Skating's Not For Everyone

I stepped onto the floor and pushed myself off the railing. It was like flying, except I had to move my legs. I glided there for a minute before pushing off with my right leg. It took a simple pattern. Right, left, right left. I had it all figured out in my head. There were younger kids speeding right past me, and some older people that I was speeding past. I worked hard, and pushed myself.

It felt great. It had been years. Years! 7 years to be exact since I had been on inline skates. The last time I was on I got hurt. Bad.

I was ten. I was in a competition, the music going fast, my skating; even faster. I knew the routine. I knew my part. I was with a partner, he was my friend, my ally, my trust. He was to catch me at just the right moment and we would pull off a perfect catch.
He didn't catch me, and I dropped. Hard. I had torn the ligaments in my knee, fractured a bone in my calf, and broken my ankle in 3 places. It was bad.

I never skated again, until now. I was out on the floor, open skate. I was trying again, one last time. I needed to see if I still had it.
It appeared to be that i did.

Until I fell. A child had cut me off and I hadn't stopped in time to see him. I pulled to a quick stop and landed forward, my knee hitting the floor and the inlines yanking my foot so that my ankle twisted.

I was in pain. I couldn't get up. I couldn't move. I was stationary.

I pulled myself against a wall, even though my knee and ankle protested and tried to stand up, keeping my weight off of my leg. There was no way I was going to be able to get off the floor without putting my foot down, but there was no way I could skate with my leg like this either.
I stood there torn between it when someone skated up next to me.

"Do you need help?" a gruff voice asked me, clearly noticing I wasn't able to skate. I looked over at him and caught my breath.

He worked here. I knew that. Or he was at least a regular. They knew him, it was good enough.

I looked at him and then down at my leg. "I'm okay..." I said trailing off. I tried pushing off the wall and skating and my leg collapsed underneath me.

"Damn..." I muttered, trying to stand back up. I looked over at him and sighed.

"I might need help." I said reluctantly. He skated over to me, a slightly smug look on his face, and held out his hand.

"Trust me. I'm going to try my hardest not to hurt you." He said to me, taking my hand and lifting me up easily, supporting my right side. He slipped his hand around my waist and took my other hand, skating slowly with me.
We got to the opening and stood there for a minute.

"I gotta say, I don't know how i'm going to get you off this floor when the opening has a step off." he said looking down at it.
Quickly his face lit up.
"Trust me." he said, slowly letting go of my left hand and swooping his arm under my legs, trying to be gentle. "I can do this, no worries. Just don't move too much." he said, grinning at me and stepping up. I held onto him tightly, my face in his neck. I was in pain, but not as much as when I tried skating on my own.

Slowly he skated over to a table and sat me down at it.

"Now what do you need? What happened, why can't you skate?" he asked me all in a rush.

I answered him calmly.
"Aspirin. I fell and hit my knee wrong. I'm in pain. In that order." I said quietly, smiling a little.

He looked at me and sighed. "I'm going to need your name too." he said smiling at me softly. "I need to do it for an accident report." he said.