The Point of No Return

“Alright, kid. There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Bjorn said as they pulled into their parking spot.

Annalisa nodded as she got out of the car. She grabbed her bag from the back and walked beside him, stoically, as they entered the venue in Boston.

They’d been here for two days in order for her to get rid of jetlag and be completely prepared for the competition today.

In reality, she was dreading today. She wished Nicklas was here, but knew he wouldn’t be.
Since he kissed her before Christmas, she hadn’t let him come near the training facility. She hadn’t answered his calls or texts and really, she didn’t understand why. She shook her head; she knew why. He’d kissed her. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

Before Nicklas, the only person she’d ever had feelings for was Marcus and he’d shunned her. He’d broken her heart. At first, she thought it was because she was still in love with him, then she realized how immature she was being and that if Marcus had feelings for her, he wouldn’t have left.

She shook off her thoughts as she got dressed. She stretched a bit and sat down as she tied up her skates. Beside her, her phone started buzzing. She glanced down to see she had a text message. Clicking it open, she saw it was from Nicklas.

I know you won’t respond, but do something for me today.

Before she could even move to hit the reply button, another one came in.

Look fear in the face today and tell it you just don’t care because you’re going to win. Good luck, Annalisa.

She couldn’t help but to smile as she placed her things in her duffel bag and headed down the steps to meet with Bjorn. He took her bag from her and walked with her to the ice.

“Just warm up now, kid,” Bjorn said as she exhaled. “Worry about everything else when we get to it.”

She nodded, smiled, and stepped onto the ice. She looked all around her as she made a circle around the rink. Girls were wearing different colors, all kinds of makeup, but the one thing that was the same was the hair. All the girls had their hair severely pulled back into buns or ponytails. Annalisa felt out of place with her curled hair half pulled back out of her face.

She exhaled and attempted a few spins as she made her way around the rink. Her eyes fell on Bjorn who smiled at her. She returned the smile and her eyes moved around, landing on Natalia. Beside her, Marcus stood in his beautiful glory.

She almost missed a step as her eyes watched him. Neither one of them even glanced her way as she skated past them. She glanced back when she was well past them and saw Natalia glance over her own shoulder to smile maliciously at Annalisa.

Once warm-ups were done, she stepped off the ice and into the jacket Bjorn held open for her. Her dad came up to wish her luck and hug her before he headed back to the stands. Bjorn left her to make sure everything was in order and to get her number badge.

She placed the covers on the blade of her skates in order to wait for the competition to start. As she stood up to straighten herself out, Marcus stood in front of her.

“Annalisa,” he breathed out, smiling. “Wow, you look amazing.”

“Thanks,” she said as the air expelled from her lungs.

“How are you?” he asked, but his glance was on her ankle.

“All healed,” she said with a smile and held out her ankle.

“That’s great.”

They stared at each other with increasing awkwardness and Annalisa opened her mouth to tell him she needed to leave, but he beat her to speaking.

“I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry about how I was before. I was a complete jerk and abandoned you when you needed me the most. I realize now that I shouldn’t have left like that and I feel bad for it. I think you have the potential to be great, Lisa, and I want to be your coach. Natalia doesn’t have what it takes. She’s not my ice angel.”

Annalisa was speechless. She’d waited years for him to come back…but why did it suddenly seem pointless?

She didn’t have time to respond as Bjorn walked up at that same moment.

“Here, girl,” he said gruffly but fondly. He realized someone was standing there and he turned to face Marcus. “Who are you?”

“I’m Marcus,” he said, sticking his hand out.

“Bye, asshole,” Bjorn said in his thickened accent and turned around to face an astonished Annalisa.

“Think about what I said,” Marcus said over Bjorn’s shoulder and he turned around.

Bjorn waved his hand in a dismissal over his shoulder and Annalisa’s eyes were brought back to his. In the background, she could hear people already competing.

“You’re one of the last ones, Annalisa, and I want you to go out and have fun. Don’t think about the people or the judges or impressing anyone. Go out there and do what you were born to do; do what you do best.”

“You called me Annalisa,” she said with a fond smile on her face.

“I’ll call you a lot better than that if you skate your hardest.”

She smiled at him and turned to watch the girl who was performing. In her mind, she went over her whole routine. She’d chosen a song by Pink that she’d heard before and fell in love with. Of course, at Championships, you can’t have any lyrics in your music, but she’d listened to the song so much that she had the words memorized. While she was practicing, she’d put different moves with the words and that’s how she was able to remember what to do next.

The applause of the crowd brought her out of her reverie and she subconsciously lifted her hands to clap along with them. She stood up and took off her jacket, shaking her hands and hopefully her nerves.

For being accepted into Championships, Bjorn had bought her a brand new costume. It was a long-sleeved deep purple silk costume with a small skirt. Around the bottom instead of sequins, a row of silver glitter coated the hem. Around the top of her chest was the same row of glitter that faded into a see-through silver mesh around her neck. Her eyes were coated in purple glitter and her hair was pinned back with a purple clip to complete the ensemble.

She heard her name over the PA system, and she stepped onto the ice. She huffed out a breath and skated around for a minute, letting the announcer do his job. As she passed where Natalia and Marcus were standing, she happened to overhear their conversation.

“I can’t believe she’s here,” Natalia said and Annalisa heard the disgust.

“She doesn’t matter, my angel,” Marcus said.

Annalisa saw red. Natalia wasn’t his ice angel, huh? She moved back to the entrance where Bjorn was standing. She bent down and adjusted her tights around her ankles, making sure her ankle brace was in place. She knew she didn’t need it, but just in case she did, she’d worn it.

“This is the point of no return, kid. Make it count and shine. Do your thing,” Bjorn said as he reached over the wall and hugged her.

She skated out to the center of the ice and raised her hands as the crowd clapped for her. She smiled brightly as she took her pose, ready for the music to begin.

As soon as it did, her body took off on its’ own and she began to count in her head, singing mentally to herself. She twirled around and at the drop of the hook, she started her first jump. She nailed it perfectly, landing on one leg and her arms coming out wide.

She’d nailed every trick thus far, and two-thirds of the way through her routine she was feeling more than comfortable. As she sang along in her head, she realized how much Nicklas had paid attention to her. He may not have been in the building or around when she chose her song, but he’d obviously asked Bjorn what song she was skating to, because he’d sent her lyrics from the song. When they were in New York, they’d been in Madison Square Garden when he’d called her sugar.

Suddenly, the smile wouldn’t wipe off of her face. She pushed herself harder for the last stretch of her routine. She was coming up on her triple axel combination and she huffed out her breath, leaving her lungs empty as she pushed off of her right foot and flew into the air.

She spun around three times before coming down, landing on her right foot and then pushing herself back up in the air, spinning again another three times. Her right leg bent slightly as she landed, but she pushed herself back up, the smile never leaving her face as she landed both of her triple axels.

She could hear Bjorn behind her, screaming and cheering and she finished her last bit of fluff before turning into her sit spin. She stood up, placed both hands on her hips and smiled broadly as she ended her routine.

She waved to the crowd, bowed to the judges and skated back to where Bjorn had the door open for her, his arms stretched wide. He wrapped her in a hug and pulled her to the bench so she could put on her jacket and wait for her score.

“Darling, you were simply amazing,” he said as she slipped on the blade covers for her skates.

She reached into his crooked arm and linked her hand with his while she waited for her scores. She glanced over and saw Natalia moving up to get ready to skate and raised an eyebrow at her rival.

Her score was posted and she couldn’t help the scream that escaped her lips as she realized she was in first place with only two skaters left. She felt Bjorn’s arms wrap around her and she couldn’t stop staring at the board with her score posted. She listened to the roar of the crowd and stuck her hand up, waving to them as they cheered.

She heard the music as Natalia started her routine and she stood up with Bjorn. He grabbed her bag and headed back to the waiting room. She picked up the few things she had around her and turned to follow Bjorn. Marcus, unfortunately, blocked her path. Glancing back out over the ice, Natalia was still in the middle of her routine.

“Have you thought about what I asked?”

“Huh?”

“Did you think about me being your coach again?”

“Marcus, I literally just got off the ice. I haven’t had time to think—”

“Please,” he said as he moved in closer to her.

She looked up at him, into his green eyes that she used to love so much…but then a pair of lighter green eyes popped into her brain. She thought of Nicklas and his smile. She imagined how he always slicked back his hair, even if he was wearing a hat and how much he loved his Washington Capitals hoodie.

She thought about the kiss he’d given her and the tingle it left her with still to this day, almost a month later. She instantly didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she’d left him that night in New York. She didn’t love Marcus; she’d been infatuated with him because he’d shown her attention at the time. Nicklas, on the other hand, had been her friend first. He found out her likes and dislikes and shared everything with her.

A movement over Marcus’ left shoulder drew her attention and she saw Nicklas in the stands, waving at her next to her father. She smiled and waved back at them both.

“Annalisa,” Marcus said and her focus snapped back to him.

“What?”

“I said I love you,” Marcus repeated.

“Excuse me?” Annalisa asked him and drew back away from him.

To her left, Natalia had finished her routine and was coming off of the ice, expecting Marcus to be there for her, but here he was confessing his “love” to his former skater. Her eyes were drawn back to Nicklas who was still standing next to her father, both of them smiling and she wondered what she was doing.

“Well?” Marcus said, breaking through her thoughts again. “What do you have to say?”

She looked back at Marcus. “Go fuck yourself, Marcus.”

She didn’t care if she missed his face of astonishment or not, because she brushed past him and with the smile on her face moved toward Nicklas. She couldn’t go much further because of her skates and without much effort she ripped the laces apart and peeled them off her feet.

In her stocking clad feet, costume and jacket, she ran through the throngs of people until she was only feet away from him. As he was coming down the stairs, he glanced up and saw her standing at the bottom of them. The smile almost reached his ears as he recognized her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he trotted down the last few steps to her.

“I’m competing,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“No, I mean…You should be waiting down there with Bjorn.”

“He can wait.”

“What about the competition?”

“It can wait, too,” she said and stepped closer to him.

“Wait for what?” he asked, thoroughly confused.

“This,” she said as she reached up on her tip-toes and wrapped her hands around his neck.

Her lips crashed into his and the world disappeared. She didn’t hear the crowd, nor did she hear the music of the final skater. The only thing she focused on was the way her lips melded perfectly with his and how great it felt to kiss him.

“I love you,” she whispered as she pulled away for air.

She felt him smile and she leaned back in.

Behind her, the last skater had gone, and the results were posted. The crowd cheered as her name was announced for the first place skater. She didn’t hear it because she was so wrapped up.

She pulled away and held her breath as she looked at him. She couldn’t believe she could be this happy, but she was.

“I wonder if it will ever get better than tonight,” she said out loud.

Nicklas just shrugged and their attention was brought to the big screen where a camera was focused on them. To the right, she could see her name in the first place position.

“You won!” Nicklas said, laughing as he looked at her.

“I don’t care,” she said and she pulled him back in for another kiss.