Page 2 of Side By Side

“It’s expensive. And we get help through the scholarship program, but it’s still expensive. I keep hearing my parents talk about money at home, so… I don’t know. I might only have one shot at this.”

“Olympics?”

“Yeah,” Belle had said. “But if it’s not me, I do hope it’ll be you. You’ve been… nice to me, at least.”

“I have?” She’d smiled at Belle.

Belle had turned on the bench to face her and said, “Yeah. You brought me hot chocolate at that competition, even though we weren’t supposed to have it.”

Her crush had laughed, and Belle had felt butterflies at the sound of it.

“You said you liked it but didn’t have it because of the sugar. I thought we could split one and it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“It was nice,” Belle had said.

“Yeah, it was,” she’d replied with a smile. “You’re really good, you know? You’re the best one here.”

“No, I’m not.” Belle had laughed.

Her crush had moved forward on the bench, getting closer to Belle.

“Yes, you are. You’re years ahead of everyone else. The way you move out there – it’s like you were meant to be on the ice.”

“It feels that way sometimes,” Belle had said.

“I love it so much,” her crush had replied. “But I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t medal in the Games. My mom… She… And then, there’s my sister. I just…” She’d looked away.

For whatever reason, Belle had reached for her then. She’d cupped her cheek, leaned in, and kissed her just above where her hand had ended up. Then, she’d quickly pulled away with wide eyes and swallowed. Her crush had looked just as scared as Belle probably had for a moment, but then she’d leaned in, and she’d kissed Belle on the lips. It had been so quick, Belle had almost missed it when her crush had leaned forward just an inch, and their lips had connected.

“What the–”

Belle had pulled back. Three skaters from the program had just walked into the room and had witnessed them kissing.

“Were you two just kissing?” One of them had laughed. “Whoa!”

“Gross,” another one had said.

“Um…” Belle had started.

“She just kissed me.” Her crush had shot up off the bench and practically run over to the other girls. “Gross, right? I don’t even know why she did it.”

“She’s one of those, probably,” the first girl had said.

Belle’s heart had raced, and she hadn’t known what to do, so she’d gotten up and she’d run while four girls behind her laughed, and she no longer had felt the butterflies at hearing that sound.

“Belle?” her dad yelled.

“Hey, Dad!” she yelled back and skated over toward him.

“Your practice is in twenty minutes. You need to change your skates,” he said. “And, you know, into your gear.” He pointed. “Can’t play hockey in that.” He pointed to her long-sleeved T-shirt and leggings.

“It’s in twenty? No way.” She looked up at the clock below the scoreboard. “Damn. I lost track of time.”

“Don’t you always? Go get yourself a cup of coffee before the guys get here,” he said of her hockey team. “When you’re done, let’s go over the upcoming events. I want to make sure everything is looking good for the season.”

“Yeah, okay,” Belle replied.

She went into the women’s locker room and opened the locker that was always her locker. Her name was there on a strip of tape, but no one would ever remove it since she was the owner’s daughter. She changed into her hockey stuff and made her way back out just as the guys on her intramural team were starting to hit the ice.

---