Lost in Your Ice

Chapter 2

Skating was the only thing that brought Lilly peace of mind while the world crashed to a million pieces around her. She was slowly losing everything she once cherished, and the only person she had left now was herself. Her stepfather disowned her, she had no friends to talk to and the only person she thought was kind enough to let her share her worries and help her commute turned out to be W greedy snob who was only doing it for the money.

They can all go to hell, thought Lilly as she stared at her reflection in the broken mirror that hung from a nail on her bedroom door. The only vanity she was allowed to have was a small mirror that had cracks in it and was the size of her head. She held her ice skates and looked at them longingly. She wished to be able to see herself in them. She I,shined she looked good. Despite not having a proper mirror to look, Lilly always paired her shoes up with the prettiest dresses.

She walked up to her closet and rummaged through the racks for her ice blue minidress. She pulled every piece of clothing she had o one side, and shoved them all one after the other back to the other side, but couldn't find the dress. She creased her eyebrows, her heart sinking. She tossed out all her folded up skirts and jeans onto her bed and shuffled through the drawers. She cursed under her breath and sat at the edge of her bed, defeated.

He knew it was my favourite dress, that bastard.

She held her head in her hands and sighed. She had a feeling the threat that Jeremy used to win every fight between Lilly and himself had come true this time. He always told her he'd get rid of all her skating gear. He found the dress and did get rid of it this time, but was probably unable to find the ice skates. Lilly scooped them up and hugged them to her chest, feeling a rush of gratitude that they were saved. She had spent hours at the cafe down the street waitressing for two years to earn for the most exquisite pair there existed.

While making up her mind to hide them in a palace mo one could dream of getting their hands them, she got up from the bed and headed back to her closet. She changed out of her blood stained shirt, Tod her hair into a tight knot and ran out of the house. As she stepped out, she turned to look at the oak door over her shoulder. She had a feeling she won't be coming back, but she had no idea where she would go.

"I survived on scraps of left over restaurant food and sleeping on the sidewalk for seven years. I can do this," she whispered to herself and resolutely made her way to the ice rink that was on a half hour walk. But
Illy didn't walk, she ran. She allowed down when she lost her breath fifteen ,imputes on the sidewalk. She bent over and rested her free hand on her knee and watched the cars and motorcycles drive past. A young ,an with rusty blonde hair pulled off his sunglasses as he turned to look at her while on his bike. Lilly straightened up and furrowed her eyes brows at him. He see,Ed friendly enough, but she thought it was rude that he was staring. She wondered why he stopped, but her eyes caught the red blare of the traffic light a few metres away from where she stood. Before it started to feel uncomfortable, the boy looked away and drove off. Lilly shook her head, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and continued walking. She dragged her tired feet. Her legs hurt, but she knew that as soon as she got onto the cold ice, she'd forget that was exhausted.

As she stopped at a crosswalk, she felt a pang of pain in her chest. She wondered what she was missing. She certainly didn't miss anything she left behind. Instinctively at that thought, she looked over her shoulder, but all she saw was the trunk of a large tree in a park behind the fence.

"I wonder if you need a ride?"

The soft voice seemed to have been the wind.  Lilly jerked her head to where she heard and saw the same boy standing behind her with one hand in his pocket and the other nervously playing with a keychain hanging from one of his bike handles.

"It's just ten minutes," said Lilly to particularly no one, but the boy seemed to have thought of it as directed to him.

"Ma'am, your feet are bleeding."

How nice of a stranger to point that out. Lilly glanced down at her bare feet and saw one large cut running the length of one foot all the way from the tip of her big toe to her heel and fresh blood gushed out of it. It was only then that she she felt the pain. Her other foot has scabs on every toe.

She looked up at the boy and saw his eyes for the first time, deep blue and hollow. They looked so empty...or full of secrets. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and lowered his gaze.

"Tell me where you need to go and I'll take you."

"I can do it," she said, unwilling to let down her guard. She waited patiently for the signal so she could walk across the crosswalk to the other side. The boy stayed right there while she waited.

People were either never mice to her or the mice ones always left. Where did this guy come from? Lilly slowed down her pace as the rink came into view. She looked down at the ground. Her feet had left a trail of bloody footprints on the marble white pavement.

Lilly looked over her shoulder one last time and her heart leaped with fear as she thought of the prospect hat her stepfather would be able to find her by following the bloody trail she left behind.

None of it mattered as cold ice touched her feet. She let them freeze as she stepped on it with her bare feet. Coach Melanie came running towards her. She blew her whistle. "What do you think you're doing? Off, off, off!" She chided and Lilly obeyed with a smile on her face.

She was home.