{Annabelle}
My eyes snapped open as I felt somebody shaking my shoulder gently. I blinked a few times before realizing I was staring up at Blake. I was tucked in bed, underneath three layers of blankets, and I didn't know how I'd gotten here. Didn't I fall asleep on the couch last night?
"Blake?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah?" he responded, looking me in the eyes. I almost hid my face from him, because I knew I looked like crap in the mornings - but I'd gotten used to it since we were around each other so much.
"Why am I in my bed?" I was totally puzzled.
"Don't you remember?" he asked me, and I shook my head. "Hmm, you should. I tried to carry you, but you woke up anyways."
"Awwe, you carried me? That's so sweet," I gushed. I was happy to have him as a friend. "Thank you. I think you saved my back."
He laughed at that. "Yeah, I remembered. I hate it when you fall asleep on the couch. You always get a back ache, and then you won't quit whining." He winked at me then, to show me he was kidding.
"Hey, I don't whine," I defended myself. "Sometimes I pester, but I don't whine."
"Okay, you pester. But you also whine like a two-year-old." His bright smile gleamed down at me, and I couldn't help but smile too.
"Why did you wake me up?" I asked, once again confused. Maybe my brain just wasn't working today.
"I promised to take you ice skating, remember?"
My eyes widened and I could feel the grin coming over my face once again. "Oh yeah! Yay!" I hopped out of bed, sending a surprised Blake reeling backwards. I stripped my clothes off, not caring that he was right there, and changed into jeans and a t-shirt, putting a warm, white sweater over it. I then put on two layers of socks, because I remembered him telling me that I was going to need it.
Blake chuckled behind me. "Somebody's excited."
"Well why wouldn't I be?" I asked, smiling at him. "Just tell me right now, is it as much fun as it looks? I can't believe I'm finally going to go ice skating!" I did a little excited dance.
Blake laughed at me some more, coming to stand right in front of me as I awaited his answer. "Yeah, hun," he said, and I blushed a little at his endearing nickname. "It's as much fun as it looks."
"Yes!" I squealed, drawing out the "s." I rushed into the living room, fully prepared to leave until I realized I hadn't fed Cookie yet. I hurried to spoon out her mushy dog food from the can, and ended up splattering the counter with it instead. "Crap!" I said, trying to clean it up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Annabelle," Blake said, grabbing my wrists as I was getting a paper towel to wipe it up. "Calm down. We don't have to be there right this minute. I just figured it might be nice if we could beat some of the crowd. It's fine, take your time." He chuckled then, low and sexy, releasing my wrists from his warm fingers to go pet Cookie, who was impatiently standing near my feet.
I exhaled a sigh, being dramatic. "Fine," I said, and I could feel a smile coming on. "I just really, really, really want to go! Like, now."
"I don't think the aliens will pick up the ice skating rink and drop it off in some random field in Nebraska while we're getting ready to leave. You can afford to slow down a little," he said sarcastically, standing up and grabbing a paper towel as well to help me clean up the nasty dog food.
Once we finally got all the mess, I gave Cookie her food and grabbed my warm, fluffy coat. I slipped my feet into my Uggs and stood by the door. "Come on, slow poke!" I shouted at Blake, mostly just to be annoying.
"Put on your scarf," Blake reminded me. "You always get cold."
"Oh, yeah!" I exclaimed, running into my room to get my warm wool scarf out of my closet. I came back into the living room and huffed. "That was a close one."
He sniggered at me, and then went to put some shoes on. He came back wearing a tight grey v-neck t-shirt, his usual dark jeans and black boots. Might I say the boots made him look extremely badass.
"I like the boots," I told him, bumping his shoulder as we headed out the door.
"Why thank you, pretty lady," he replied, putting on a fake southern accent.
I giggled. "You look so badass." I smiled up at him, scrunching my nose. He knew I was just joking with him. It was a thing we had taken to doing lately - that is, me saying something that sounds like I wasn't joking with him, yet he totally knew I was. It was like we could read each others' minds. It was also how I knew that half the stuff he said wasn't to insult me.
"Again, thank you. There is a method to my madness, I promise," he said to me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Oh yeah? And what's that?" I focused on going down the concrete stairs outside my apartment building. The ice had built up overnight, and it was extremely slippery.
I lost my footing on the third step down, and I yelped, panicking. Blake heard my outburst and reflexively reached out his arm to steady me. I grabbed it, and once I got my footing back I could feel the heat burning on my cheeks, even though it was freezing out. "Sorry," I said to him quickly, averting my gaze and concentrating on making it down the last few stairs.
"Not your fault," he told me graciously, and let me hold onto his warm, muscular arm while we went down the stairs. "Now back to what I was saying."
"Ah yes, before I ruined it," I laughed, rolling my eyes at my stupid clumsiness.
"You're fine," he said, continuing. "There is a reason I have these boots, and it's not just to look badass when I'm walking outside in the winter."
I laughed at that. "Then what is it?"
"Well, you've only been friends with me for, what, about two months now? You've never been with me in the summer."
"Your point being?" I asked, not seeing where this was going. We continued on our path through the city, going down into the slightly-warmer subway tunnels to catch a train to Rockefeller Center.
"My point is... well maybe I'll just let you figure it out. You have to remember to ask me about it in the summer, though," he said vaguely, paying for our two one-way tickets and leading me towards the loading platform.
"What? No, I'm never going to remember in the summer!" I insisted, tugging on his arm once we were standing still, waiting for our train.
"Fine then, I'll remind you," he said, staring at the noisy, incoming train. It was ours, so he drug me into it quickly, and then we continued our conversation.
"Blake, please?" I begged him, about to resort to giving him the puppy dog face.
"Belle, just drop it," he said. His nickname for me almost made me drop my argument, but not quite. Only my family called me Belle. Not even Gabby was allowed to call me it. This is the first I've heard him say it.
I stuck to my plea. "Blake, why won't you just tell me, it can't be that big of a secret?"
"It's not, I promise. I just want you to be excited when you find out... It's just... ugh fine! You're making me sound stupid," he caved, glaring at me.
"It's not hard to do," I giggled, until he glared at me even harder, and I stopped, but I couldn't wipe the goofy smile off my face.
"I wear these when I ride my motorcycle when it's not too cold outside," he admitted, and I almost scoffed, but decided not to.
"Really? That was your big secret? Come on, you totally could've told me that without all the fuss," I scolded him as we got off the train at our stop.
"I know, I just wanted it to be a surprise. I was actually planning on taking you for a ride when it gets warmer out," he admitted, looking down at me mischievously through those long lashes of his.
I smiled. "That would be so much fun, if I wasn't deathly afraid of moving vehicles with two wheels."
"What? You're crazy," he accused me, his eyebrows drawing together.
"No I'm not. I just... I'm terrified of them," I mumbled, hanging my head and feeling a blush come over my cheeks.
"You won't be when I'm done with you," he said, shooting me a genuine, lopsided grin.
I rolled my eyes, but I was grinning as well. "Whatever. You will never, ever, get me to ride on that motorcycle with you, Blake Harold."
"Watch me," he said, waggling his eyebrows.
I didn't reply, because we had arrived at the outdoor ice skating rink. It looked like so much fun, and there were only a few people skating at the time. It was only about ten thirty in the morning. The winter sun beat down on the city, but it didn't provide any real warmth - only made the ice and snow glitter so bright I had to squint my eyes against it. The ice was smooth and hardly scuffed up, but it looked cold. I shivered just thinking about it.
Blake led me over to a makeshift table that acted as an ice skate rental place. We rented two pairs, a size seven and a half for me and elevens for him. He put his on quickly, obviously used to all the laces and such. He came over to help me, because I was still having trouble putting on my first skate, mostly due to the fact that I was wearing gloves.
He laughed at me, and I did my best not to purse my lips and glare at him. He swatted my hands away from my skate and laced them up very tightly. Then he told me to give him my left foot and he slid on the skate. The way he did it reminded me of Cinderella. I smiled at that thought, but erased it as soon as he looked up at me.
"Does that feel okay?" he asked, moving my foot from side to side.
I nodded. "But... is it supposed to be that tight?" I asked, worried. It was nearly cutting off the blood flow.
"Yeah, it'll hurt if you don't. Well, it'll probably hurt anyways, but you'll get used to it," he said. It seemed like the thought of me being in pain made him uncomfortable, because he grimaced.
I didn't want to see at that unpleasant look on his face anymore - it was just so unlike Blake, and it unnerved me. I distracted him by pushing down on his shoulder, trying to heave myself up in the clunky ice skates.
"How do you... freaking... walk in these things?" I asked, bewildered. How in the world?
He chuckled at me then, grabbing my arm and towing me to the entrance of the rink. "Okay, I'm going to back out on here, and it's going to feel really slippery to you at first, but you'll get used to it. Just hold on to me and you'll be fine, okay?" he asked. Well, I could definitely do that. He skated backwards onto the lip of the rink and held out his hands for me.
I took my first nervous step out onto the cold ice. He was right - it was really slippery. Not even two steps in and I was flailing around like a headless chicken, my arms almost knocking him in the face. I could tell Blake was trying to be patient with me and not laugh his butt off, but he couldn't keep a smile from turning up the corners of his mouth.
I slipped, gripping onto his arm for the billionth time it felt in two minutes. I found myself wondering if I was too heavy for him, once again, but he didn't show a single sign of being weighed down. He held his ground and gave me a steady arm to hold onto.
"You're probably going to have bruises on that arm tomorrow, I hope you know," I told him, sending him an apologetic smile.
"No I'm not," he assured me, staring down at my feet, waiting for me to fall again. "Just keep coming this way, you're doing great."
I snorted, saying, "Yeah, right," but did as he told me.
During the next twenty minutes, I did my fair share of slipping and falling before I finally got used to the ice. My ankles and feet were beginning to ache, and I didn't know how much longer I could last. However, I would gladly skate for a year without stopping if Blake would just keep his arm around my waist like that. He was so warm, and he made me feel incredibly safe, if a little nervous. He watched out for me like the crazy, over-protective best friend he was, which was a good thing. Without him, I think I'd have broken every bone in my body by now.
"Do you want to go sit down? You look a little tired," he murmured, leaning over to say it in my ear. I shivered, but I think he thought it was just from the cold.
I nodded in response to his question, and he grabbed my hands and led me off the ice and onto a nearby bench. I sank onto it gratefully, sighing in relief as the pressure was taken off my feet.
Blake grinned at me, and then sat down on my right side. "Your cheeks are all red," he said, and my breath caught as he reached his hand up to trail his fingers across my left cheekbone. My face must've been pretty dang cold, because it was so numb I could barely feel his hand on my face.
I tried to cover my disappointment at not being able to feel his touch, while saying, "Well yeah, it's kind of freezing out here." I giggled, taking my hands out of my fuzzy gloves and grabbing his bare hand.
He was dumb and didn't put on any gloves before we left, even though he knew he was free to borrow some. As a result, his hands were absolutely freezing. I rubbed my hands on his fingers, creating friction, which would hopefully warm him up some. I stopped after a minute, and offered him my gloves.
Blake shook his head. "No, just keep... holding my hands. They'll warm up in a minute."
I gave him a questioning look, but did as he told me anyways. It felt nice to hold his hands, even if they were frozen cold.
In no time, his hands were warm and he suggested we go back home. "We don't have to..." I said, almost unwilling to go back.
"Your feet are going to kill you tomorrow if we don't go home," he said to me. He knew, somehow, that my feet were aching badly now, and he wanted me to go home. I could tell he was completely at ease, and didn't hurt at all, but he was worried about me. I thought that was incredibly sweet.
"Okay," I gave in, sighing, and got to work undoing my laces.
Blake, like a gentleman, dropped to the ground and undid my laces for me before untying his own. I grinned at him, and he returned our skates while I put on my shoes.
We walked back to my apartment, and the whole way I tried my best not to complain about how much my feet hurt. It would definitely make him regret taking me skating, which I did not want him to do at all. It was so much fun, and doing it with him simply made it that much better than I was expecting.
*****
As soon as we got home, I reached into my pocket to check my phone. It had one missed call from Gabby, and I pressed the button that said "Call Back."
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey, it's me. Why'd you call?" I asked her, and Blake gave me a look before shrugging off his jacket and stepping on the heels of his shoes to take them off before he stepped onto the pristine carpet of my apartment. He knew the drill.
"I saw you and Blake at the ice rink! Oh my gosh, why didn't you tell me you were going skating today?" Gabby asked me. She sounded slightly hurt.
"I didn't even see you! Why didn't you say hi? Who were you with?" I asked her, sad that I didn't get to hang out with her today. At the same time, I was kind of glad I got to spend the time with Blake, even though I spent almost every day with him...
"I was with Jeremy," she told me. "I couldn't get to you fast enough, you two were already on your way out when we got there."
"Why were you with Jer?" I asked her, confused. She hardly hung out with him, at least, not since they broke up a while ago. I reached down to pull off my shoes.
"We're kind of... back together."
"Huh? Since when?" I said, snapping up straight in shock.
"Since about a week ago..." she trailed off, ashamed.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" I asked her. She was my best friend - why wouldn't she tell me these things? A week?
"Well, I didn't know how you'd react. You know how badly you wanted to kill him for breaking up with me last time, so I figured you might be mad."
"Gabby, the only reason I'm mad is because you didn't tell me. Jer is one of my really good friends."
"Okay, okay. Sorry. But I told you now, didn't I? Oh, by the way, Jeremy and I were planning a date soon, and I thought maybe we could make it a double date?" she ventured, and I could just imagine her twirling a piece of her hair nervously.
"What? Gabby, you know Blake and I aren't dating!" I told her. We'd been through this many times. The only reason Blake and I hung out together so much was because we were best friends. Somehow, she couldn't get it into her head that when two people of the opposite gender hung out that much, it didn't necessarily mean they were dating.
"Well, I know... but you two could just come as friends. Please, Annabelle? It would make everything so much less awkward!" she gushed.
"I'll think about it. I'll run it by Blake and see what he says, okay?"
"Alright... I'll talk to you later, sweetie. By the way, you looked like you were having fun out there."
I laughed at that. "I was. See you, bye."
We hung up, and I glanced up towards the kitchen archway to see Blake leaning in it.
"Have you been listening this whole time?" I accused him, plopping down on the living room couch.
"Maybe," he said, smiling.
"So you know what Gabby wants us to do?" I asked him.
"Um, no not really. Although apparently she thinks we're dating?" he asked, not certain. His eyebrows scrunched together adorably.
I let out a harsh bark of laugher. "Yeah, she's always thought that." I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, she's back together with Jeremy and she wants us to go on a 'double date' with them." I put finger-quotes around 'double date.'
"And do you want to?" he asked, leaving the decision up to me.
"Well, I guess... We could just go as friends, right?" I asked him. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable and act like we were going out.
"Absolutely," he told me, smirking. "When?"
"I don't know, she didn't say. I told her I'd ask you," I admitted, shrugging, and reached for the remote to turn on the TV.
Blake grabbed my wrist to stop me, and I glanced up at him, surprised.
"You know you're going to owe me one if I go on this date thingy with you," he said, his smirk growing bigger.
"What? No, I just asked you if you wanted to go. You don't have to," I insisted, not wanting to owe him anything. Who knew what he would want me to do? It was Blake we're talking about, here.
"I'm going because, a) I think it could be fun, and b) Gabby seemed pretty insistent. We don't want a pissed Gabby, now do we?" he asked, his smugness morphing into a lighthearted smile. His eyes sparkled impossibly bright.
"Well, no... but I won't owe you anything if you want to go," I insisted again, not falling into his clever trap. He had a way of making me do that.
"We'll see about that," he said confidently, leaning back away from me and putting one leg up on my lap.
I scoffed, not about to be his footrest. I pulled my legs forcefully out from under his so I could put them up on his lap, making a human pretzel out of ourselves. He simply chuckled at me and turned on the TV. To complete the pile of limbs in the middle of the couch, Cookie came into the room and jumped on top of our entwined legs, turning around to watch TV with us.
I smiled at her, leaning back and getting comfortable.
*******
Three hours later, at about three o'clock, I was moaning in pain. Blake had had enough of it, so he got up to get me some ice for my swollen, pained ankles.
"Here, put them up on these pillows," he said, plopping down a pile of about four pillows from the linen closet.
"Thanks," I mumbled, and did as he told me. He then took one of the ice packs and gingerly wrapped it around my left ankle. I sucked in a swift breath through my teeth at the sudden freezing cold feeling on my skin.
"Sorry, it has to be done," Blake said. He gently picked up my right foot and did the same thing. I would've giggled, had I not been in pain, at how careful he was being with me. I guess I had been groaning and whining about how much my feet hurt, but still. He acted like I was the most fragile piece of china, and I would break if he squeezed too hard.
"I know," I said, gritting my teeth as he lowered my foot back down. In putting the pillows up for my feet, he'd given up his spot on the couch. He went to sit cross-legged on the floor and play with Cookie for a minute before I said, "Blake?"
His beautiful face turned up to mine, and the thought went through my head that he was absolutely gorgeous. And I was a hard girl to impress. Maybe he had been such a good friend to me that I was being overly-dramatic, but I swear, those eyes and that jaw line... I shook my head to clear the silly thoughts from my brain. I was trying to tell him something. He seemed to notice my hesitation and said, "Annabelle?"
"Sorry, uh... why did you call me Belle earlier?" I asked, curious. He had never called me that before today, and I wondered what brought it up.
"Did I? I didn't notice..." he trailed off, a pensive and confused look on his face.
"That's okay, I was just wondering," I said dismissively, waving a hand to let him know it was no big deal.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I know you only like certain people calling you Belle," he said, smiling mischievously up at me.
I smiled back, a knowing look on my face. "You can be one of those people if you want," I told him.
Blake raised himself to his knees in front of the couch, facing me. He grabbed my left hand and my breath caught in my throat. He leaned forward until our noses were almost touching and said, "I'd like that very much."
I could feel his hot breath on my face, and I inhaled his sweet scent - his breath smelled like strawberries, and I wondered why. I didn't see him eating strawberries today. Focus, Annabelle, I reminded myself. I told myself to breathe as he came even closer to me, then turned his head at the last possible second and pecked me on the cheekbone. His lips lingered for a few seconds after the kiss, and I struggled not to shiver from the warmth emanating from his closeness. Too soon, he leaned back to sit on his heels, and smiled up at me once again, just like nothing had happened.
I forced myself not to feel disappointed and cold as I felt the shocking feeling in my cheek disappear. He was my best friend, not my boyfriend. If we ever, ever, decided to go out (which would never happen, by the way – it would be way too awkward) it would ruin our amazing friendship. I was also pretty sure he was way too out of my league to even consider dating a girl like me.
This "double date" thing we were doing with Gabby and Jer was not going to be a date at all. It was just two best friends going with their best friends somewhere to make the other couple not feel awkward. If that makes any sense at all.
I was not going to make this into a bigger deal than it was. We were just friends.
*****