Free On Thin Ice 1 by Victoria Villeneuve Page B

I wouldn’t
have been surprised if there was a six pack under that fabric.
Despite the athletic top he wore jeans and sneakers to finish off
his outfit, and as he shifted in his chair to start speaking, my
mouth went dry.
    “Hey, I’m Daniel. I,
um, I’m here because I’m addicted to pain meds, and because my boss
says I can’t go back to work until I’m over it.” He smiled when he
said that last bit, and I thought I was going to melt right there
in my chair and ooze down to the floor. What the hell was wrong
with me?
    “Hi Daniel” came the
monotonous chant from everyone except me; I was busy trying to
figure out why my heart rate had suddenly shot through the roof and
why my blood felt like it was simmering inside of me. This wasn’t
the sort of reaction I was used to having when new people were
introduced. Hell, this wasn’t the sort of reaction I was used to
having, at all. For months now I had only felt pain, guilt and
sadness. Feelings like this, feeling like something inside of me
was tingling, feeling like my entire body was on fire, this sort of
thing wasn’t what I was used to.
    “Excellent. We welcome
Daniel to our group, and we hope to share in his journey of
healing” Doctor Emma continued, before she began to flip through
her notes.
    I couldn’t take my eyes
off Daniel. I have no idea what Doctor Emma said next, all I could
think about was that man sitting only a few feet away. I didn’t
understand what these feelings running through my body were. I had
never felt anything like this before. What was my body doing? Why
was I staring at this guy? I began to squirm in my seat, feeling
the heat building up inside of me. Suddenly, I heard my name
called.
    “Kylie? Kylie, are you
listening?”
    “Sorry Doctor Emma. I
must have zoned out for a second. Could you repeat that?”
    “Kylie, today we’re
discussing the impact sports have had in our lives. I’m wondering
if there’s anything you would like to share with us on the topic?”
Doctor Emma asked, her hazel eyes earnestly looking at me, hoping
against all hope that today would be the day I would spill, that
today I would reveal all of my secrets and start to heal.
    I wasn’t going to. I
had come in here planning on giving my usual excuse as to why I
didn’t want to participate in the discussion. But I looked around
and saw Daniel’s face expectantly looking at mine, and something
made me tell a story. For the first time in the months that I had
been here, for the first time after coming here twice a week and
making up reasons as to why I didn’t want to share, I spoke. After
all, sports had nothing to do with the history of my life. Sure, I
played some as a kid, but it had nothing to do with my life now,
and it certainly wasn’t going to help me heal. I figured I could
tell one little story. I couldn’t remember the last time I had
actually done something like this, actually tried to impress a man.
I couldn’t deny that was why I did it. I was trying to impress this
Daniel guy, and I had no idea why.
    “I didn’t play a lot of
organized sports when I was little, but I would play soccer with my
friends at recess or after school, and I rode my bike along the
road a lot. There was another girl in my class though, Kirsten
Gill, who played every sport imaginable. One day she came to class
with her leg in a cast. She had broken it that weekend skiing, and
she got so much attention I was unexplainably jealous. I have no
idea what got into me, I had never been jealous like that
before.”
    I paused and smiled to
myself slightly at the silliness of what I was about to admit.
    “That afternoon,” I
continued, “I took my bike out onto the road and decided to pedal
as fast as I could and jump off, in the hopes that I would also
break something, and that I would get as much attention as Kirsten
did. I went all the way down the hill at the end of the street as
fast as I could, then lost control and went tumbling to the ground.
When I got up,