#Chapter 25: Romance on Ice
Nina
Enzo skated over to the edge of the rink, gesturing for me to come. I felt strangely magnetized to him and walked over to meet him at the railing, which he leaned on. As he leaned and gazed at me with his shining brown eyes, I felt my heart skip a beat.
“Skate with me,” he said, his voice a little stern. I blushed and looked around. “I… I don’t know how,” I said.
Enzo simply shrugged, his lips turning up a bit at the corners in a bit of a smirk. “I’ll teach you,” he said. “Don’t worry.” He gestured toward the rack in the corner where the rental skates were.
I hesitantly walked over to the rental skates and picked out a pair in my size, then sat down on a bench to put them.
It was hard to lace up the skates and get them tight enough; Enzo must have seen me struggling, because he came off the ice and got down on one knee in front of me. “Give me your foot.”
My face was officially beet red now as I stuck my foot out and watched Enzo lace up my boots. When he was finished, he stood and held his hand out for me to help me up. I put my hand in his, noticing how small mine was in his palm and how light I felt when he helped me stand.
We walked over to the rink and he got on the ice ahead of me. My knees were shaking, partially from the nerves of potentially falling on the ice, but also because of being close to Enzo like this.
“Don’t worry,” Enzo said softly, taking both of my hands as I nervously stepped onto the ice. “I’ve got you.” I bit my lip and put one foot on the ice, then the other… and immediately slipped.
“Woah!” Enzo caught me in his strong arms with a chuckle. He held me there for a few moments before helping me stand upright. I could feel his heartbeat against me as he held me, and the campfire scent that always surrounded him filled my senses. I hated to admit it, but I suddenly got a bit wet at the thought of his muscles beneath his hockey uniform.
Once I was able to stand without my feet slipping out from under me, Enzo slowly started skating backwards and holding both of my hands. I felt like an awkward baby deer on the ice as I hobbled forward, but Enzo was encouraging.
“You’re doing great,” he said. “Keep your weight shifted forward. There you go. Now shift from one foot to the other, keeping the skates on the ice.”
I followed his instructions, and soon, I felt a little more confident and wasn’t quite as shaky as before. I started skating while only holding one of Enzo’s hands for a bit.
“See?” Enzo said. “You’re a fast learner.” I blushed again and kept my head down, focusing on not falling. Suddenly, Enzo dropped my hand. I nearly fell from the shock of it, windmilling my arms to keep myself up, and frowned at him as he skated a little ways away from me. “Where are you going?” I said angrily, curling up my fists at my sides. Enzo laughed and smirked at me.
“You’ll be fine!” he said, stopping several feet away. “Just try to come to me.” “I can’t!” I said, tears welling up in my eyes. “Yes you can,” Enzo replied.
It seemed that I had no choice; it was either skate all the way back to the rink entrance, which we had gotten far away from now, or skate a few feet to Enzo and hope for the best.
Deciding that the latter was the better option, I shakily took one stride forward. I nearly slipped without
Enzo’s support, but managed to keep myself upright before taking another stride forward. Another stride, and 1 was feeling more confident… but as I took my fourth stride, I realized that Enzo was skating backwards away from me!
“Hey!” I said, skating after him. ” You’re moving away!” Enzo didn’t reply, only grinned and kept going, increasing his speed while I skated after him. I didn’t realize it, but soon we were skating quickly around the rink as I chased him, and I wasn’t nervous at all.
Enzo suddenly stopped after our second lap. I didn’t know how to stop, so I crashed directly into him, toppling him onto the ice on his back as I fell on top of him. We were both laughing and out of breath, not cåring that we fell at all.
After laughing until my belly ached, I fixed my glasses then lifted myself up and looked down at Enzo, who was now gazing up at me with his big brown eyes. He reached up and brushed at strand of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear. His gaze slipped down from my eyes to my lips, and I couldn’t help but stare at his, too.
I leaned closer to him, just wanting to taste his lips. But when I closed my eyes to kiss him, the memories of what happened last night suddenly came flooding back. The skeleton, the way Enzo’s leg healed on its own, his glowing red eyes… It wasn’t a dream. It was real. I scrambled to my feet, my eyes wide as Enzo propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me.
“Nina, are you afraid of me now that you know what I am?” he said. There was a tone of sadness in his voice. I didn’t know how to respond. All Enzo had done thus far since I met him was watch over me and protect me, but…
“Yes. I’m afraid of you.” Before Enzo could say anything else, I skated away and kicked off the rental skates once I was outside of the rink. I grabbed my bag and my shoes, not even bothering to put them on before I ran out of the arena.
I went home that night and cried myself to sleep. Why couldn’t things just go back to normal? I felt like I was cursed to have nothing but terrible relationships; first being pranked by a playboy in high school, then being cheated on by Justin, and now falling for a… monster?
After crying myself to sleep, I had strange dreams that night. I dreamed about shapeshifters, witches, and glowing red eyes. I dreamed that I was being chased through the forest by a strange creature, only to be caught in the end.
I awoke with a start from my nightmare, my chest heaving and cold sweat coating my back. It was still dark outside; when I looked at my phone, it was nearly six o’clock in the morning. There was no way I would be able to get back to sleep, so I decided to just get ready for the day. I crawled out of bed and sat down at my desk to check my emails, since my phone was still missing — likely still laying on the floor of the anatomy lab, so I reminded myself to take the risk later and go over there to check.
When I opened my laptop and checked Twitter, however, my eyes widened. Someone had taken new pictures; pictures of Enzo tying my laces, us holding hands while we skated together, and falling on top of one another. They were all posted to an anonymous Twitter account called “@ nerdynina”.
Someone was stalking me. But who?
