Royal Academy

Chapter 15

   "Hey, bro, how's it going?" Forrest did this weird handshake thing with him, and then introduced me. "This is Aestia. Aestia, Trey. Trey, Aestia." I shook his hand and smiled at him warmly.

   "So, what's your size?"

   "I'm a 5 1/2."

   Forrest's eyes widened. "5 1/2? I'm a 7!"

   I laughed, embarrassed. "I have small feet! So what?"

   Trey got our skates, and we sat down on a bench to put them on. Lucky I wore my fuzzy socks today.

   Once on, we walked awkwardly over to the ice because of our shoes.

   The rink was beautiful. There was snow, ice, and blue, silver, and gold lights. Forrest got onto the ice, without holding the rail, and held out his hand for me. I held onto a rail and put of one of feet onto the ice. Slowly, gripping his hand tightly, I stuck the other leg out, and what did I do? Of course, I fell on my butt.

   Forrest tried to help me, but he lost balance and fell too. We both started laughing, still sitting on the ground with a hurt bum. Ice hurts!

   Once he helped me up, we started to skate around in circles. I liked to stay with the rail mostly, but I would let go often and just hold Forrest's hand.

   "So, have you ever gone skating?"

   "No," I answered. "If you couldn't tell already. You probably skate a lot."

   "Yeah, I grew up in Minnesota. We skated a lot."

   "That's cool. I, on the other hand, grew up in Texas. I love snow though. And the cold. I don't know why."

   "So this was a good choice then?" He grinned down at me. Yes, down. He's like, 6'2". I'm 5'11".

   "It was a great idea." I smiled. "Although the ice hurts."

   We drifted away from the rail a little bit, and started to skate more in the middle. Pretty soon, we weren't really skating anymore, we were just twirling and talking.

   "Hey, you like Legend of Zelda?" Forrest picked up my necklace.

   "Yeah, I love it. Do you?"

   "I'm such a LOZ fan. My friends call me a nerd all the time because I love it so much."

   We started to head back when we realized we had been here almost 2 hours. I gave my skates back to Trey and put on my comfy boots. It felt so weird to walk on them now.

   We walked outside towards a cute cobblestone path. He picked a super pretty blue rose for me as we walked by, and I blushed again, sniffing it. "It's smells almost like vanilla!"

   We kept walking until my stomach growled a bit. I frowned. "Shut up." I told it, and Forrest laughed.

   "I'm probably going to have blisters on my ankles."

   "Oh...I'm sorry. I wish I could help..." Forrest looked genuinely sorry, his grin disappearing.

   "But it was worth it." I smiled. He grinned back. "I'm happy."

   "Well. I brought lunch. Also, there is this spot under a tree; absolutely perfect for a picnic. I'll show you."

   We kept walking down the path until we came to a beautiful cherry tree, which was dropping pink petals all over the ground, making a cushiony surface. I almost dropped my blue rose. "It's so....amazing. I don't have words to express how beautiful it is."

   Forrest went around the tree, found a little, almost unnoticeable hole, and brought out a handwoven picnic basket. He grabbed a traditional red and white checkered blanket and set it on the petals. I helped him get the food out.

   He brought bread, peanut butter, jelly, ham, pickles, cheese, lettuce, and bacon, just in case I didn't like PB&J or a lunch meat sandwich. He's so sweet! I love how he thinks about every single thing. He bit his lip. "You aren't vegetarian, right?"

   I scoffed, putting a hand dramatically on my heart. "Hell no! Team Steak!"

   He laughed. "I'm not either. Vegetarian diets are so complicated."

   "And expensive." I added.

   He agreed. We finished unpacking the basket. It was amazing how much could fit in there. Pringles, pineapple, other types of fruit, crackers, juice, water, soda.

   We ate and talked for about an hour. When we were done it was about 1:30. We started packing up the basket. "Thanks." He said, out of nowhere.

   "What?"

   "Thank you for coming with me. You have no idea how much it means to me." Then, he started leaning in towards me. I leaned in as well, and our lips met. It was a sweet moment. He tasted like vanilla also. Weird.

   We pulled away, and I laughed a little, nervous. I sat underneath we the tree and yawned, making him yawn. He took the checkered blanket back out of the basket and laid it over me. I was drifting off to sleep when I felt his arm around me and his warm body close to me. "Goodnight." I whispered, and fell asleep before he could say anything.