Remember to Forget, Revised and Expanded (33 page)
We get to the rink, and Mitchell is sitting on a bench waiting for us. He waves
excitedly when he sees us. He has a giant sweater on that goes way past his hands,
so he continuously tugs the sleeves up.
The rest of us get some skates and sit on the bench to put them on.
Everyone else gets their skates on with ease, but I stare at them in confusion.
“Guys,” I whisper.
“Yeah?” Delilah says, sounding concerned.
Caleb groans. “Levi, you better not say what I think you're going to say.”
“I can't tie the skates tight enough,” I mumble, struggling to tie the short laces.
Caleb starts laughing uncontrollably, to the point he's gasping for breath. I slap
his arm.
“It's not funny!” I tell him.
“It kind of is,” Aiden says, laughing too. He already has his skates on and is walking
around. I don't get how he's able to walk on the blades.
Delilah smiles. “I'll help. You don't know how to skate, do you?”
I shake my head.
Delilah smiles and ties the laces on my skates with ease.
“Now how do I stand up?” I whisper to Delilah.
She laughs and stands up in front of me. She holds out her hands to me. “Just hold
on tight and try to get balanced. It's not that difficult.”
I grab tightly onto Delilah's hands and try to get up, but fall back onto the bench.
“Let me try again,” I say, laughing.
I try again and manage to stand up. I hold on to Delilah's hand, and waddle awkwardly
over to the edge of the ice so I can hold tightly to the ledge.
“Can we just go out there already before I fall?” I ask.
“Y-You're probably g-gonna fall on the i-ice,” Mitchell says.
“But there's a wall to hold on to. I can do it.”
Aiden, Caleb, and Mitchell step onto the ice and skate away from Delilah and me.
Caleb looks back at us and gives me a thumbs-up.
Delilah steps into the rink and reaches her hands out toward me. “Just step slowly
onto the ice.”
“I'm gonna fall,” I whine.
“I won't let you fall. C'mon,” she says, smiling.
I reach for her hands and slowly step onto the frozen wasteland before me. I slip
a little with my first step, but Delilah grabs tightly to my hands. I'm not sure
how she stays balanced with me almost knocking her over.
“I don't like this,” I say, laughing. “It's weird.”
“You'll get used to it.”
It's supposed to be the other way around. I should be teaching Delilah how to skate.
It's embarrassing that I don't know how. I've never been skating before in my life.
I've never even been able to roller skate.
Delilah starts skating slowly. I'm somehow able to skate slowly with her, although
I lose my balance a lot. We're going very slowly so I don't fall, and she never lets
go of my hand.
“Your hand is very hard to hold with a mitten on,” Delilah tells me.
“Oh, well, I can fix it,” I say. I fold off the top of the mittens, since they're
the convertible kind.
“Much better,” Delilah says, entwining her fingers with mine.
We pick up the pace as I get more comfortable with skating, and I'm actually not
that bad. I thought I would constantly be falling, but I haven't yet. Caleb skates
quickly by us. He used to always go to indoor skating rinks when he was younger.
“Hot chocolate,” he whispers in my ear as he passes.
I roll my eyes.
“Do you want anything? Like hot chocolate?” I ask Delilah.
“Maybe in a little.”
“Okay.”
Suddenly, I completely lose my balance, and within a second I'm crashing onto the
ice. I land flat on my butt, and Delilah falls down with me. We both sit on the ice,
chuckling.
“I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” I say.
“You're such a klutz,” she laughs, standing up. She reaches down to help me, and
I can barely stand back up. I keep slipping, and I can't straighten my legs.
“I think it's time for hot chocolate,” I say, still sitting on the ice. I don't even
bother to stand up, I just crawl to the exit. I can hear Delilah laughing behind
me.
I get off the ice and sit down on the ground to take off my skates. Delilah sits
beside me. I brush off some ice that's on my pants and try to warm myself up.
“You're a goof too,” Delilah says, taking off her skates as well.
“You're the one who decided to sit on the floor with the goof, though,” I tell her.
She rolls her eyes and smiles.
“I saw that,” I hear Caleb say. I look up to see Caleb, Aiden, and Mitchell standing
above us.
“You fell too,” I say.
“At least I got myself back up.”
“I'm h-hungry,” Mitchell says abruptly.
“Me too. I want some nachos. Do you guys want anything?” Aiden asks.
“Two hot chocolates, please,” I tell him.
Aiden and Mitchell go over to the concessions, and Caleb goes to the bathroom. Delilah
and I find a table in the corner.
“Today was fun,” I tell her. “Thanks for teaching me how to skate.”
“You weren't too bad,” she says, leaning her head on my shoulder. “You just have
to figure out how to stand up after falling.”
“That was pretty embarrassing, wasn't it?” I say, turning my head so it's almost
hidden behind Delilah's.
“Kinda. It was cute though.”
I laugh, and we sit in silence. It's a nice silence, though. She's breathing slowly
while she's leaning against me. I take her hands inside mine and try to warm them
up like Caleb advised me to. Her hands are pretty cold.
Caleb walks over and sits down across from us. “How cute,” he says.
Delilah moves slightly, but doesn't pick her head up. I continue holding her hand
inside both of mine and set them on my lap.
Aiden and Mitchell come over with the food and give us our hot chocolates. Neither
of us move to drink it because we don't want to let go of each other's hands.
Delilah sighs and shifts closer to me.
“Are you tired?” I whisper.
“No. I just want to be closer to you.”
A
fter ice skating, we all went to Aiden's house. Each of us fell asleep while watching
a movie, and I when I wake up on the couch, Caleb is lying on the floor, and Aiden
is snoring in a chair. Mitchell is leaning against the stairs holding a stuffed animal,
and I'm not really sure how or where he found it.
I look around for Delilah, but she's not anywhere in the room. Maybe she went home.
I quietly get off the couch and step around Mitchell to get upstairs. I don't know
if anyone else in Aiden's family is awake right now, but I hope they're not.
I walk into the bathroom and almost scream when I see Delilah standing in there,
putting her hair up.
“Levi, what are you doing?” she whispers, slapping my chest.
“Why didn't you lock the door?” I ask.
“No one else was awake! It's only seven in the morning! I thought you always woke
up late!” she whisper-screams.
“I thought
you
would wake up late.”
She rolls her eyes and laughs. She quickly finishes putting her hair up and turns
to look at me. “Your hair really is messy in the morning.”
“Stop it,” I say. I quickly look in the mirror and try to fix it.
She ruffles my hair and messes it up even more. “Don't worry, it's cute.”
“No, it's not. You're just saying that.”
She laughs and shakes her head. She grabs my hand and pulls me out of the bathroom.
We head into the kitchen and see Aiden standing in front of the fridge.
“Hey, guys! Want anything?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“There's not much here. Maybe we can all go out for breakfast,” Delilah says while
looking into the fridge as well.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Aiden responds.
“They probably won't be up for a while,” Delilah tells us, walking into the living
room.
“You usually wake up late. Why are you up early?” I ask her.
“How do you know when I wake up?” she says.
I shrug. “You always respond to my texts late.”
“Okay, well, you're right. Aiden's snoring woke me up.” She sits down on the couch,
and I sit beside her.
“I do not snore!” Aiden defends himself.
I smile widely.
“Why are you smiling?” she asks, smiling now too.
“No reason. I'm just happy.”
I've been in Maine for around five months now, and I never would have thought that
this is how things would be. I thought I would be miserable and upset and hating
everything still. But now I'm talking and sitting beside a girl I really like, and
three of the best possible friends I could ask for are downstairs. It's amazing how
things turn out.
“I'm gonna go try to wake them up,” Aiden says, heading downstairs.
Delilah crosses her legs and reaches over to join her fingers with mine. I get butterflies
every time she does this.
“Does Caleb always talk in his sleep?” Delilah asks me.
I laugh. “Sometimes, I don't really know.”
“I've been meaning to ask you something,” she says abruptly.
“What is it?”
I get slightly nervous, because I'm not sure what she's going to ask me.
“Remember Thanksgiving?” she asks.
I nod.
“What did Lucy tell you?”
“What?” I'm not sure what she's talking about. That was the first day I met Lucy,
and she talked a lot.
“She said something that made you laugh. It was the first time I heard you make a
sound, let alone
laugh
.”
“Oh, I don't remember,” I say quickly.
“C'mon, I know you do,” she says while nudging my shoulder.
“It's really nothing important.”
“Pleeease?”
She looks at me with wide eyes and sticks out her bottom lip.
“Um, she asked if she could be the flower girl when you and I get married,” I mumble.
I feel my cheeks heat up.
Delilah laughs. “She did not!”
“She did.”
“That's so embarrassing!”
“It was cute.”
“What'd you say to her?!”
“I said yes,” I say, almost inaudibly. “Well, like, I nodded.”
Delilah smiles.
We stop talking when we see Caleb walking upstairs, with Aiden just behind.
“I couldn't wake Mitchell up. He kept telling me to leave,” Aiden tells us, laughing.
“Hello, lovebirds,” Caleb says groggily.
“Good morning, Caleb,” Delilah says.
“The floor is not comfortable,” Caleb says, sitting down on the couch across from
us.
“I slept nicely on the couch,” I say.
“Lucky you.”
“I slept up here because you all make too many noises in your sleep,” Delilah says.
“I don't,” I say defensively.
“You didn't. Caleb kept mumbling stuff, and Aiden and Mitchell snore.”
Caleb runs his hand through his hair. “Why do I keep talking in my sleep? What do
I say?”
Delilah shrugs. “I didn't understand anything you said. I don't think it was even
English.”
“I only speak English. I think you were dreaming,” Caleb says.
My stomach grumbles really loudly, and both of them turn to look at me. Delilah starts
laughing.
“Was that . . . your stomach?” she asks.
I nod. “I'm hungry!”
“Then let's go wake up Mitchell and go out for breakfast!” Delilah says.
“Yeah, I'm starving,” Caleb says, standing up.
Caleb runs down the stairs and taps Mitchell on the shoulder.
Mitchell pushes Caleb's hand away. “L-Let me sl-sleep,” he murmurs. He hugs the stuffed
animal closer to him.
“We're going out for breakfast,” Delilah says.
Mitchell sits up and looks at the stuffed animal in confusion. “Wh-What is this?”
“That's Hunter's. I don't know where you found it,” Aiden says, laughing.
Mitchell shrugs and gently puts it down on the stairs.
“Where are we going for breakfast?” Aiden asks. He grabs his sweatshirt off a chair
and pulls it over his head.
Delilah shrugs. “Wherever you guys want to go.”
“I don't know what's around here,” Caleb says, “but I want pancakes.”
“I know the perfect place! Let's go!” Aiden says.
We all get our jackets and head to Aiden's car. Mitchell sits in the passenger seat,
and Caleb, Delilah, and I squish into the back.
Aiden drives down a road that I'm kind of familiar with. I realize we're going to
the little diner that Delilah and I went to a while ago.
“I remember this place,” I whisper to her. For some reason, it makes me really happy
that we're going here.
She nods. “That was the day we walked on the beach.”
I nod quickly. I can't stop smiling. I like that she remembers too.
We go inside and sit at a table in the back corner. Delilah sits beside me in the
booth, and I can't help but watch her while she looks at the menu. She looks cute
when she's concentrating.
“Are you gonna look at the menu or just stare at her?” Caleb whispers. Thankfully,
Delilah doesn't hear him.
I stare at him with wide eyes and mouth, “I am not staring at her!”
“Yeah, you kinda are. Man, you're whipped.”
I open up my menu and put it in front of my face so Caleb can't see me. I quickly
look over the top. “I am not,” I say to Caleb, and go back to reading the menu.
I decide on chocolate chip waffles and home fries. I keep getting more and more
hungry as we wait.
“Tell your stomach to quiet down,” Delilah says, laughing.