Kiss and Cry by Ramona Lipson Page B

sort of knew the positions my body was expected to contort into. Ryan nodded as he took my hand preparing for the spin. He assumed a pivot position and held me with his right hand spinning me in large circles as I started lowering my body parallel with the ice. “Lower, lower, lower,” Coach Hicks instructed.
    We practiced that five or six more times, the entire time our coach was yelling at me to go lower. Ryan was encouraging me to follow Coach Hicks instructions, but he wasn’t the one being put in the compromising position. If I were to fall or he were to let go of me, it would be my head on that hard ice surface not his.
    “You’re going to have to work on that, you’re still too high,” Coach Hicks said. The sound of the Zamboni’s motor turned over and the music stopped. Our session finished. “Good job today,” Coach Hicks congratulated us. We rushed to our dressing rooms to shower and change for school.
    When we got back into the car, Ryan’s arm went back on my headrest as he backed out of his spot, but this time he didn’t leave it there. I turned his stereo on and we listened to the traffic and weather on 680 News before Ryan turned it off, “I need you to know something,” Ryan said.
    “What’s that?” I asked.
    His expression grew serious and his dark chocolate eyes locked on mine, he grabbed my hand firmly, “I won’t let anything happen to you when we’re together, you can trust me completely. You HAVE to trust me, with lifts, throws, everything.”
    “It’s not something that comes easily to me. I’ve never had to trust anyone so blindly before, but I’ll try.” I promised.
    Ryan pulled into the school parking lot and parked right next to Adam’s Mustang, AGAIN. This time I noticed him in the car, waiting. My heart began crashing into my ribcage at phenomenal rates of speed. The confrontation was inevitably going to happen since I hadn’t built up the nerve or found the time to come clean with Ryan, but I didn’t expect for some kind of confrontation to happen. I wanted to prevent this!
    We all got out of the car at the same time. Ryan came to my side and placed his arm over my shoulders. His muscle was pushing into the back of my neck, and this time it felt uncomfortable but I didn’t move. Deadlocked, Adam stared us down expecting for something to happen. I assumed he was waiting for Ryan to remove his arm, but he didn’t.
    Adam looked at me, “You told me HE knows.”
    “You are?” Ryan asked either of us.
    Adam informed him,“Dalia’s BOYFRIEND!”
    Ryan turned to me,“You told us you didn’t have one. You gave me your word before we agreed to this.”
    “Who’s us?” pressed Adam.
    “None of your fucking business,” Ryan snapped.
    “I didn’t get a chance to tell you,” I tried explaining to Ryan. “Why do you care if I have a boyfriend anyway? It doesn’t bother me if you have a girlfriend,” I argued.
    “It bothers me because I’ve trained my entire life for a chance to compete at this level, and I’m not wasting my time with someone who doesn’t want it just as badly as I do. There’s no room for divided loyalties in this partnership. It has to mean everything to you the way it does me or it’s going to work. So it’s either him or me.”
    “That’s not fair,” I balked.
    Ryan removed his arm from my shoulders and walked away not looking back.
    “I warned you,” Adam reminded me. He placed his arm around my shoulders and escorted me to homeroom.
     
    Contemplating
     
    I didn’t go in to homeroom, I couldn’t. I had to find Ryan and talk to him. He was being irrational. I stopped dead in my tracks in the doorframe of our classroom. Adam complained, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming in?”
    I looked into his eyes, “I have to find Ryan and explain to him how irrational he’s being, our relationship depends on it.” I left Adam to run from classroom to classroom while the static with the national anthem played on the overhead