LEONA MONTGOMERY
Triple Axel. Land. I'm just that good. I was bored so I choreographed a routine and now I'm going to do it.
I tie up my skates with the little diamond on them and walk over to the ice. I don't even know what terms my dad and I are on, so I'm just avoiding being anywhere that he is going to be. So, if that means renting out random entire rinks, then so be it.
I am a whole other level of petty, which he should know by now. He's hasn't said anything else about our argument which didn't surprise me.
I look down at the paper and start warming up some of the things I have to do.
I feel like one of the reasons that I made it so far as a figure skater was because I can pick up routines fast. They kind of just stick in my head once I learn them. This was a really helpful skill to have in the Olympics since you had to have so many routines ready to perform.
I teach myself about a minute of the routine and then skate off the ice so I can drink a little bit of water.
I forgot to bring one so I head over to concession to buy one. "Thanks," I thank the teenage girl who is looking at me kind of weird.
"You were at the Olympics, right?" She quietly asks me and I nod. "Yeah, I was," I answer and she nods as something clicked in her head.
"That's so cool, I don't skate. I'm just here because I work here but that's amazing," She tells me and I let out a small laugh.
"Thanks, hon," I say and walk away a few minutes after we talk.
When I get back to the rink that I had rented out a kid was standing on skates on the ice and what looks like her mother standing on the ice in street shoes, telling her what to do.
This is going to be awkward. I skate out onto the ice and the mom looks at me weird for a minute.
"Yes?" She impatiently questions me. Rude. "Well, I actually rented out this rink," I awkwardly said. I don't want to be rude, but I did.
"You are going to be greedy and not let a little girl skate. How old are you anyway?" She asks me in a condescending tone.
How is that being greedy when I literally paid for it to just be mine for a few hours. Be nice, Leona. Don't bash her face in.
I wouldn't actually do that of course, but the temptation is still there. "I'm twenty-four. There is an open skate on one of the other rinks right now if you want to take her there. I'm sorry but I did pay for this." Am I being a bitch right now? I don't think I am but the look she's giving me says something else.
"I shouldn't have to pay trust much for her to go and skate with a ton of other people. We can't afford that," Her mom says. I feel a little guilty for a second and then look down at her skates.
They are edea piano skates. Those are over 800 dollars to get them new, and not much cheaper if you get them used.
I know the mom sees me glancing at her skates because she stomps off, dragging her daughter with her.
I didn't want to be rude, but at the same time, open skate is only about 10 dollars at most places.
Can't I do anything without someone annoying me? No, I can't apparently. I keep working on my routine. I do a quad and fall.
I pull my leg up to me, feeling a pop in the back of my thigh. I think I tore my hamstring, wonderful.
I decide to call it a day early. I skate to the edge of the rink and take off my skates, sliding on my white boots.
I put everything in my bag and then walk to the front desk of the whole arena. "I'm leaving early, just so you know that rink is now empty," I tell the woman who writes something down.
"Thanks, hon," She says and I walk out. I limp a little because of my leg. It's not the first time I've filled a hamstring and probably won't be the last.
I'll just head home and work on my book for the rest of the day. I pull out in my car and decide to stop at target before I head home.
Pulled hamstrings are uncomfortable to walk on, but they hurt even more if you don't put any pressure on it.
I stop at the target and get a passion fruit tea and then head into the actual store.
I pick up two new books that I've heard about and have been wanting to read for a while. I grab some trail mix and head to the front of the store.
I see a cute little plant on my way to the front and decide to grab it on the way.
I check out and my total was less than thirty dollars, which is rare. I never spend such a small amount when I come to target.
I get in my car once again and this time I go home.
When I get home my leg is already feeling a bit better. It's going to be sore for a few weeks, but I'll be fine.
I pull into my driveway and walk up to my front door. I see my neighbor and her evil son sitting on their front porch, both glaring at me.
I sent them both a huge smile. It's so much fun being nice to people like her because they hate it.
I go to my bay window and read while I snack on my trail mix and drink my tea.
Before I can even blink I'm about halfway through the book. It's a short story, only about 200 pages so it's a quick read. After I finish reading it I'll probably do some writing.
One of the reasons that I love using an alias for my books is people won't rush me for more books. I'm currently writing a series and I know a ton of authors who get literal death threats to write faster.
I have my author's Instagram page where I get a lot of people rushing me, but I can just avoid those.
I shake my head and get back to my book. "What the fuck?" I cry out in question as I finish the book.
That was not supposed to end this way. I'm a little bit more emotional than usual because I'm on my period.
The girl in the book ended up having to leave to be an inpatient at a psychiatric program because they found out she had schizophrenia.
I'm not a genius when it comes to mental health disorders, but should there have been signs.
My heart just broke, more than it already was. I flip myself into my pillow and cry for a little bit.
I decided to see how Kayla is doing. She came home from the hospital today.
I haven't seen her since the second day after she gave birth but we've been talking a lot.
I didn't want to bombard her with too much right after she gave birth.
Before I can text or call her Garrett calls me. "I'm picking you up," He says.
"What?" I almost squeal, knowing that I'm a mess right now. "I'm picking you up," He repeats slowly.
"If you are okay with that," He then continues. Trust me, I'm more than okay with that but I need to get ready.
"I'm okay with that," I tell him. "Okay. I'll be at your house in a little bit," He tells me. "Okay, bye," I quickly say and hang up. I don't know what these last-minute plans are for but I'm all for it.
I would be even more all for it if I didn't look like this. I wash my face and put on some mascara.
I don't do any other makeup besides that. I quickly do my hair, leave it down, and then get dressed.
This is probably the fastest I've gotten ready in my entire life, not gonna lie.
I grab my phone and wallet, heading downstairs. I put some food and water into Bella's bowls while I wait for Garrett.
I uncomfortably rub my extremely sore leg. True to his word, it doesn't take Garrett long to get here.
I open the door as he walks up to it. "Hi," I immediately say and he chuckles. "Hey," He replies, looking down the stairs for a second.
"I was thinking we could do a last-minute thing. Want to head over to a rink with me?" He questions me. I didn't have the heart to tell him no, so I said yes even though I had already been today, and my leg was killing me.
"Yeah, that would be fun. Let me grab my bag." I take a few steps and grab my bag. I had left it right inside my front door when I came inside earlier.
He puts a hand on my back and leads me down to his car. He opens my door, just like he did on our date.
Is this a date? I don't even know. I shake my head and decide to just act normal.
We get to my dad's rink. "I don't think I'm allowed here yet," I tell him and he looks a little confused. That's fair. Who wouldn't be allowed at their own parents' business?
Me. That's who.
"Why wouldn't you be allowed here?" He curiously questions me. "We've been arguing and he had me temporarily banned," I say. I probably should've mentioned this before we left my house but I wasn't thinking.
"Okay. There's another rink not too far from here so let's head over there," He says as he pulls out of the parking lot.
We go to another rink that is pretty close to my dad's arena. It's smaller, probably only has a few actual rinks inside but it will be fine.
I've never been to this one before. I skate all the time, so I've been inside a lot of places like this, but there are a ton in NYC. I pick my bag up from on my feet and step out of the car.
"Nope. From now on when we are together I open your car door, alright?" Garrett softly asks me and I nod.
We walk in and I'm surprised to see a giant crowd of people here. "Do you have any rinks that we can rent out right now?" Garrett politely asks the teenager sitting at the front desk.
He's looking at Garrett in shock and then his eyes flicker over to me. "Oh my god. You are Garrett. You're Leona." He says, pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah," Garrett slowly says. I think the poor kid forgot what Garrett asked. "I'm sorry. What did you need again? I was just so shocked," He says, looking apologetic.
"It's fine, kid. Do you have any rinks available for rent?" Garrett repeats the question.
"Yeah. Rink three is over there. It's available for about an hour," He says and Garrett takes out his wallet.
"We will take it. How much?" Garrett asks, and the kid tells him the cost. Garrett takes out $200 from his wallet and hands it to the worker.
Damn. I don't think I can talk to Garrett anymore. Kidding, mostly. Who even carries around cash anymore? Not me, that's who.
He pays and we make our way around to the rink labeled number three.
I slide on my skates, and Garrett does the same. His skates are black while mine are white.
He quickly tied up his laces. Mine took me a minute longer to do.
While any type of skates has to be tight on the person's foot, figure skaters' ice skates have to be extremely tight. Because we are leaving the ground so much they need to have no wiggle room. I unlace them a little bit to get them on, so that's why it takes longer to tie.
After Garrett tied both of his up he knelt down to tightly tie up my other skate. He pats my thigh and then stands up.
I drop my guards into my bag and step onto the ice, skating around a little bit. He skates too, just not in the same way.
The way I skate is more elegant? Not in the way that makes his skating way look bad, it's just because hockey players skate to stay standing and play a sport.
The way figure skaters skate is to perform, and they're judged so, of course, it has to look nicer.
I feel a sudden tightness in my leg and stop skating for a second. Part of me wishes that I stayed home so I can relax, but I enjoy spending time with Garrett so I'm willing to do whatever he wants.
He skates over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" He questions me with a cute frown on his face.
"I'm good. Just a cramp."
He doesn't skate away but stays pretty close to me. "You know, I'd love to see a little show from an Olympic gold medalist," Garrett says as we skate out to the center of the ice.
"Hm, I'll have to get you in contact with one," I tease him, making his jaw drop. "That's not what I meant and you know it," He replies with a little pout.
"Kidding. I'll show you my quad." I say and skate around on the ice for a minute. I take a deep breath and turn before jumping, twisting, and then luckily landing on my feet. It would be really awkward if the guy I kind of like saw me fall flat on my face doing something I know how to do.
"Wow. That's amazing," He says and I smile. Don't worry, I already knew I'm great. I skate back to him and he looks down at me before talking.
"Did you skate by yourself or with a guy?" He questions me. Ew. I hate partner skating so much.
"I skate by myself. I was never good at skating with someone else," I tell him and he nods, skating around me.
I skate around a little bit, with him right behind me. I spin in small circles, not doing too much because of my leg.
"Want to see something cool?" I question Garrett, who suddenly looks interested again. Just wait until he sees the trick I can do.
It's a backflip on the ice. I really wish these weren't banned from the Olympics.
"Yeah. Show me," He says, so I do. I skate backward, getting ready to do this. I know that it isn't exactly going to help my leg but something inside me wants to impress Garrett so badly.
I do it and I land perfectly. Once I land I skate back on one foot for a second and then put down my other foot.
Garrett is just standing where I left him, looking shocked. "Damn, why didn't you do that in your Olympic routine?" He asks and then looks like he made a mistake.
"It's illegal. Few people can safely do it so they don't want to be an influence on others," I say while rolling my eyes.
I get the reasoning (kind of) but I don't think it's fair how we can't do something that we learned, just because other people can't do it.
The first person who did it at the Olympics got disqualified because they decided that it was illegal after he did it.
Basically, he did his routine and they deemed it dangerous and therefore illegal and then disqualified him. If that's not unfair then I don't know what is.
"That's kind of annoying. I would definitely break my neck if I did that jump thing from before, never mind that." Garrett says, making me giggle.
I skate back over to him and he pulls me into his arms.
We skate until the hour is up, just having fun and fooling around. I didn't do any more hard tricks because my leg was in pain, so I just took it easy.
We are in the mall right now because I've been craving some mall food court chicken. It's the best thing to grace the earth.
I have the chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Garrett is just eating pizza. Uncultured swine.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" I curiously ask him. "I have a game in the afternoon, but nothing else. I basically have to spend my whole day at the arena when we have games," He tells me. I feel like he forgets who my dad is sometimes because he says this stuff like I wouldn't know.
"Yeah, I know. When I was younger the guys on the team at that point would be around the arena all day leading up to the game," I tell him and he chuckles and then nods at me.
"You don't have to say yes but I would love it if you came to the game tomorrow," He tells me and he almost looks nervous. It's kind of cute.
"Fuck, never mind. It got changed to Ontario." He says after he turns off his phone. I furrow my eyebrows at him. "Something happened there. They didn't say what, but I know they can't get here so we are going there.
"Oh. I could still go if you are okay with it," I tell him. I don't want to go if he doesn't want to fly to a literal another country with me.
"That would be great. I'll just book my own ticket so that I can sit by you and hit the team. God knows I would rather not sit with those bastards anyway," He tells me with a chuckle.
"I can't wait. What flight is it? I'll book it now." I ask him. "It's out of NYA and going to OIA. The flight leaves at 2:30 this morning." He tells me and I go on American Airlines, which is how the team flies and book a first-class seat.
He goes onto the app and also books his flight. "I'll pick you up at 1:30 and we can head to the airport, okay?" He softly asks me and I nod.
We finish up our food and he drops me off at home and then goes to his house.
I decide to pack a small bag now instead of later. We will be back the day after tomorrow so I only need a few things.
After I finish packing my clothes I put a small bag inside of that bag with tampons and my phone and watch chargers.
I didn't need much else so I closed the bag and set it down by my front door. I'll change into some other leggings and a hoodie before he picks me up.
I call Kayla because I was going to call her earlier anyway and I have to ask Austin something.
"Hey," She chirps as soon as she answers the phone. "How are you feeling?" I question her. "Better. I'm almost ready for sex. Austin is being annoying and is making me wait six weeks. Six entire weeks. I think that I am going to lose my mind." She tells me and I laugh.
"At least he cares enough to make you wait," I point out. I've never been pregnant to know what it feels like after giving birth, but I can't imagine it's pleasant.
"Can I ask you a favor to ask Austin? Can you ask him or whatever?" I question her. I don't want it to seem like I'm asking her husband for something, but I don't think she should be walking back and forth from her place my mine every day after just having her baby.
"Of course. What is it?" She questions me. Just wait until she finds out that I'm going to Canada with Garrett.
"Can one of you come over and feed Bella tomorrow and the next day? I'm going to Canada with Garrett and will be gone for a little while," I say and then laugh at my stupidity when I realize that Austin is also going to be gone. I can't believe I just did that.
"Oh my god. Can you come over real quick?" She asks me and I wonder why, but say yes nonetheless.
We hang up and I have walked over there, feeling the tightness in my thigh once again on the way there.
I walk in because she opened the door up as she saw me walk up to her front door. "Look how cute she is," I say, talking about Sabrina.
"Hi Austin," I greet him as Kayla and I walk further into the house. "Sorry, but I'm going with him," She tells me, which surprised me.
I didn't think you could fly so soon after. "That's fine. I'll just buy one of those automatic feeders." I say with a shrug, not having thought of that before.
"Cool. I'm going to be in a box if you want to come up with me. The baby shouldn't be around all that loud noise just yet," Kayla tells me.
Makes sense. That can't be good for a newborn. "Sure," I shrug.
"Cool. Did you already book your flights?" She questions. I'm assuming that she is used to all of this from being married to a player.
"Yeah," I tell her and she pulls up the 2:30 flight. "Where are you sitting?" She questions and on her laptop, I point to the seats where we are sitting, and she whistles. "Fancy. First-class," She says and whistles again.
"I forget that your rich," She says with a laugh. I'm not rich though. "I'm not rich." I awkwardly say.
I don't really like talking about my money, because it's just uncomfortable. "Can I ask you something that I've been wondering?" She curiously questions.
I see Austin look over at her from the table where he's sitting. "Of course," I reply.
"What happened to your mom?" She questions and Austin whips his head over so fast, walking over to us.
"Sorry about her, the pain medication she's on right now loosens her tongue a little too much," He says, apologizing.
"It's fine. She died when I was six months old in a car accident," I tell them, they both look at me in shock.
"You didn't know that?" I ask Austin. I don't know about the team now but all the guys on the team when I was younger knew what happened to her.
Of course, all the guys on the team when it first happened knew about it too.
"I'm sorry," Austin says, his voice sounding sad. "It's okay. It sucks but shit happens," I say with a shrug. "I'm sorry too," Kayla says. "It's cool, don't worry about it," I say, knowing that she was also apologizing for asking.
"We booked our tickets also in first-class but a little bit away from your seats. I can't wait," Kayla says.
I'm not going to book a hotel room, I'll just do that when we get there. I'll stay at the nearest hotel to where Garrett is staying.
The hotel where he is staying is probably already filled up by now.
Austin takes Sabrina from Kayla and lays her down in her bassinet. "How come you didn't want to hold Sabrina?" Kayla asks, confusing me for a second before I realized she was as talking about in the hospital.
"I don't know. I'm kind of awkward with kids. I was never around them so I don't know what to do with them. In general, I don't like them that much anyway," I tell her, hoping she doesn't take offense to it.
I don't even know if I don't like kids. I always say that I don't, but I don't have any experience with them so I'm not sure.
"That makes sense. Austin was freaking out right before she was born because he was terrified." She says and we both laugh a little.
Not only was he having a baby, but he didn't know if the baby and his wife would be okay. That's probably scary.
"I want to head out because I need to head to the store for a few things. I'll see you on the plane," I give her a side hug and then walk out of the door.
I start walking home but feel a little uncomfortable. My breathing gets a little bit labored because I can't shake off the feeling that someone is either following me or watching me.
I don't see anyone that could be doing either. I squint at the corner of the road some paparazzi.
I swear. My address better not get leaked. I don't want to head back to Kayla's because then they might leak her address but I don't want mine out either. Ugh.
I move inside the sidewalk out of the way of the road. I decide to just walk around for a little bit. I just walk around the block a few times because I can't even go to my car.
"Can you do me a huge favor? I'll owe you one if you do." I ask Garrett. I called him to ask him if he could pick me up so we can drive around for a little while or something because the paparazzi isn't leaving.
"Of course, I'll be there in a few," He tells me. That was a little bit ago and he is now pulling up.
He had a cover thing on his listener plate, probably so that nobody can see it. I know that it hasn't been like that because earlier when I got in his car it wasn't.
I slide into the passenger seat and smile at him. "Thanks. I didn't want to go home because they weren't leaving," I explain to him.
I'm sure he understands what it's like with paparazzi. "Don't worry about it. My address has been leaked before and it's a goddamn pain in the ass. Random kids show up at random times of the day. I don't know what's worse the children or the grown-ass adults." He says, which I get.
At least kids are only kids who think that it's cool they get to meet someone famous, but teenagers and adults know better than to show up at some random person's house.
"Yeah, when I lived with my dad our address got leaked. Um, can I tell you something?" I shyly ask him.
"I told Austin and Kayla a part of it today but I kind of want to tell someone the full story," I quietly say. I don't tell people this. "Okay, you can tell me anything," He says, putting a small smile on my face.
"Well, my mom died when I was six months old. She died in a car accident which I told Austin and Kayla, I start telling him, then take a deep breath. I don't really tell anyone this so it's hard.
"It was some guy who was paparazzi that hit her. He hit her on purpose," I sadly say while I rub my fingers over the skin under my eyes.
Once I put my hands down into my lap Garrett pulls my left hand over to him and rubs my hand with his thumb.
"She used to wear a disguise thing when in public. She was a figure skater that was well known and my dad was an NHL coach, so of course, paparazzi wanted to follow her. Anyways, this one guy was really persistent and got mad. She left the mall where she was spotted and he followed her almost home.
They were turning off an exit and he ran into her, pushing her. That didn't do push so he backed up and then before she could even leave he rammed into her, pushing her past the guard rails and into the woods. Her car flipped a few times and she broke her neck. She was pronounced DOA," I finish, just wanting to tell him.
At this point, he had already pulled over and put his seat as far back as it went. I didn't know why he did this at first but then I understood.
He lifts me over the console of his truck and onto his lap, we are so close that our faces are close to touching.
He lays my head down so my cheek is against his chest. "It's hard, y'know? I don't even remember her. I wish that she was still here even though I don't remember anything about her. I know what she looks like but not from memories, only pictures." I ask, even though I'm basically just thinking out loud.
"I don't get that, but I kind of get the other end of that." He says, confusing me. "My mom has cancer right now. We thought that she was going to die for a while, but she's almost better and is having surgery to remove the tumor very soon." Garrett tells me.
Honestly, that's worse than not remembering a parent. I would be so terrified to lose her all the time.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," I apologize for how I worded what I said. He chuckles a bit. "That's not why I said that. It's okay to feel how you feel, that's just another way to think about it. Either way sucks, but I am lucky that she is going to be okay." He says, making me happy.
Just because my mom suffered doesn't mean I want other people too. I grew up without a mother and wouldn't want anyone else to do the same thing.
We drive around for hours on end and by time we know it, it's past one in the morning.
We went to Walmart so that I could get some more dog food and the feeder.
We got away from such dark subjects and just talked about anything and everything.
We decided to head back to my house and get my bag, go to his house to get his stuff, and then head over to the airport. The flight is almost seven hours so I'll probably just sleep then instead of being tired all day.
We get to my house and Garrett just stays in his car so I can run up to my house and grab my bag. I'm in and out of my house within a few minutes, so we then head to his house.
He asks me to stay in his car with the keys on, so I do. He also gets in and out really quickly grabbing his bag.