Fall of Rome

The bus stopped right at the lift, which we would be taking to get to the slopes of the impossibly steep mountain. There were several different lifts and each of them took them to a specific section of the mountain, from beginner to expert. I was happy to find that the lift Dylan and I would be taking to the baby slopes was the smallest one of them all.

“We’re gonna be pretty high off the ground for a bit,” Dylan said as he reached a hand out to guide me forward. “Will you be alright?”

I nodded my head as we took another step, so we were the very next skiers in line to get on the lift “I should be.”

Dylan smiled back at me and didn’t take his hand off of my arm until I was safely seated on the lift. It was much more difficult for him to get on than it was for me, because he was holding both sets of our skis, which we were waiting until we got to the top to put on.

Unfortunately, the lift looked a lot less high when we were on the ground, and it was only when I looked down that I realized just how high we were. Dylan seemed to sense my sudden tensing, and he smiled at me. “It’s gonna be alright. We’re almost there.”

I kept my eyes forward until we reached the end of the lift where we would both have to jump off. Dylan tried his best to get ready with our skis in his hands while still keeping one hand on me, but eventually had to take it off.

When the resort worker signaled for me to jump down, I tried my best not to panic and slid slowly off the chair. My feet landed with a small thud, and I was pleased to find that the experience was not nearly as frightening as I had originally expected it to be.

Dylan didn’t have as much luck as I did, and the second he hopped to the ground, his feet slipped underneath him and he landed right on his back. I was struggling between falling over in laughter at the sight of him and checking to see if he was okay, but quickly decided on the latter when I saw him clutching his back behind him.

I quickly leaned over him, pressing my hand to his cheek as he looked at me. “Are you alright?”

He nodded his head, though a small grimace was on his face. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just got the wind knocked out of me.”

My face fell as he spoke, because the last thing I wanted was for Dylan to get physically injured while we were on our vacation. Dylan noticed and reached his hand up to my cheek, rubbing over it with his thumb. “I’m fine, El. Really.”

With that, he leaned up before reaching his hand out to me to help him up. I quickly stood and grabbed onto his hand, though he hardly used any of my weight to pull himself up.

“You need to get your gloves on,” Dylan said as he pointed down at my hands. “Your fingers are getting red.”

He reached his hands out to mine and wrapped them around his, rubbing his palms over my fingers to try to warm them up. He brought them up to his lips and blew over them as kept his eyes on me. We stayed like that for several moments until he finally pulled his hands away.

“You better put them on before they get cold again.”

I chuckled at him as I pulled my gloves out of the pocket of my hideous snowsuit. “What about yours?”

“Don’t you worry about me,” he said, as he helped me pull the gloves over my fingers. “I just wanna make sure you don’t freeze to death.”

I smiled at him as he picked our skis up off the ground and began walking over to a small hill where we could fit them over our boots. He helped me put mine on first, careful to make sure he wasn’t hurting me or being too rough, and then put on his own.

The fact that neither of us had skied before made the experience a little bit more terrifying, and I was nervously waiting for the time that we’d actually have to stand up.

“Wait right here,” Dylan said, lifting himself to his feet as if he’d done it a thousand times before. “I’m gonna make sure I’ve got the hang of it before I try to help you.”

Nodding my head, I watched as Dylan used his skis to push himself across the thick layer of snow. Anyone going by us wouldn’t have known that it was his first time, because he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. He brushed back to me with a smile on his face, reaching his hand out for me.

“Alright, just keep your feet down and let me pull you up.”

I blinked nervously as I grabbed onto Dylan’s hand, fully prepared to go crashing back to the ground. By some miracle, Dylan managed to get me to my feet, but it didn’t get any easier from there. My legs wobbled as I tried to find my center of balance, and I nearly fell forward before Dylan caught me.

Placing one hand on my back and the other around my elbow, Dylan tried to help steady me, bringing me as close to him as he could without me losing my balance again.

“There you go,” he said, his face so close to mine that I could see the fog of his breath as it left his mouth. “Now try to straighten up.”

I tried to lift myself up and lock my knees, but that only made my balance worse and I gripped onto Dylan’s shoulders to keep from falling.

“It’s alright, El. I’ve got you.” He moved his hands to my waist to hold onto me while my hands stayed on his shoulders. “We’re going to move a little now.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Dylan, even as nervous as I was, because he was doing everything he could to try to help me. I was a complete failure and probably not making it any easier on him, but he smiled like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“What if I fall?” I asked, as he began sliding back, which moved me forward.

He chuckled, holding onto my waist more tightly. “Then I’ll catch you.” He paused for a moment before smiling again. “But you’re not going to fall.”

We stayed on the flat surface for well over an hour, with Dylan pulling me back and forth, before he decided it was time to try to go down the baby slope. It wasn’t steep by any means, but compared to the snow I had gotten used to, it was a big change. I was nervous, and rightfully so.

“It’ll be alright, El. I’ll be right next to you the whole time.”

Dylan was still holding onto my elbow as he guided me towards the beginning of the slope. My heart was beginning to pound in my chest, and despite the fact that it was so cold outside, my body felt like it was on fire.

“You won’t let go, will you?”

Dylan chuckled and shook his head as held onto me more tightly. “Of course not.” He stopped just before we got to the slope and looked into my eyes. “Are you ready?”

My knees were shaking in nervousness, which certainly wasn’t going to help me any, but I nodded my head anyway. “I think so.”

“Just remember I’m right here,” he said as he inched forward a bit more. “I’m not gonna leave you.”

His eyes moved down to my feet and I knew he wasn’t going to move anymore unless I was the one doing the moving, so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and pushed.

I’m not sure if it was the feeling of falling forward or the fact that I was unprepared that caused me to panic, but just seconds after we began going downhill I was already beginning to fall. Dylan did his best to steady me, but I was a hopeless case.

In my state of panic, I reached for the closest thing to me, which just happened to be Dylan. I clutched onto his shoulders, hoping he’d be able to keep me up, but I just threw him off. We were both falling to the ground and there was nothing either of us could do about it.

We crashed down onto the snow, with me on top of Dylan and too startled to move for several seconds afterwards. Dylan just chuckled as he looked at me, and he didn’t seem nearly as taken aback by the situation as I was.

His eyes looked into mine and he smiled, as he reached up to flick a bit of snow off of my cheek. “See, El, I told you I’d catch you.”

My breath was falling in heavy, warm breaths and I felt too frozen to do anything. All I could do was look at Dylan as he laid beneath me, a thousand memories rushing through my mind. His face was just so close to mine and his lips looked so warm and kissable. His cheeks were that perfect shade of red and I just wanted to reach out and touch them.

“You alright?” Dylan asked, smiling a bit as he moved his hand up to touch his cheek again.

His words snapped me out of a trance and I nodded my head quickly before rolling off of him. I would’ve stood up if I could, but I couldn’t do that by myself and I needed to get off of him as quickly as I could.

“I’m getting really cold,” I said, looking over at Dylan as he began finagling with his skis.

“Let’s take these off and we can walk down the hill,” he said, as he slipped his skis off his feet so he was sitting only his boots. He moved over to me and began tugging at the straps of mine. “Then we can go inside and get warmed up.”

The walk down the hill was much less terrifying than the lift up, but the bus ride back to the resort was more crowded than it had been when we left. I didn’t care, though, because I was just thankful for the warmth that the resort would bring. Most of all, I couldn’t wait to get back to our room where we could start a fire and stand so close to it that we’d almost melt.