A Mother's Bond

72

Sarayah  December 20, 2016
I laughed as Mama easily guided me around the rink, both of us skating backwards.

"You're gonna make us crash!" I yelled, keeping my arms outstretched in case I needed to catch myself.

Mama just laughed wildly. "I am a great skater. But if we do crash, that's just part of the fun!"

I chuckled. "Speak for yourself—WOAH!"

Without warning, she spun me around, quickly grabbing my hand, so I was still skating with her. Except this time, I was facing her as she skated backwards.

"Sorry for stealing you away from your precious, Vaeh," she teased. "But I wanted to have some time with my daughter on her birthday."

I laughed. "Yeah yeah. I guess I'm not too mad. To be honest, I'm kinda surprised it took you so long to come find me."

She shrugged. "I'm getting better at the whole 'restraint' thing. Are you impressed?" Suddenly she stood up straight, slowing us down. "Oh my gosh. Do you hear that?"

A useless question seeing as how the music was blasting in our ears. 'Poison' by Bell Biv DeVoe had just started playing. I nodded, watching her curiously.

"Dance battle," she said, doing a slow cabbage patch.

I cringed. "Nooo. Please stop."

She did a roller skating version of the running man. "Only way to stop me, is to beat me."

I narrowed my eyes. "Fine. But don't cry when you get your feelings hurt. I can skate better than anyone, and that's a fact."

I broke out the roger rabbit, going straight for the jugular. Her eyebrows shot up, but she didn't let it faze her long. She quickly recovered, going into the tootsie roll. We went back and forth, exchanging dance moves until the song ended. I jumped in surprise when the end of the song was met with loud applause and cheers. I looked around, noticing a crowd lined up along the barrier watching us.

"When'd they get here?" I murmured to myself, scanning the crowd for Nevaeh. I frowned a little when I noticed she wasn't there.

My distraction caused me to bump into Mama who had stopped skating. I snapped out of my daze, chuckling as she swept me up and spun me around. When she put me down, she kept hold of my arms.

"I had no idea you could dance like that!" She gushed.

I shrugged. "I warned you. 'Roll Bounce' and 'ATL' were my movies. I played them out. Used to skate everywhere so I could be as good as them. No way you were beating the champ."

Mama playfully rolled her eyes. "Whatever little girl. I was going easy on you. We'll have a rematch later."

"Oh, later, huh? You trying to get some practice in?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

She scoffed. "No. I just want to skate around for a little bit."

"Right. Okay. You could skate around for days, and I'd still beat you. So, go ahead. Skate to your heart's content."

She scrunched her nose up, playfully scowling at me. "You know what. Go away. Don't you have a girlfriend to attend to?"

I laughed and skated away, chucking up the deuces. When I got off the roller rink, I was surprised to seeor, well not see Nevaeh. I frowned, skating over to the booth.

"Hey," I called, and the worker looked over at me. I put my skates on the counter. "You seen the girl I was with earlier?"

He took my skates, giving me back my Timbs. "Uh, yeah. The one in the red, right? Yeah, she came and got her shoes. She sat down for a minute, looked like she was gonna hang out. But when I turned back around, she was gone."