prologue
There I was, standing in the middle of the ice rink, waiting with my skating partner for the music to start playing.
I looked around and saw a thousand or more people sitting in their seats watching us, it was packed!
My hands started to shake, I could hear my heart pound in my chest, and I started to hear that little voice in my head tell me that I should get out of there.
I felt something grab my hand and looked to my right, Derrick, my skating partner, and boyfriend was holding my hand and gave me a look that I knew instantly what it meant. It meant, “You got this.”
The music started playing and we started to slowly dance and skate. Derrick grabbed my hand and spun me around, the music started to get faster and more intense. I grabbed His other hand while he let go of my left hand, we started skating around the rink, skating backwards, and doing all of the tricks that we had learned for the past few years.
The music started to get even faster and upbeat, we grabbed each other’s shoulders, and I heard Derrick say, “You ready to show them our moves?” I nodded and we split up, he went left while I went right.
I took a deep breath in and started to do my Fankick to Illusion, then I went into my Layback position.
While I was doing my tricks, I took a quick glimpse at Derrick and saw that he was doing the Cantilever to Butterfly and then to A-frame spin.
I went back to focusing on my tricks, I went from Layback to Haircutter to Biellmann. I stopped doing those and started to skate towards the rink wall while Derrick went to the other side, we both pushed off of the wall simultaneously and he started to do an Ina Bauer while I did the Spider Lunge.
When we were getting closer, I started to get up, and then he grabbed my left hand and, with the other hand, my hip. We started to do Spread Eagle in a spiral, then he let go and we started to do the Side-by-Side Doubletoe.
He gave me another look that I knew, and it meant, “Let’s finish this and blow their minds away.”
He then grabbed my waist and threw me in the air while I tried to do a Quadruple axel, instead I did a Triple axel. I then started to glide along the ice doubting myself because I couldn’t do a Quadruple axel, but I can’t let myself down now.
Derrick came up to me and I faced him, I grabbed his hands and held them tightly. He bent his legs and arms, I did a slight jump and he lifted me upwards. I felt the breeze softly hit my face, it felt so amazing to be up so high.
I heard the crowd gasp, and I thought it was because of how amazing it was, but no, it was something had I never even expected.
I felt Derrick’s hands leave mine, and I started to fall face-first. I saw the ice getting closer and closer. I felt my life flash before my eyes. Everything went dark red; I could hear this loud ringing in my ear and people screaming.
I was just lying there, trying to figure out what happened. I felt blood trickle down my face, I saw paramedics come towards me, but they went straight past me. I looked towards where they went and saw Derrick lying motionless there.
His hand looked broken, and he had a cut going straight along his face. I started to feel tears coming and tried to get up but couldn’t. So, I just dragged myself along the icy, cold, hard floor, trying to get to my lover.
My arm hurt so bad, I must have landed on that instead of my face, maybe my body knew I was in trouble and twisted slightly…?
I kept on dragging myself, but the paramedics were in my way. I tried to get up repeatedly, but I couldn’t do it with one hand. I pushed a paramedic out of my way with that one hand, I know it was rude, but I just wanted to be with my boyfriend.
When I saw him, I started to cry. I couldn’t keep it in anymore, I just let the tears come. He looked horrible, blood was slowly making its way to the icy floor, and his hand was bent in a way that it must never bend.
I started to feel faint, I could feel myself drifting away, I grabbed his hands and said, “I love you, Derrick.”
And the last thing I heard him say was, “Why me? Why did it have to be me? Why not her…?”
Everything went blank, but my last thought was, what did he mean why not me?
Did he want it…to be me instead…?
