The Point of No Return

Bjorn wasn’t what she expected.

She figured with a name like that, he’d be some stuck up old guy who barked out orders and tried to treat her like she was a robot. He wasn’t. He was in his mid-thirties, his hair was peppered a bit, and his smile could melt any Scrooge’s heart.

In the two months that she’d been training with him, she’d really come to like him. He was stern, but not strict, and then there were those moments where they couldn’t stop laughing. He showed her exercises that the hockey players did to strengthen their legs and ankles, and in those two months, her ankle hadn’t hurt once. Before now, her ankle would kill her after an hour session with the kids, but not anymore.

The first day she’d met him, he instantly told her to throw a triple axel. She looked at him like he was nuts because that was the jump she’d been doing when she broke her ankle. She refused and he gave her some bullcrap about “if you fall nine times, get back up ten, Anya”. He knew her name was Annalisa, but he said she needed a fresh start. Fine, whatever floats his boat. He was just batshit crazy if he thought she was going to throw that jump anytime soon.

Unfortunately, this happened to be one of those times.

“Do it, Anya.”

“No,” she said from her spot on the ice.

“Your butt is going to freeze,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t care!” she said and stood up. “I’m not doing it and you’re crazy if you think I am.”

She skated away from him, gliding from forwards to backwards with ease.

“Anya, don’t be scared all your life! You’ve got to get back up!”

“No, I don’t,” she sing-songed as she moved closer to the outside of the rink.

“Stop it, Anya and just do it!”

“Thank you, Bjork,” she replied, using a word-play with his name.

Someone laughed behind her and she whirled around, lost her balance and slammed into the ice.

“Oh, shit,” they said.

“Ow,” she replied and peeled herself off the ice. Everything was okay, nothing was broken.

She glanced at the person who was leaning over the wall with his hand out to her. His shoulder-length blonde hair was slicked back over his head. He was wearing a red hoodie and a smile.

She ignored his hand and stood up, shaking the ice off of her butt.

“This is a closed rink, asshole,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

The blonde was just about to say something when they were interrupted.

“Anya! Are you alrigh— Nicklas!” Bjorn said as he came skating up to them.

Annalisa watched as the two embraced and they began to rapidly speak in a language she didn’t know.

“Uh, excuse me, practice is in session, here,” she said looking at her coach. “You said I couldn’t have a break, which means you can’t either.”

“Anya, don’t be rude,” Bjorn said as he rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” she said and skated away.

“Is that her?” Nicklas asked as he watched her skate around the rink.

She moved with grace he hadn’t seen in a long time. He watched as she extended one leg above her head and the top half of her body bent down to grasp her right ankle on the ice. The amazing part was she was skating backwards, and she wasn’t running into anything. She moved from that position to a sitting spin with her left leg extended out. After about ten seconds of spinning unbelievably fast, she lifted her left leg into the air behind her and reached back with both hands to grab her skate.

“Yeah, that’s her,” Bjorn said and turned to look at her. “She’s too scared to do anything. I can feel the fight in her, but something’s holding her back. She needs to cut loose and have a good time, I think.”

“I still don’t see how I come in,” Nicklas said.

“Take her out to the city,” Bjorn said. “Give her some quality people time. She spends her days here and her nights at home. She studies a lot, but I know her heart is here on the ice. I want to bring that back out.”

“I’ve got games and practice,” Nicklas said, meaning with his team, the Washington Capitals.

“Then take her to a game or something,” Bjorn said, shrugging. “We’re less than an hour from Washington, take her and do something. Talk to her or screw her, I don’t care.”

“What the hell man,” Nicklas said, laughing.

“Just try, okay?”

“Fine,” Nicklas said and moved to a bench.

From his bag, he pulled out his skates and took off his shoes. Once he was laced up, he moved to the opening in the ice and skated out on it, testing the ice.

When Annalisa realized someone else was on the ice, she stopped and saw Nicklas skating around. He stopped right in front of her.

“Show me something,” he said, smiling.

“Who are you?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

“Nicklas Backstrom,” he said extending his hand out for her to shake it. She just looked at it. “I play hockey for the Washington Capitals.”

“The NHL team?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, the very same,” he said with a smile, his accent coming out.

“Why are you in Maryland?” she asked and he pulled his hand back, realizing she wasn’t going to shake it.

“I’m here to visit Bjorn. He’s a real good friend of mine, and we’ve got a couple of days off from the schedule, and I decided to come see him.”

“Oh, alright,” Annalisa said.

Something shifted inside her and she realized later that it was jealousy. She’d never had many friends growing up and seeing Nicklas here to visit Bjorn made her sad. Sure, she had people she called friends like Cordelia and she could call Skye a friend, but they were never close. The two of them only seemed to want to come around when something bad was going on and they could gloat about it.

She skated away from him and continued to stretch, trying a few jumps here and there.
Nicklas watched the girl skate around the rink and noted how sad she seemed to get after their conversation. Something about the girl intrigued him and found himself not being able to pull his eyes away from her. Bjorn had let it slip that something had happened to her in one of her competitions and she hasn’t skated since then. The only reason she was now was because her father was making her.

He sensed a small spirit burning somewhere deep inside her. She gave off the vibes that she was tough and no one could touch her. He wanted to see where that came from and what was underneath.

“Show me something,” he hollered again.

She turned around to watch him as she skated backwards. She pulled her eyes away from his form and spun around, picking up speed. She pushed off of her skates as hard as she could and split her legs as far and as wide as they would go before coming back down to the ice. She skated around and stopped short of where he was standing.

“That was interesting, but not very impressive,” he said, smiling.

“You piss me off,” she said with a huff.

“And you bore me,” he said as he skated right up to her so he could lean in her ear. “This is why hockey players are better than figure skaters. We’re not afraid to take risks.”

She felt him skate away from her as her mouth fell open. She’d never met anyone with more nerve than this guy. She made a face as she mocked what he’d said and skated around the rink.

She passed him standing next to Bjorn and both males heard her call out.

“I’ll show you a risk, asshole.”

Annalisa skated around them, spraying a bit of ice in their direction, but not enough to reach them. She went through a few rotations and simple jumps before she turned around. She was at the opposite side of the rink but she could feel them watching her. She took off at full speed and went through a few motions she remembered from her routine at Championships. She felt her body move on its own and her arms were out beside her as she skated backwards, her left leg extended a bit behind her. She glanced over her left shoulder and her left leg swung in towards her right leg.

She swung her body around, landed on her left leg and pushed upward, bringing her arms across her chest and willing her body to spin around. She counted three spins before she landed on her right leg, her left one swinging around as she let her body spin on the ice, her arms out on either side of her. The smile wouldn’t leave her face.
Bjorn’s face made her laugh. His mouth was hanging open as if he was so astonished. He’d only been trying to get her to do the triple axel for two months, and she finally did it.

“You did it,” Bjorn said to Nicklas. “I don’t know how you did it, but she hasn’t attempted that trick since she broke her ankle.”

“Just piss her off.”

“I have pissed her off; she wouldn’t do it.”

“Then apparently you’re not pissing her off right,” Nicklas said with a smile.

He skated to where Annalisa was drinking from her water bottle. She’d pulled herself up to sit on the wall lining the ice. Her skates were barely visible underneath her legwarmers and he could almost see muscles bulging through her tights. She had a thin shirt underneath her cut-off hoodie and a scarf around her neck. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and she had a smug smile on her face.

“That was a cute trick,” he said.

“That was the trick that broke my ankle,” was her comeback.

Nicklas was quiet for a few minutes while he looked at her.

“What?” she asked.

“You wanna go grab something to eat?”