To Dream or Not to Dream

Second Best

Toronto Canada - 2016

"Isabella."

It had been over a month since Isabella put the life she had previously been living on hold.

"Bella," a voice called her name again.  She didn't hear it, she was lost in thought.

It had been a couple weeks since she had accidentally happened upon Yuzuru Hanyu skating in the early hours of the morning- an event that made her heart pound and feet tingle.

Isabella had long acknowledged that Yuzuru Hanyu possessed something she lacked.  It was an obvious realization that struck her the first time she saw him skate. He was brilliant and quite possibly the best skater she would ever see with her own eyes.  While she had always recognized him as someone to admire and learn from, ever since that morning encounter, she could not get him out of her head.

"Earth to Isabella."

His words also refused to leave her.

"You don't belong here."

Isabella's hand halted mid-air, suspended above a dish during her diner shift.

This time, Isabella knew for certain that her ears did not deceive her.  There was no mistaking the ill-natured comment directed at her. And it is what prompted Isabella to spend the last two weeks studying the Japanese skater during their group practice, in an attempt to make out his character.

Although focused and serious, his playful antics and wide smiles were in bounty when he skated with the other members of the club. The way he treated the younger members was also quite endearing. He seemed to be a genuinely kind person from what she could tell.

To everyone except her, at least.

Because to her, he was cold as ice.

"Isabella!"

Isabella shook her head from her daze to look at her co-worker.  "What?"

"Your phone has been ringing non-stop," the girl motioned to Isabella's back pocket. 

"Oh.  Thanks." Off kilter, Isabella took out her phone. 

Another missed call from Jacob.

This would probably be around the 20th call of his that she did not answer.

She knew the longer she didn't answer him, the more he would be upset with her- but right now she didn't know how to deal with him.

In a week's time she would be returning to the United States with a few members of the skating club for the 2016 World Figure Skating Championship.  No, of course she wasn't going to compete, but she was going to get an opportunity to witness the World Figure Skating Championships live- in her very own hometown of Boston.

She would speak to Jacob then.  

She knew she couldn't disappear forever.

-----

USA- One week later

Isabella had no idea how she wound up in this position.

She was supposed to be flying home, to Boston, Massachusetts.

It was there that her and other members of the Cricket Club were supposed to meet up for the 2016 World Figure Skating Championship. At least, that was what they planned... before Boston was covered by three feet of snow.

Instead of flying directly into Boston, Isabella found herself detoured into LeGuardia Airport due to the storm.  Which is why she was currently behind the steering wheel of a van, driving on a snowy highway midway between Boston and New York City.  Although she was glad to not be alone, she wished she was not the only one with an American driver's license.