It's Not You. It's Me. And No! He is Not My Boyfriend!

“Need a little help there?” Carter easily skated backward, skating a few paces in front of me as I stumbled along.

“No, no,” I brushed him off. “You go do what you do best. I’ll just slowly work my way around,” I eased myself off the side of the rink shakily and slowly began to skate along. I wasn’t the worst skater out there, but I certainly lacked the skill of any reasonably good ice skater.

“I’m going to go take a few laps. Then!” Carter pointed a determined finger up into the air. “We skate!” he motioned to the space between us with a devious grin.

I really regretted my decision to bring Carter along as I watched him take off with great ease. Something told me, he would be a less kind-hearted and forgiving skating instructor. He pushed himself around the ice, sticking his hands into the pockets of his gray pea coat. This was a strange anomaly that hockey players did when they skated leisurely. It was as if they didn’t know what to do with their hands without a hockey stick in it, or they were showing off to the world. As a person who spend most of his or her free time on the ice, the hockey player had a balance on the ice far superior to us common folk. A balance so superior they felt that they didn’t need to have their hands available to catch them if they slipped, probably because they wouldn’t expect that to happen. Carter made two more laps before joining me once more, turning so he could face me.

“Ready?” he held out his hands with a bright smile.

“Don’t think I’m not on to you,” I warned, slowly complying by placing my hands in his.

“Whatever are you talking about?” he smirked as skated around the rink slowly, dragging me along.

“You’ve got something up your sleeve.

“Ellis!” he removed one of his hands to clutch at his chest. “I. Am. Offended!”

“And why aren’t you wearing anything but a T-shirt under your jacket?” I eyed his open pea coat suspiciously.

“Is that what’s making me look suspicious?”

“No, I’m just asking. Aren’t you cold? You don’t even have gloves, or a hat, or a scarf. Don’t you know its winter?”

“I’m a man of the ice Ellis,” he pounded his chest once for emphasis. “I’m impervious to the cold.”

“Oh yeah? Then I dare you to spend the rest of your time here in your boxers.”

“Now, now Ellis. I know that you would love for me to wear nothing but a loin cloth when I’m around you, but this a family affair.”

“I never mentioned loin cloths.”

“Maybe not with your words, but it was in your eyes!”

“Yep, you go—AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” a loud screech replaced the rest of my sentence as Carter pulled out the trick I knew he was hiding. He began to skate at full speed, dragging me along with him. I had to compliment his skill though. He was able to skate backwards pretty darn fast.

“Carter you god damned fool!”

“Ellis, family place! Remember?”

“You stop right now!”

“If you say so,” he smirked as he dug his skates into the ice, stopping almost immediately. Unfortunately, I did not have the same stopping skills as him, and I kept moving until I crashed into the brick wall that was Carter’s chest. Bouncing off him on impact, my feet gave from under me, making me do a flouncing jig before I fell squarely on my ass.

“CARTER!” I half screamed, half whinned as he howled with laughter.

“Oh. My. God!” he said between laughter. “That was too great!” he held his stomach and doubled over. “You should’ve seen yourself!”

“Carter,” I said again, commanding my eyes to water, which wasn’t too difficult seeing as I had just forcefully made contact with frozen water.

His demeanor quickly became serious as he stared into my glistening eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I sniffled. “Can you help me up?”


“Uh, sure,” he held out his hand, his cheeks become extremely pink.

“Ellis, I didn’t mean for you to—HEY!”

I grunted as I put all my weight into pulling on Carter’s arm, forcing his feet slip from under him. He fell beside me with a slightly more graceful thud.

“Ha ha!” I pointed and chuckled.

“You’re tricky,” he narrowed his eyes at me before standing up with ease. “You really made me believe you were hurt.”

“Well, that fall really did hurt. Jerk,” this time, I really let Carter help me back up and brushed the ice shavings from my jeans.

“I couldn’t resist,” he titled my chin up and leaned in to press his lips against mine.

“Carter,” I chided as he pulled away. “This is a family affair.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss me again. This one lasted longer as he wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me closer. “I couldn’t resist.”

***

“That was pretty fun!” Carter exclaimed as he walked me up to my front door.

“Yeah,” I narrowed my eyes at him, my sore butt slightly sorer after the skating party. “Wanna come in for a bit?” it was only eight o’ clock after all.

“Sure!” he held the screen door open for me as I fiddled with unlocking the door.

“Hey mom and dad!” I called into the living room upon entering the house. “Is it cool if Carter stays for a bit?”

“Sure! Hi Carter!” my mom chirped. “If he wants to stay until the ball drops he’s going to have to stay over. There are too many crazies on the road tonight for him to be driving home late!”


“That sounds wonderful,” Carter grinned. Why wouldn’t he be happy to spend the night with his girlfriend? “I’ll have to ask my mom.”


“While you do that, I’ll go put on my jammies!” I hopped up the stairs grateful for the opportunity to shed the wet clothing from my body.

When I came back downstairs, Carter had just finished talking to his mother.

“What’s the verdict?”


“All systems go!” he smiled, “And did you just say jammies?”

“And what if I did?”

“Why I’d say,” he placed his hands on his hips purposefully. “That’s adorable!”

“I manage to do be that from time to time.”

“Try all the time,” Carter took a step to close the space between us, wrapping his arms around my waist and leaning his head down to nuzzle my nose.

“Hey guys!” My mom’s voice rang out. “Do you want to watch a movie with us? We’re about to put on Crazy, Stupid Love.”

I turned my eyes to Carter, and he shrugged in reply. I wriggled from his grasp, grabbed his hand, and led him to the living room where my parents were starting the movie. They shared the couch, and Carter and I shared the arm chair. My body instantly heated up as I snuggled into Carter, sitting on his lap. There was one definite perk to having him spend the night, and that was his body heat. My parents enjoyed watching me freeze to death, but with Carter around I would have my own personal space heater. A loud, annoying but good-looking and muscular space heater.

My eyelids began to droop as the romantic-comedy played on the TV. I was certainly feeling my ripe age of seventeen as I was having difficulties staying awake for the ball to drop. Now I could fully understand the struggle my parents dealt with each year. When sleep wanted you, it was hard to fight it. Fortunately, I managed to stay awake until the end of the movie, which even more fortunately for me was only two hours before the ball dropped. I was almost there!

“That was a cute movie,” my mom yawned and stretched as my dad exited the OnDemand section of the cable.

“Yeah,” Carter agreed flipping his wrist. “Ryan Gosling is a total cutie!”

My mother chuckled and rolled her eyes, “Carter, you’re too silly!”

“Yeah,” he sighed happily.

“Should we watch another move,” I sat up and stretched. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it through the next one.

“I guess so,” my dad sighed. “We still have two hours. I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered as we shuffled through the list of available movies, deciding upon Water for Elephants.

I had also managed to stay up for the entirety of this movie even if I needed a light poking from Carter every now and again. Luckily with the end of the second movie, it was only two minutes until midnight. The New Year was almost definitely upon us. My dad flipped to channel ten and we watch the bright lights of time square as they got ready to drop the ball.

“Oh!” my mother jumped from the couch and ran to the kitchen. “I’ll get the champagne!”

She returned with a bottle of champagne and four flutes just as we began the countdown. We all chanted from ten to one, each number closer to zero getting loudly until it was the new year. My dad popped the cork of the champagne as Auld Lang Syne began to play on the TV.

“Happy New Year!” Carter cheered as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply.

I was happy. I was starting out the new year in Carter’s arms. Everything seemed right with the world.