Another One Bites the Dust by Elsie James

Chapter One: Kelley

I take a deep breath and glance in the mirror. Even though I’ve got a half can of Aqua-net in my hair, the crimps I put in it are starting to fall flat. Disappointing. It’s Friday night at Skateland and I’m ready for the same bullshit that I always pull.

Maria, my co-worker and one of my faves, brings the infamous jar into the break room. It’s clear and filled with the usual little colorful scraps of paper. It’s weird to think that people have written their names down on the tiny slips in hopes of winning a skate with me. I stare at it with the same conflict of excitement and dread that I do every night.

“You ready?” Maria bites back a smile. It’s easy for her, she doesn’t have to skate with anyone.

“Somehow this gets to be less fun every week,” I tell her, with a sigh. “I’m thinking that I need to start doing something else to up the interest.”

“In you?” Maria pops her gum. “Hon, you are the top thing in this place. The Angel Skater of the Eighties. You really think that you need to up your game to get attention? Because I totally disagree.”

“Not to get attention,” I correct her, with a roll of my eyes. “To make it more fun, for me. Every week I pull out one of these chuckle fucks names, and then… what? We skate together, they fall in love and I go home alone. I spend the weekend watching movies with my dad. How is that fair?”

“So what you’re saying is that you want to bring an actual boyfriend to the couple skating? You know, you could have just said that instead of being all melodramatic.” She presses the back of one hand to her forehead with a laugh. “Oh, I’m Kelley, the most sought-after girl in Pine Grove. I collect broken hearts because everyone falls head over heels for me. I just don’t know what to do with myself. What a problem.”

I lean across the rickety break table to swat her on the shoulder. “Stop it, you’re only saying that because you’ve already got your perfect guy. So you have plenty of room to judge away.”

The diamond ring is glinting on Maria’s finger. She holds it out to admire it in the neon lights. “Yeah, alright, I’ll give you that one. Zach is my perfect guy. But the thing is, my standards are realistic. I let people get close enough to find out whether they are my perfect guy. That’s where it starts.” She glances back up at me, his mouth pulled to one side. “Alright, Kelley. There aren’t any guys good enough for you in Pine Grove. If I'm gonna help you find someone you like and keep you from becoming a spinster, I need more information. What handsome movie star do you have your eye on? Tom Cruise? No, Rob Lowe? Oh, I know! What about Alec Baldwin?”

I shake my head. “Ugh, that’s the problem.” I pick up the jar, tucking it against my chest with one arm, and stand up, rocking a little on my neon pink skates. “I don’t have my eye on anyone. Missing you know who still, but I won’t start down that road. I’m just… I don’t know. Getting a little bored with a new flavor each week.”

Maria gets up too, moving to open the door for me. “Well do me a favor, and get bored with it after today, okay? I don’t want to tell Paulie that you dropped out at the last moment when we’ve been hyping you up all day.”

Paulie owns the skating rink. He’s a real tight ass, and kind of a creep if I’m being honest. He’s the one who decided they would use me as a little advertisement prop. I went along with it because it was fun at first and an ego boost. Not to mention the raise he gave me.

All the guys do love me. It isn’t arrogance, it’s just the truth. But it’s been almost a solid year of this shtick and I’ve just about had it. I’m nineteen and it’s getting old. Skating with a new dude each week has only made me realize how much I was missing having a guy to go hit up the diner with. Not just any guy either. I’ve been in love before and the bar is high. I’d like someone who makes my heart skip a beat, not just the other way around.

“You’re going to have to take me for a milkshake to make up for it,” I tell Maria as I skate past her.

The whole rink is made of hardwood floor, except for an ugly and horribly dirty patch of carpet right at the entrance, by the cash register. It makes my whole grand debut that much easier. I take a deep breath as the music cuts off. I glide into the front of the rank, Maria by my side.

Paulie raises his eyebrows at me, then takes a deep breath. “Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. I hope all of you got your names into the jar because it’s time. One lucky guy can get ready to fall in love with the skating partner of his dreams.” His announcement crackles through the static-filled loudspeaker.

I roll to the speaker, jar in hand, smile plastered on my hot pink lips. Here we go again. My fingers curl around a slip of bright blue paper and I hold it up between two fingers. I make a show out of it before unfolding it. But when my eyes scan the name, my breath hitches, catching in my throat. My heart pounds in my chest and I can’t speak.

Someone is messing with me, this can’t be real.

“Come on now Kelley, don’t tease them. Who is it?” Paulie smiles into the microphone but I can hear the tension in his voice. The way it booms and turns up at the end almost feels like a threat and it snaps me back to the present.

“Sorry,” I clear my throat. “It’s… Corey Fielding.” I think I might fall over.

The silence seems to stretch on as I wait with bated breath, my heart thumping against my rib cage, barely able to keep upright.

It’s a joke. A mean, horrible joke. He isn’t here. He can’t be.

There’s a round of cheering as the crowd parts. I can hardly breathe as my eyes frantically scan the crowd. Then, all of a sudden, he’s there. Corey. A total hunk of a guy and the only man who's ever broken my heart is back and he’s right in front of me.