Chapter 17
Instead of taking a car back to his hotel for a nap, he went straight to the skating rink. He had brought his skates just in case he hadn’t had time to go back to the hotel, but he hadn’t anticipated doing this.
The rink was so much livelier right now.
There were about fifteen skaters on the ice, and he saw Tyler over on one side with three other skaters.
They were racing from one end of the rink to the other, backwards, as fast as they could.
Dmitrii sat down in the stands, trying not to be noticed, but just wanting to watch Tyler skate.
Tyler was … Tyler was everything that made his heart do little flips.
The way he laughed. The way he horsed around on the ice.
Every action was something he adored. This wasn’t the first crush he had ever had on another skater.
This was the first one where he had actually kissed that skater and had the feelings reciprocated.
He knew he was sitting there with a dorky grin. It was okay. No one here except Tyler had recognized him. If he kept smiling, he was certain no one else would know who he was. He had never been known for looking happy back in Russia.
He watched as Tyler and the other skaters were given a quick break on the ice.
Some girl skated up to Tyler and said something.
She looked like she knew Tyler really well, and he was trying so hard not to feel jealous when she placed a hand on Tyler’s shoulder.
Jealousy turned to anxiety when she kept on looking up into the stands towards him.
Maybe all of this was a bad idea. Maybe he shouldn’t have come to the rink early to watch Tyler.
When Tyler smiled and waved at him in the stands, he felt a little less worried.
Something about Tyler just made him feel like everything was going to be okay.
The break didn’t last long. Soon Tyler was doing jump work, and Dmitrii watched Tyler working on his triples.
Several of them were very nice. All of them were things he could do …
or used to do. The height that Tyler was getting on his Lutz jump impressed him.
That explained why they had gone for that as his second quad.
Tyler clearly had the height to be adding the fourth rotation.
He forgot most of his worries as he watched Tyler skate.
All too soon, the practice ended, and Tyler was walking over to him, still in skates but with his skate guards on.
Normally, that would have made Dmitrii very happy.
The fact that the girl was with him dampened the mood a bit.
She was watching him, clearly uncertain if she trusted him or not. Her scrutinizing look made him feel vulnerable as she spoke. “You really are him.”
“What?” Dmitrii looked to Tyler, hoping for an explanation.
“Dmitrii, this is Emma. She’s been a friend since I was six.”
Dmitrii held out his hand, almost hesitant to say his name, but he did anyway. Besides, he was certain she already knew it, “Dmitrii Lebedinsky.”
“I can’t believe it is you. I saw you skate last week here and …” She didn’t say anything bad, but Tyler was still frowning at her.
“Emma, don’t be a bitch, please?” There was still fondness in Tyler’s voice as he said that.
“I’m just saying it was bad. Like terrible.
You’ve made me watch streams of his skating, and that was amazing.
No wonder I didn’t recognize him. He looked like he had never been on figure skates before, and with the hair …
” She paused as she tilted her head. “Tyler told me you got really hurt though.”
“I had to tell her that.” Tyler’s lips were a thin line. This was clearly not what he had intended either.
“I am receiving some medical and coaching help here to overcome the effects of my injury. I hope to return to competition with the Grand Prix Challenger events in a few months.”
“Not skating like that, you won’t.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized it. She slapped a hand over her lips, muffling the “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t clear if she was apologizing to Dmitrii or Tyler or maybe both.
“No, you’re right. That is why I am here.
I am working closely with a very skilled doctor to be better able to skate and hopefully return to my previous level.
What level are you skating at?” Dmitrii’s tone was consistent.
The last line didn’t sound like it was any sort of jab, but Tyler’s expression changed just a little.
He knew Dmitrii well enough by now to know that it very much was a challenge.
“I’m in my last year as a junior.”
“I saw you working on your double Axel.” He said nothing about how he was still panicky at a single Axel.
He didn’t know if she knew he couldn’t jump an Axel right now.
If Tyler had made her see his videos, that meant she knew he had been doing beautiful triple Axels while she was struggling with a double.
The top-ranked junior girls were finding creative ways to fit more triples into their programs. He didn’t normally take the bitchy route with new people, but with how she had made her first impression, he had no regrets.
She frowned as she took a step back. “My double Axel is coming along nicely.”
Dmitrii didn’t say that if she wanted any success in seniors, she needed that double to be solid. Actually, with the level of competition, she could really use a reliable triple.
“Hey guys, okay. You didn’t get off on the best foot, but we’re all friends here.
” Tyler held up his hands. “Look, Emma-bear, Dmitrii is a friend. Okay. We all have things we have issues with from time to time. He’s working on them.
I’m working through my issues. You’re working on yours.
We’re not on the ice right now, so we can all drop it. ”
“I’m sorry.” The apology didn’t come first from Emma. Instead, it came from Dmitrii.
“No, it’s okay. You’re stressed. She’s stressed. It just happens.”
“Dmitrii, I’m really sorry. Look, if Tye says you’re cool, then you’re cool with me. Okay? I’m sorry I told him there was a hot guy who was a shitty skater.”
“I was having a lot of issues that day.” Dmitrii tried so hard to not smile that she had called him a ‘hot guy’, because he was certain he didn’t look a fraction as good as Tyler did, but maybe there was a little hope that Tyler had agreed with her description.
“How long have you even been in the country?” Emma asked as she sat down to take off her skates. She had clearly had more than enough of standing around in her skates and wanted her comfy shoes.
“I got here about two weeks ago. The day before I skated here for the first time.” Dmitrii still didn’t start getting his skates on. Instead, he sat back down, watching as Tyler started to pull his own blades off.
Once Emma’s feet were in comfortable looking slip-ons, she turned to Dmitrii. “I’m sorry I judged you when you were injured and jet-lagged. I’m trying really hard to be less of a bitch.”
“At least you didn’t take video and put it all over the internet, so it could have been a lot worse.
” Dmitrii tried to joke, but he had spent a lot of time searching to make sure no one had put video of his skating online.
He didn’t know what he would have done if she had, but knowing she hadn’t was a little bit of comfort at least.
Tyler gave them both a bright smile as he added, “And Emma did describe you as cute when she told me?”
She rolled her eyes at that. “I didn’t mean my type of cute. I meant your type of cute. Oh, and I said hot, not cute.” She paused as her smile became mischievous. “He is though, isn’t he?”
“Emma …” There was a little warning in Tyler’s tone.
She rolled her eyes at the warning. “Oh, shush, Tye. I wouldn’t want to embarrass you too much. I didn’t even pull out the pictures from third grade when they were making us skate together with the cat ears and all to that song from that movie about those cats.”
It was time for Dmitrii to skate now that the ice was cleared of skaters, and even if Emma and Tyler were still there, it left the coaches on the ice as they waited for Dmitrii. With Emma still there, they seemed to hesitate to call Dmitrii over to start.
“They’re expecting me to skate.” Dmitrii still didn’t move to grab his skates yet.
Tyler took the hint, turning to Emma. “He doesn’t really want an audience.”
“But you can stay?” Her eyebrows raised as she looked at him.
“Yeah, I can. I’ll text you later, Emma-bear?”
Emma was frowning, but she stood up to leave. Dmitrii did not miss that she gave Tyler a very suspicious look before she waved at Dmitrii. “It was nice actually meeting you.”
After she left, Tyler leaned into Dmitrii. “Don’t worry. I’ve known her forever. She won’t do anything stupid. Well, nothing stupider than being my friend.”
“Thank you.” He took a deep breath, really hoping that Tyler was right.
Finally, he grabbed his skates to put them on.
It was nice sitting next to Tyler as he got ready.
“She doesn’t know about the date, does she?
” Dmitrii desperately wanted to ask, ‘She doesn’t know about us?
’, but he wasn’t sure that there was an ‘us’.
“No. I didn’t tell her. I figured you wouldn’t want me to. My mom figured something was up when I got home so late, but she won’t tell anyone. Besides, I think she likes you?”