Such Great Heights

Chapter 4

The girls take a seat on one of the benches near the public lockers, untying their boots and slipping on the ice skates. They store their shoes in the free locker that unlocks based on a thumbprint.

"I'm probably the clumsiest person in the world. Like, trip up the stairs clumsy," Camila warns Lauren as she stands up and they begin walking over to the rink. "But I've skated here a lot ever since I moved here and I haven't killed myself in a freak accident yet, so I'm proud."

"Yet. Keyword yet," Lauren arches an eyebrow.

"Wooow. Thanks for the vote of confidence," the younger girl shakes her head, feigning being hurt.

Right before they step onto the ice, it catches Camila's eye that Lauren's shoelaces are untied on her skates.

"Hold on," she stops the other girl from walking any further, bending down carefully and tying her shoes. "If anyone would have died here, it would have been you."

Lauren watches as Camila ties her skates, the smaller girl biting her lip in concentration as she makes sure that the knot is tight and won't slip. She has an unfortunate habit of forgetting to tie her shoes—this was present even in the first stage of her life. It has led to a few sad incidents of her absolutely eating shit, yet despite all of the times this has caused her embarrassment, she still continues to forget.

"Thanks," Lauren blushes. "Except I'm pretty sure it doesn't make a difference because these laces aren't long enough to cause anyone to fall."

"Boy, someone's stubborn," Camila stands up. "See, that's what you think. Then next thing you know, we're on an episode of '100,000 Ways To Die' – two gays on a date gone wrong. Death by ice skating shoelace."

100,000 Ways To Die? Damn, last thing I knew it was 1,000. Lauren remarks internally. She supposes the advancement in technology in society must have created a multitude of new stupid ways for someone to accidentally die.

With both of their shoelaces completely tied and everything ready, the two step onto the ice. They're both quite nervous at the moment, but both are doing the best they can to hide their nerves from one another. Camila may have more experience skating than Lauren, however she's aware of how clumsy she is. And how her clumsiness is probably exaggerating even further when she's trying to impress a cute girl. Lauren is just afraid that her body is going to fuck up in front of Camila...but even if she does fall, at least she won't feel the pain.

They stand stationary on the ice, each of them waiting for the other to begin skating. People skate around them, narrowly avoiding ramming into them and causing a disaster.

"Well?" Lauren raises an eyebrow, expecting Camila to initiate because this is her spot after all.

"Well..." Camila hoped that Lauren would initiate, as that girl emits confidence without a second effort.

Finally, Lauren figures that they can't just stand there forever. So she links her right arm with Camila's left and pushes off on the ice, her knees wobbling below her as they glide across the rink side by side.

Although it was shaky at first, they quickly become accustomed to skating alongside one another. Lauren is careful not to skate at too fast of a speed, and Camila focuses extra hard on keeping in rhythm with the older girl. They move together like clockwork, adapting to one another with ease.

"Not bad for a Miami girl," Camila notes how Lauren didn't fall flat on her face the second she stepped onto the ice.

"You know, I used to do competitive figure skating in high school," Lauren says nonchalantly.