Fall Together [PG]
The first time you see her, she’s walking to your (mom’s) truck, where your mom is driving, you’re in the passenger, and your sister is in the backseat, waiting on her friend. She had been waiting outside, was sitting beneath the big tree in her gray skinny jeans, white graphic tee, and silver-and-pink high-tops, her naturally-honey-highlighted hair falling in loose curls behind her shoulders.
You’d never met or even seen her before, at least not that you can remember. You don’t know what her name was; your sister doesn’t talk about this girl as much as her other friends. Apparently her parents had never let her go out with friends before.
You think later that maybe it was fate, that while you normally would have immediately declined the offer to go out somewhere with your sister and her
weird group of friends, the one time you agree to go with them, her parents allow her
to go out, also.
You don’t think anything of her at first, really. She’s not hideous, you notice, but you don’t really pay attention to her.
Then you’re at Vanessa’s house, picking her up. Your sister yells to her friend to go around to the other side of the truck because “Melanie’s on that side!” You now know her name.
Then you’re off to the skating rink, the music turned up where you sit, but not loud enough to cover up the girls’ conversation behind you. “Ashtyn,” you hear Melanie whisper from behind you, “is that you’re older sister?”
“Yeah, that’s Bryce,” Vanessa answers for your sister (you see what your mom was talking about when she said Vanessa was the rude one).
You endure the car ride, listening to Vanessa blabber and try to be funny or sarcastic. Melanie doesn’t really say much, you notice. A nice break from the normally talkative nature of Ashtyn’s friends.
When you make it to the skating rink, you exit the truck and start walking across the parking lot. You’re walking beside your mom, and you notice that you don’t habitually take her hand or arm like you usually do. Normally you don’t have a problem with holding your mom’s hand (she’s your mom, and you love her, duh) but now you see Melanie walking just ahead of you on your right, and you stop yourself before taking your mom’s hand. You don’t know why, you just… don’t.
You go in, get your rental skates, and find a spot to sit down and put them on. You’re joking with Ashtyn and your mom, Melanie standing there in her own rental skates, just as nervous as you; it’s been years since you’ve been skating, and she hasn’t skated since she was little, apparently. You carefully step down off the three-inch high carpeted ledge, and onto the wooden floors of the rink. Your feet are slipping and sliding, and you’re not really moving anywhere.
By now, Ashtyn has made a full lap, Melanie in tow, and then you’re holding Ashtyn’s other hand, all three of you trying not to fall as you slowly (slowly) get a feel for the roller blades. Ashtyn suggests halfway around the rink that you and Melanie should hold each other’s hands and skate, and while Melanie looks up and smiles at you, you laugh it off: two uncoordinated, inexperienced skaters holding hands while skating equals a very bad idea.
So you two go off on your own to try and skate without falling. You fall once, but nobody notices, because the rest of Ashtyn’s friends have arrived and you’re the only one of y’alls group out on the floor. You take a quick break, then get back up again. You come up to Melanie, who is taking a little bit longer to get a hang of her balance than you did. She holds out her hand, and you take it, your palms pressing together naturally. “If we fall, we fall together,” she laughs, and you agree with her.
She asks how old you are, and you answer that you’re fifteen, going to turn sixteen “in three months, just about,” or in November.
She hesitates, then says, “Oh, that’s cool,” almost disappointedly, you notice.
There’s several “Whoa!” moments when one of you almost falls, but you make it three times around the rink without falling, and you’re both childishly proud of yourselves.
There’s a point where the DJ clears the floor, so that the races can take place. Ashtyn and her friends all participate in the older girls’ race (and lose, but the prize was just a Silly Band) and then you all have to sit there while both of the boys’ races are done. Everyone’s talking, joking, making pretend bets on which little boy they think will win.
Then Melanie puts an arm around your shoulders (a little awkwardly, since you’re taller than her, but still) and says, “Hey, New Best Friend. You’re my new best friend now.”
“Oh, awesome,” you reply. “It’s, like, my mission to steal all of Ashtyn’s friends away from her.”
One of the friends (Tia, you think) laughs loudly from the carpeted floor in front of you and says, “You hear that, Ashtyn? You’re gonna be lonely in like three weeks ‘cause Bryce is gonna steal us all away from you!” and you’re inwardly annoyed that this (talkative) twin interrupted what could have been a total moment for you and Melanie.
You try to wrap your arm around her waist, but it feels wrong since she‘s shorter, so you move so that you each have an arm around each other’s shoulders, and you wait to see how long she’s gonna sit like this before moving her arm.
She doesn’t until they announce it’s Open Skate again.
Y’all are all hiding your phones in your mom’s purse so they don’t get stolen. At one point, Melanie asks you if she can have her phone for a minute. Then she’s handing it to you, the words “New Contact” in bold across the top of the screen. You smile slightly at her, while you’re practically screaming on the inside. You type in your name and number, and hand her phone back to her. “Awesome,” she says with a smile.
She’s in the eighth grade. You’re in the tenth. She’s probably not even into girls that way; she’s more than likely straight, and is just friendly. You tell yourself you’re not going to get your hopes up over this girl.
But it’s too late.