Kiss My Ice

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"Please just be careful," Lucy mumbled, turning herself to face me. "I would hate to see you get hurt because you've pushed yourself too hard. It would suck to cause an injury that ends your season before it even starts."

I didn't respond to Lucy. I just kept the water bottle pressed tightly to my lips, focused on the water that soothed my throat. 

It wasn't that I wanted to ignore my best friend, I just didn't know what to say. I knew that she wanted me to tell her that I would stop pushing myself so much. But that would be a lie. There was no way that I could in good conscience stop pushing myself to be able to land the triple when I was landing the double with ease. An athlete wouldn't get better without pushing themselves.

Even though Lucy ran track and cross country, she was not the kind of athlete to push herself past what she thought she was capable of. For her, running was more of a hobby than a lifestyle. But that's where we differed. To me, figure skating wasn't just a sport that I enjoyed doing. It was my life. And I didn't know anything else.

"Ah Zoe, I am glad that you are still here," a cheery male voice echoed from the top of the bleachers. "I have been meaning to talk to you."

I lowered the water bottle from my mouth and turned. At the top of the stairs, currently making his way down them, was Mark Hansen: the rink owner. His muddy brown hair was a mess of permanent curls that was in desperate need of a trim, flopping all over as he trotted down the steps. 

My eyebrows arched upward. That's weird, I thought. Mark seemed to be happier than usual, which was odd because Mark was always in an overly cheerful mood. So much so that I was convinced that his facial muscles didn't know how to do anything but smile. I didn't think it was possible for him to be more cheerful.

"Yeah," I said. "I thought it would be good to get in some extra ice time."

"I have some news that I think you'll be very excited for." Mark's smile only grew as he stopped directly in front of me. "The rest of the rink will get to find out tomorrow, but since you are here now. You get to be the first to know."

My eyebrows jumped up. I shot a quick glance over at Lucy to which she just shrugged. She was unaffected by Mark's excitement for this news he had.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, trying my best to sound as go-with-the-flow as possible. Even if the idea of some exciting news made my heart pound in my chest. I set down my water, reached for the duffel bag and unzipped it to pull out my hard guards. "What news is that?"

I reached down to untie the laces of my skates, listening as Mark began to explain his exciting news.

"I have been chatting with a generous new sponsor for the rink."

My hands froze on the laces, and I looked up at Mark. Wide eyed. 

Mark's lips attempted to twitch down as he tried his best to deny my request. It was of no use. His wide smile only grew. "Yes. Effective of Monday, the Whitmore arena has a new sponsor."

"That's such great news!" I exclaimed. A rush of adrenaline shot through my tired muscles.

I couldn't even remember the last time the rink had gotten a new sponsor. In our small town of Whitmore, Minnesota it was hard to generate new sponsors. The general public was incredibly supportive of the rink but that alone wasn't enough to generate enough interest to pull in big sponsors.

I slid the hard guards onto my skates before pulling each one off and placed them neatly into my bag. Pulling the zipper shut, I swung the strap over my shoulder and slid on my pair of Nike slides.

Mark cleared his throat as I stood to leave. "There is one thing that I that I need to mention."

His smile faltered, causing an instant wrench to my gut. That was not a good sign. Mark, the most cheerful person I knew, stopped smiling. This couldn't have been a good sign.