amber asks after they’ve been sitting there a while. She fidgets with her cup as she asks, spinning it around the table with her pointer finger. “You seem quieter than usual today.”
“Not used to that from me?” Alysa jokes but Amber doesn’t take the bait. She lets the joke land flatly, only smiling slightly at Alysa in response. Her voice is quieter when she speaks again, taking on a gentle tone
“You nervous about performing next week?” She sounds concerned, letting her cup settle on the table and looking straight into Alysa’s eyes. Amber’s eyes are such a piercing blue, they take Alysa’s breath away and she nearly forgets what she’s been asked.
“No.” She replies a beat too late, finally shaking her brain into gear. “I love skating and thats why I came back. It’s not about competing or even getting gold. I just want to do what I love and show everyone how much I love it. “
“I’m jealous.” Amber gives her a bittersweet smile. “You make it sound so simple.”
“It is.” Alysa replies easily “If you let it be”
Amber breaks eye contact then, turning her gaze back to the window without replying. Alysa knows the pressure Amber puts on herself, the impossibly high standards she holds herself to. She’s one of the oldest female figure skaters to qualify for an Olympic team and Alysa knows how much weight that holds in her head. She struggles to think of something comforting to say. Amber always knows the perfect thing to say to make her feel better and now it’s Alysa’s turn, her entire mind has blanked.
“So nothings on your mind then?”
Alysa glances up at Amber’s tone. There’s something off with it like she’s trying too hard to sound casual but can’t. She’s trying to think of what to say to persuade Amber she is perfectly, 100%, grade A OK when Amber delivers the killer blow.
“You can talk to me about anything, you know.” Then she drops her hand from where she’d been curling a strand of hair around her finger to land right on top of Alysa’s. The other girl can’t help the way her eyes follow the movement as Amber’s thumb gently strokes over the back of Alysa’s hand.
“There’s a girl.” She blurts out, cursing herself the minute she did.
“Oh.”
Amber’s thumb stills in its path and then she draws her hand back completely. There’s a flash of surprise in her eyes before she settles into a neutral expression again. Neither of them say anything more and Alysa’s positive she’s never felt a choking silence like it before. She feels like she took a wrong step in the conversation somehow and even though her brain screams at her to shut up she can’t help but keep talking.
“I like her but she doesn’t like me back.”
“How do you know she doesn’t like you?”
All credit to Amber and whatever Alysa said that knocked her off-kilter, she recovered quickly. Alysa watched as she wrapped her hands around her near empty coffee cup and took a steady sip, her earlier look of shock now turned to one of interest.
“Trust me,” Alysa scoffs. The piercing blue of Amber’s eyes now made her feel like Amber could see straight into her mind. She breaks eye contact to take a small sip of her now cold macchiato . “I know.”
“Maybe you just need to talk to her about it. See how she feels.”
‘Oh good idea. Hey, by the way Amber, the girl I’m talking about who I have a huge, visible-from-the-moon crush on is you! Thoughts?’
“No, no way.” Alysa can’t help but laugh at the suggestion. Oh the irony of the girl you like telling you how you should approach the girl you like. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because what if I tell her how I feel and she doesn’t feel the same way? I don’t want to lose her as a friend.”
“She could be thinking the same thing about you. And if she’s as good of a friend as you are, she’ll understand. It might be weird for a bit but you’ll be ok.”
“Maybe.”
Alysa wishes it could be that easy. She lets herself imagine it for a minute. Imagines sitting up straight, reaching over to take Amber’s hand and telling her she has feelings for her. She imagines Amber smiling that special smile, the one she reserves for landing an impossible jump and telling her she feels the same.
But that’s all it is. Imagination.
Amber will never feel the same way and Alysa knows that. She just has to make it through the next few weeks without spilling her guts and then she can take a break from everything before Worlds.
“So, are you going to watch many of the other events?”
Amber raises a disbelieving eyebrow at the sudden change in conversation but thankfully, she doesn’t push it and lets Alysa guide them into more comfortable waters.
/ / / / / / / /
By the time the Blade Angels trio make it up to Ilia’s hotel room where he’s throwing an ‘End of Olympics / Pre Closing Ceremony celebration’, the party’s in full swing. What was meant to be a US skating party had quickly developed into an Anyone, Anywhere party. There were a group of Japanese skaters talking to Evan and Madison, two of the American ice hockey team were playing two of the Canadian ice hockey team and over in the corner, Ilia himself was doing shots with a German ski jumper.
“Wow, I was not expecting this.”
“Welcome to your first Olympics Isa-baby” Alysa grabbed the younger girls shoulders and shook her slightly. “Now let’s go get drinks!”
“Wait.” Amber shot her arm to grab the two girls before they could disappear into the crowd. “I’m going to talk to Ilia for a minute. Please make sure Isabeau’s drink isn’t too strong.”
“Yeah,” Alysa nodded, avoiding Isabeau’s protests. “‘Course I will.”
Amber gave the two of them one more stern glance before letting go and making her way over to the other side of the room. Alysa watched her retreating figure a moment too long before Isabeau impatiently pulls on her hand.
“Come on, you can do your yearning from afar AFTER we get a drink.”
Alysa decides to be the bigger person and let that go.
/ / / / / / / /
For someone not even legally allowed to drink at home, Isabeau has certainly taken to the European alcohol age laws like a duck to water. Or rather, a duck to alcohol.
She’d challenged Alysa to some weird drinking game that she claimed her cousins showed her but Alysa is beginning to think she might just be making the rules up as she goes. Surely that’s the reason Alysa has four empty glasses in front of her and Isabeau’s still finishing off her first.
“Ok, so now since I won that round, i’s my turn to choose again.”
Alysa nods along without listening. It wouldn’t matter if she concentrated 100% on what Isabeau was saying because the game was somehow rigged against her.
A flash of blonde hair caught her eye and she saw Amber across the room chatting to who Alysa was fairly certain was another of the U.S ice hockey players. Isabeau’s voice faded entirely as Alysa’s gaze was caught at where Amber’s hand was placed squarely on the other girls forearm. The ice hockey player leant down to whisper something in Amber’s ear who burst out laughing. Alysa realises the frown forming on her face too late.
“What on Earth are you looking at?” Isabeau’s finally noticed her lack of attention and turns around to see what Alysa’s looking at. When she turns back around, there’s a shit eating grin spread across her face. “Oh I see. Speaking of, how did your coffee date go the last day?”
“Your evil plan failed I’m afraid.” Alysa turned back to Isabeau, happy to tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her. “There was no grand love confession, no romantic kiss in the rain.”
“My plan was for you to act a fool around Amber and maybe she would put two and two together and realise you have a giant, gay crush on her.” There was a pause and then Isabeau’s grin grew bigger somehow. “I never said anything about a love confession.”
“Whatever.” Alysa muttered, glancing over at where Amber and the ice hockey player have moved even closer together before she pushed past Isabeau. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
She feels a lot better once she’s locked herself in the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face.
“Get it together.” She tells her reflection as she washes her hands. “She doesn’t like you. She will never like you so just get over yourself.”
It might set a record for the worst pep talk in history but it gets the job done. Alysa takes one final deep breath before she braves the hot and crowded room that she has to fight through to reach the drinks. She just needs to go out there, have fun with Isabeau and the other skaters and leave this thing in the past. She was flying home in two days and she was determined to leave her feelings at the gate before she boarded the plane home. It was only forty eight hours. She could do that.
First things first, she needed a drink.
Alysa managed to make her way through the crowd without incident but disaster strikes when she’s at the drinks table in the form of the arrival of a 6 foot snowboarder. Alysa’s concentrating on the perfect ratio of vodka to Sprite when he first walks up.
“Hey.”
“Hi.” She smiles back politely before turning back to finish mixing her drink.
“I saw your free skate performance, you were really good.”
“Oh, thank you.” Alysa wracked her brain for any information at all on snowboarding or even the name of the guy in front of her but he keeps talking before she can say anything else.
“Yeah you looked really good out there. Really flexible.”
When she glanced over at him again, he was grinning back at her clearly under the impression he had given her the pick-up line of the century.
“That’s kind of a weird thing to say.”
“Weird?” He laughed, “Nah it’s not weird. Why don’t we get out of here and I’ll show you it’s not weird.”
“No thanks.” Alysa said firmly, eyes scanning the room for the easiest escape route. “I’m not interested.”
“What you win gold and you’re too good for us who didn’t medal?”
Alysa was saved from the roundabout conversation that had taken a dark turn by someone stepping in front of her, blocking her from the man who’d been slowly moving closer to her.
“She said she wasn’t interested.”
Alysa breathed in the familiar vanilla smell of Amber’s perfume, automatically crowding in closer behind her. Amber reached back her hand to squeeze Alysa’s before she dropped her hand again.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Well I’m talking to you.” Amber shot back, standing her ground even as the snowboarder loomed menacingly over her. “She said she wasn’t interested. Go be a creep somewhere else.”
For a moment nobody moved and Alysa wondered for a brief moment how many drunken fights had broken out in the Village and if they were going to add to that tally today but then the snowboarder scoffs and backs up.
“Whatever. You’re not worth the trouble.”
They wait until he’s disappeared into the crowd again before they drop their guard and Alysa finally gets to take a sip out of the drink she’s been craving for the last half an hour.
“Thanks for stepping in. I really didn’t want to deal with that right now.”
“Men,” Amber scoffs, rolling her eyes as she turned to face Alysa, “they really are all the same.”
Amber busies herself with pouring her own drink, Sprite and vodka the same as Alysa’s, the younger girl notes to herself before mentally berating herself for being so pathetic as so swoon over having the same drink choice.
Selfishly, Alysa blames the alcohol for the way she lets her eyes run over Amber, both appreciating and cursing the tight crop top she was wearing and perfectly sculpted grey jeans. Amber turns around to face her again and Alysa busies herself with taking another big swing of her drink. The song playing through the speakers winds to a close and another more energetic one starts up. Amber surveys the crowd as she nods her head to the beat, foot tapping softly against the ground.
“Come on,” Amber gulps back the last of her drink and grabs Alysa’s hand. “Let’s dance.”
Alysa would probably let Amber drag her to the depths of hell so following her into the depths of Ilia’s makeshift ‘dance floor’ wasn’t much to ask and Alysa goes willing. She nearly walks into Amber when the other girl stops abruptly in the middle of the crowd and turns to face her.
“Wow, steady.” Amber laughs, catching Alysa by the shoulders before she can crash into her. “You didn’t have that much to drink, did you?”
“Shut up.” Alysa grins brightly at her. “Come on, do you want to dance or not?”
“Ok, let’s dance then.”
Amber moves into her space with no warning, letting her hands on Alysa’s shoulders slide until she had lopped her arms around the shorter girls neck. Alysa’s hands flailed uselessly at her side until she grabbed Amber’s waist, revelling in the feel of Amber’s skin and the quiet gasp the other girl let out at the coldness of Alysa’s hands.
They sway together to the beat in the limited, crowded space they have that seems to be shrinking by the second. Bodies press in from all sides and Alysa slides even closer to Amber, losing herself in the beat as she mirrors Amber’s swaying.
Somehow, someone had managed to scrounge up an old style disco light from somewhere and Alysa felt her breath catch as she watched the light hit Amber, highlighting the sharp line of her jaw and hooded eyes in muted shades of blue, then green, then red.
Yeah she’d been counting down the hours until her flight, desperate to get away from her feelings but now she lets herself sit in them. The world seems to slow as she watches Amber. Her eyes chart a path as if they’re committing Amber’s body to memory. The beauty mark on her cheek that Alysa fights the urge to kiss. Her dimples, how her eyes shine when the green light hits them just right.
“You’re really pretty.”
Amber blinks in surprise and Alysa feels the floor drop out from under her as she realises what she said.
“Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”
Amber just grins and pulls her in again to keep dancing before she leans down to whisper into Alysa’s ear.
“You’re really pretty too.”
Before she can process that statement or even figure out how she’s supposed to interpret it, a blurred figure emerges from the crowd and crashes into her side.
“Chill out there Sonic where are you running to?” She laughs as Isabeau leans into her with her full body weight. Clearly, the younger girl had taken some liberties with her drinks when Amber and Alysa weren’t there to supervise.
“Best. Olympics. Ever.” Isabeau declared before swaying into Alysa’s side again.
“OK party animal,” Alysa laughed as she looped an arm around Isabeau’s stomach, “let’s get you to bed.”
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
“Thanks for helping get Isabeau to bed.”
They’re back in Amber’s room once more, their unofficial hang-out for the last few weeks, sitting side by side on her bed. It’s late at night but Alysa feels the last thing from tired, grateful Amber seems to feel the same way.
It feels like the last night in summer camp after a whole month. When you’re sick and tired of everyone and just want to go home to your own bed but you still don’t want to go to sleep, knowing you’ll miss it next week when everything’s over.
Amber’s arm is warm where it’s pressed against hers, the bottom of her hair tickling her shoulder and Alysa lets herself revel in it. She wants to bottle up that warm, comforting feeling she has coursing through her and live in it forever. Frozen in this moment in time in Milan, alone with Amber before they fly a thousand miles apart.
She tells herself over and over, ‘it’s not real. It’s not real.’ but she can’t help but trick herself into thinking Amber feels it too, this pull, this connection between them that Alysa feels surrounded by, a tension in the air crackling like a live wire about to spark out.
“Well, come on. I couldn’t have let you deal with that maniac by yourself.”
“You like my guardian angel tonight. Helping with Isabeau and earlier, with that guy.”
She can feel Amber stiffen at her words and her eyes are steely when she turns to face Alysa, a hard glint in them she’d never seen before.
“He was disgusting. We should report him to someone.”
“Calm down Terminator, he was harmless. Besides we’re leaving tomorrow, let it go.”
Amber grumbled her displeasure but she didn’t argue and relaxed against Alysa’s arm again, her expression softening now as she took in Alysa’s words.
“I can’t believe that. That it’s all just over after tomorrow.” She breathes out, her voice dropped to a near whisper that echoed in the space between them. Her fingers tapped restlessly against the bedsheet and Alysa resisted the urge to trap them under her own hand.
“I know,” Alysa exhaled instead, “I’m happy to go home but I’m going to miss it too.”
Amber doesn’t reply and Alysa lets her statement sit in the silence, counting out the beats Amber’s still drumming into the bed. She catches the slight reflection in the mirror across from Amber’s bed of the two of them sitting together, and realises with a jolt that Amber’s looking back at her, eyes steady and unwavering.
Alysa swallows. As smoothly as she can before she can second-guess herself, she moves her hand over to cover Amber’s, stilling her fingers.
“Alysa,” Amber breathes out, half warning, half demanding and Alysa can’t hold back anymore.
She turns to face Amber, reaching out a trembling hand to gently drag her hand along her jaw and noting, with a quiet satisfaction, the way Amber’s breath caught at the action.
“Please.” Alysa whispered, unsure of what she was even asking for but wanting it anyway. She leans in at Amber’s gentle nod and ghosts her lips over the other girl’s lips, enjoying the soft tension of anticipation between them before she closes the distance.
Amber’s breath hitches like she didn’t expect Alysa to actually follow through before she relaxes into the kiss, lips moving steadily against Alysa’s. Alysa slipped her hand around to the back of Amber’s neck, tightening her grip slightly and bringing up her other hand to rest on Amber’s arm.
Amber kissed like she skated. Sure, steady and in control. Her grip tight on Alysa’s leg as she leans further into the kiss, easily taking charge and Alysa concedes easily. She feels like she’s back in that stadium in Milan watching Amber skate her programmes, drawing the eyes of everyone in the building as she commanded the ice. Showing everyone that she belonged here, on this ice competing for gold and winning it.
A noise breaks free, unwillingly, from the depths of Alysa’s throat, brought on by Amber’s sudden bicep flex under her hand and it breaks the heat for a moment. They both draw back slightly, still hoovering in the shared space as they steadied their breathing. Eventually Alysa grinned.
“Damn, you’re definitely a better upgrade than that snowboarder.”
“Oh my God.” Amber groaned, falling forward so her forehead knocked against Alysa’s collarbone. “Way to kill the vibe.”
“Don’t worry.” Alysa promised, eyes dark as she gently pushed Amber back against the headboard and followed suit, swinging one leg over Amber to pin her in place. “I’m sure we can resurrect it.”
And she leaned in.