Chapter 12 #2
Lisa shook her head, almost looking relieved at his asking to take it easier.
“Dmitrii. It’s fine. You’ve done great today.
Let’s just skate a bit more and do another few Toe-Loops.
We’ll see how you feel after that. If you want to try a Loop again or a Salchow again, that’s fine, but I am not going to push you today.
” She reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, smiling.
“You don’t need me putting more pressure on you.
I’m here to help you. You’ve done so much this week.
Let’s end it on a high note with some jumps you can do. ”
Dmitrii nodded, uncertain, but he skated to the end of the rink so he could start.
He was feeling better on the ice and thinking about the accident less, but part of that was because he was thinking of the dinner tonight more.
He tried to put everything out of his mind as he picked up speed, skating towards the blue line to do a Toe-Loop.
Another few more passes of the rink and his transitions were getting faster and his Toe-Loop getting cleaner.
He felt it wasn’t enough. Never mind that he had been having near panic attacks just skating not too long ago.
He was feeling a lot better right now, and Tyler was smiling at him from the side of the rink.
It wasn’t much, but instead of a single Toe-Loop, he hit the ice just a little harder with his toe-pick and pulled himself just a little tighter as he landed the first double jump of any sort since the accident.
He stopped right away, his breathing so heavy, but this time it was more from exhilaration than fear. He looked around, first spotting Tyler’s smile, then the worried yet excited look from his coach.
She was skating towards him. “Dmitrii, are you okay? That was good. That was a double!”
Never mind that he had been jumping quads of that for years, he was so happy he had done that in front of Tyler. “I know. I did it.” He was still breathing hard, harder than he should be after that. He felt good. It had been a long time since he had felt good on the ice.
“That was perfect.” She was all smiles as she reached him. “I think that is a good place to stop for the week.” She glanced over to where Tyler was waiting. “Did you have plans?”
“Tyler’s mother wanted me to come over for dinner.”
“Well, you go get ready and have fun.” She looked over to Tyler though as she skated to where he was waiting. She didn’t say anything, just gave the young man a look that was rather hard to read before turning back to Dmitrii. “I’ll see you Monday, and Tyler, I’ll see you Wednesday.”
As Coach Truskel skated back to where the other coach was on the ice, Dmitrii sat down to take his skates off. “Wednesday?”
“Yeah, I have classes at the community college over the summer so I can transfer them to my actual school.”
“I didn’t know you were at university.” He dried off his blades. No matter what had happened, he had always taken good care of his skates. Skates were expensive, and breaking in a new pair was always horrible.
“Yeah, I’m in my second year. I still have a few general education classes I can get done without having to drive all the way to school in the summer, and there aren’t as many classes offered anyway.”
“So you’re going to school all summer?”
“I have to make up for taking fewer classes during skating season.” Tyler shifted as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“That makes sense. I’m not going to school right now.
I was probably going to, but then the accident and everything made it just easier to take some time off.
All my compulsory education is finished, and I got exempted from everything else because of the accident.
” With his skates put into his bag, he frowned slightly.
“I should get cleaned up at my hotel before dinner?”
“If you want to, we can stop there?” Tyler led the way out of the sportsplex. It wasn’t far at all from where he had parked.
“If you don’t mind. It’s been a long day.”
“No, no, that’s fine. I’m not in a hurry. I’ll just text my mom from your place.” Tyler started the car, just letting the music play on the radio.
“Have you thought about skating to something more modern? Something you actually listen to?” Dmitrii had his skate bag at his feet as he got comfortable for the short drive to the hotel. It was barely even fifteen minutes away.
“Maybe you could help me find a piece of music?” Tyler said it so matter-of - factly that Dmitrii was almost embarrassed at how his heart seemed to leap in his chest.
“Sure. I mean, I have all weekend. I don’t have anything now until my 8 AM on Monday with Dr. Aubrey.” He hoped that sounded as casual as he wished he sounded.
While they made their way to the hotel in Friday rush hour traffic. Dmitrii’s mind kept racing. He and Tyler were going to his hotel room. He was going to meet Tyler’s family. Could this mean something? Did he want it to mean something?
The drive didn’t take much longer than usual before they were at the hotel. As they both walked into Dmitrii’s room, Tyler looked around. “This is nice.”
Tyler was in his room. Dmitrii tried to seem casual about that. “I think the person who made the reservation either got a good deal because of the length of time that I’m here or thought I was going to be using the kitchen to cook.”
The actual room was rather basic. It was technically a suite, but everything was more or less one room. The half wall between the ‘bedroom’ and the ‘living area’ didn’t really do a lot to make it two rooms. With only Dmitrii living here though, it was more than enough.
The room was near empty of anything personal.
There was a laptop on the coffee table and a suitcase on the couch.
The carry-on was over by the bed, and Dmitrii really wished he had at least unpacked so that things weren’t as much of a mess.
He hadn’t anticipated Tyler being in his room.
He needed to calm down. This didn’t mean anything.
Yes, a cute boy was in his room. Yes, that boy was undeniably gay.
However, he had no real reason to think Tyler thought of him at all like that.
He wasn’t even sure Tyler had been flirting.
No, this was just that Tyler’s mother had wanted to have the new guy at the rink over for dinner.
Dmitrii pulled out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from the larger suitcase before asking, “Is this a dress-up thing or just casual?”
“Jeans are fine. It’s just my family. My mom just gets it in her head that she has to invite people over and feed them. It’s just her thing.” He was watching as Dmitrii walked towards the only actual door in the hotel room.
“I will be as fast as I can be. Make yourself comfortable.” He stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him and, just a few moments later, the sounds of the shower running could be heard.
Dmitrii didn’t immediately get into the water.
Instead, he stood in front of the mirror staring at himself.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before pulling off his clothes.
He wasn’t anything exciting to look at though, especially lately, especially compared to Tyler.
With a deep breath, he tried to settle down and stop thinking that there was some sort of reason Tyler was around him.
The guy was probably just friendly. He was a foreign skater, and Tyler was one of the most senior skaters at the rink, so it only made sense that he was the one to welcome him.
And like Tyler said, his mom just invited people over.
Dmitrii let out a deep breath and then got into the shower.
He just needed to wash the sweat off. Even if it hadn’t been the hardest workout on the ice by any stretch of the imagination, he still would not show up at someone’s house covered in dried-up sweat.
He refused to acknowledge that maybe he was trying to look nice.
If he didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t panic over it.