Glasses.

16

"Taylor!" Chase yells from downstairs, disapproval clear in his tone. "You said five minutes, fifteen minutes ago."

The brunette huffs in annoyance as she runs across the room awkwardly, her other heeled boot was nowhere to be found. So there she was rummaging through her rack for the nth time one foot bare. Grunting in defeat, she turns to lean her body against the rack and looks up in agony at the thought of having to wear a different pair – ones that don't match her outfit better than what she originally had in mind.

Just then, she spots a quarter of a black footwear above her. The rest were hidden by the closet it was perched on but Taylor grins at the familiar sight. There it was. "Sneaky little thing," she smiles.

"Taylor!"

"Jesus!" Taylor yells back, pushing her foot in the boot as Chase ranted about her inability to keep track of time at her age. And how she was going to be miserable when she lives alone in college because no one would remind her. "I'm coming!"

When Taylor gets out of the house her younger brother was already in the shotgun of the car, a scowl evident on his face. "Gheez you're so grumpy. Are you meeting a girl? Is that it?" she asks as she buckles herself in.

"I could ask you the same thing, why are you dressed all up?" He gestures to her. It was true, Taylor took nearly an hour taking a bath, thirty choosing her outfit, and another twenty actually wearing them. "We're literally only going ice skating."

"What? I'm not meeting anyone," She says defensively and pulls out of the garage. "I would just like to go out not looking like a caveman thank you very much." Half lie. Of course Taylor wanted to look decent whenever she went out. The brunette just put more effort into prepping herself today because she was very well aware a certain blonde was going to be there.

Some days Taylor felt truly bad. Desiring someone that wasn't hers, that was owned by another. And that other being one of the nicest and most genuine people Taylor has ever met. Laurens didn't deserve that. In many ways she was betraying him. Nothing about her love for Romee was going to do anyone good, Taylor knew that. But loving Romee, being there for her, made her feel full of life and invincibility.

When the siblings arrived to the rink, they weren't surprised to see a couple of their friends on their bums against the cold hard ice. One of them was Romee.

"What took you guys so long?" Jas yelled from where she held the steel against the see-through barricade. Taylor knew she wasn't going to move an inch until her boyfriend would come get her from her position. The thought made her laugh aloud.

"Taylor." Chase snitched and proceeded to change into his ice skates after his sister.

The brunette then put on her white beanie and gloves for extra warmth since she got cold easily and the weather was not helping either. She then pushed herself on the ice, gliding across the area with ease as the group watched in amusement.

"Show off," Romee teases from where she sat on the ice. Taylor puts her hand against her chest in fake offense and skates towards her in great speed. Romee stares in horror, the brunette was heading straight toward her and when she crashes Romee's sure bones would break and it would mostly be hers and not Taylor. But at the very last moment Taylor positions her left leg slightly behind and tilts it to form a T shape with the blades of the skates bringing her to a complete stop. "Oh my god."

"I don't think you're in the position to be messing with me Romee," the brunette warns lightheartedly and offers her hand out. "Get up."

The blonde took her hand and stood upright as the rest followed suit. "Thank god you arrived, I'm gonna go rest with the guys." Laurens says excitedly as he approaches Taylor. "Would that be okay with you, Taylor?"

"Uhm," Taylor nods her head after a while. "Yeah sure no problem."

"Hmm...she's kind of handful this one," Laurens says and kisses the top of the blonde's head while she groaned in annoyance. "I'm kidding, you take care of each other okay? Don't break your legs."

"So you're a bad skater huh?" Taylor asks rhetorically when Laurens jogs over to where the guys were. She circles around the blonde and Romee had to turn little steps to be able to face her.

"I'm not a bad skater," Romee disagrees and looks down at her feet positioned awkwardly beneath her. She was trying so hard not to move as she was sure she'd come crashing right back down on the ice. And she'd rather not have that happen, especially in front of the pair. "I just haven't learned to yet."

"Okay," Taylor hums in response and raises her arms to her side slightly in front of the other girl. "Take my hands. I'll guide you as you move around."

"Wait, what do I do?" She asks nervously, gripping Taylor's hands harder than she intended to when she abruptly moved forward. "Sorry." She mutters sheepishly.

"Just move your legs. Don't think too much about falling, you won't. I'm right here to guide you so focus on getting yourself to move little distances. You'll get the hang of it soon, I promise."

But Romee wasn't perfect and she stumbled four – maybe five times. Crashing into Taylor every now and then, the brunette knew Romee had no hope of learning skating. At least not today. And still Taylor encouraged her to continue on.

"I think I'm getting better."

"Yep, that's real progress right there." Taylor hums in agreement. "I can see it."

"I know right? Earlier I-," Romee stops mid-sentence when she realizes the brunette wasn't serious at all. "Oh my god you were fucking with me."

"I definitely was."

"You suck," Romee groans in fake annoyance. "You really really suck."

"Not as much as you suck in skating, no?"

"That says a lot about you as an instructor don't you think?" the blonde smirks when Taylor narrows her eyes. "You failed as a teacher because you failed to teach me, aha!" Romee was pretty impressed with her retort. On the other hand, Taylor just thought she was pretty cute.

"Okay whatever," Taylor doesn't even try to argue with the older girl just so she won't hurt any more of her ego. "Let's grab something to eat, that's the only thing you're good at."

Taylor smirks when Romee turns to face her, clearly offended. But she laughs and pushes the brunette to the ground hard, the action was so abrupt Romee was unable to calculate her steps and ends up falling right after her friend.

"Oh jesus," Taylor groans out in pain as she looks up at Romee. The older girl took not even a quarter of the impact, the brunette took almost all of it. "That really hurt."

"You're such a big baby," Romee laughs and glides her pointer finger on the ground to take scrapped ice on, she reaches forward and bops it unto Taylor's nose. "Cute."

Heat rises to Taylor's cheeks, and it intensifies every second Romee kept her eyes on her. The brunette looks away to calm herself down and looks back up to see the older girl still staring. "Pretty, really pretty," Taylor lets out and this time Romee averts her gaze.

Taylor laughs to herself and gently taps the blonde's shoulders, "Okay now get off I can't take this pain anymore."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"No genius, your elbow has been practically poking my ribs for five straight minutes."

"Fine sorry," Romee gets off and helps Taylor up. "Let's get some ice cream. My treat."

"Is this year way of saying you're sorry?" Taylor smirks when her friend scoffs. She shrugs after a little while and the brunette's smirk grows deeper. "I'll forgive you, only if you give me another one of your piggyback rides."

"Okay, piggyback ride and no ice cream."

"No," Taylor inserts and corrects the blonde. "Piggyback ride and ice cream."

"You are so hard to please."

"Don't worry, you're doing an excellent job so far."