Cayleb
It was finally that time of year again. Christmas lights were hung and a sweet smell of hot chocolate and peppermint ran throughout the cool breeze. The new skating rink downtown had been opened and the Folster family were on their way to check it out.
Cayleb Folster stepped out of the car, eager to be the first person on the ice. The thing about Cayleb was that he wasn’t a professional skater or anything. He strictly did it for fun. His posture was off, his legs would wobble, and his turns almost always resulted in him falling, but he didn’t care. For once in his life, this is the one thing he didn’t care about.
“Slow down Cayleb. We still have to pay before you can skate. Hold your horses.” His mom said.
Horses, the last thing that Cayleb wanted to think about.
“Yes ma’am.” He politely responded while continuing to tie his skates on his feet. “I just wanna be the first out on the ice.”
“I know, be patient son.”
Just so you have an idea of why Cayleb’s so eager to get out on the ice, it’s because he and his family live in Texas. So they don’t get to skate very much. It’s more of a one time per year thing.
“Hi, how many?” The ticket man asked.
“Two.” Cayleb’s dad said while digging out his wallet.
“And how old is that one?” He pointed to Cayleb’s brother, Cameron.
“He’s ten.”
“Eleven!” Cameron shouted.
“No, you’re ten. Oh, no, wait, you’re eleven.” the dad said. Cameron smiled to himself, crossing his arms and standing all smug.
Finally, they were out on the ice. The coolness that the ice produced felt nice against his hot skin as he skated around. His form looked like a hockey player’s, yet again though, he was the champion of Street Hockey, so I guess that’s where he got it from.
He ran his fingers through his light, brown hair. He wished that this could last forever. To just be able to skate around and not have to worry about the rodeos to come. Here, no one criticized him. Skating was his sweet escape, and he loved–
“Watch out!”
Cayleb looked behind him and saw a skater skating at top speed straight at him. He tried to move out of the way, but he was too slow. Thud. They both fell on their butts.
“I’m so sorry.” The skater said.
Cayleb let out a light chuckle, “It’s alright. It happens to the best of us.” He made his way to his feet again and extended his arm to help the skater. She was a gorgeous girl. Her hair was light and silky, her skin was white and creamy, and her eyes were a beautiful blue shade.
She grabbed hold of his hand, almost pulling him down again, but he managed to get her back on her feet.
“Wow” He thought to himself, dazed by how beautiful she was.
“Thank you. I’m sorry I ran into you.” She said, her cheeks red from embarrassment.
“It’s alright. I’ve done it a few times myself.”
She gave him a nod and an adorable smile and skated away. He sat there and stared at her for a second or two, before his nosy little brother came up from behind.
“Tag! You’re it!” Cameron shouted.
Every kid in the rink scattered.
“Oh I’m gonna get you!” yelled Cayleb. With that, he started chasing after any and every kid he had on lock, but he still had the image of her in his head. Maybe he should go get her number. No, that'd be crazy. Right?
He then pushed himself off the wall and his path was now locked on his brother’s. Cameron screamed like a four year old, trying to skate away, but Cayleb had caught up to him and–
“Tag! No tag backs!” Cayleb shouted while skating away. He secretly looked around for her while trying to catch his breath. She was nowhere to be seen. He wanted to kick himself for not even asking for her name.
“Twenty more minutes!” Their mom shouted.
“Yes ma’am!” Cameron and Cayleb shouted back.
Cayleb still made the most of the time he had. He practiced his turning and speed skating. He was a pretty good skater, considering he was a Texan.
“You know maybe this is what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll drop the cowboy act and I’ll become a professional skater. Yeah! That would be nice. Of course, after I’m eighteen I can leave this life behind… All in good time, I’ll become a skater.” He thought to himself.
Their twenty minutes were up, and they were on their way back home. He stared out the window admiring everyone’s house lights.
“Woah! Look at their house!” Cameron awed.
“Yep, they must’ve spent a fortune for all those decorations.” Their dad implied.
“Who cares? It looks awesome! Why can’t we decorate our house like that?”
“Because we live out in the middle of nowhere. Decorating like that would just be a big waste of money and time because we’d be the only ones to ever see it.” Cayleb butted in.
“But wouldn’t it look cool!?”
“Yeah, until you see the electric bill.” Their dad laughed.
A silence fell over the car and it made Cayleb feel uneasy, so he plugged in his headphones and started listening to Elvis Christmas songs. Not five minutes after, Cameron tapped him on the shoulder.
“Do you wanna go eat somewhere?” Mom said. “We were thinking about Whataburger. Do you want that?”
“Yeah, Whataburger sounds fine.” He replied trying to put his earbud in, but his mom started talking again.
“Okay, what do you want?”
“A Dr. Pepper and a cheese burger’s fine.”
“Alright.”
He put his earbud back in and still continued to stare out the window. That girl was still on his mind, and she’d probably stay on his mind for the next week or so. If only he had asked for her number, her name, anything!
