Free The City of the Broken (Prince of the Broken) by Ceri Beynon

does have a point. I guess in The City of the Broken there ’s a freedom in being allowed to be unhappy. Listening, all around me I hear the forced laughs and see those fake smiles. I can definitely understand his point of view.
    We stroll down an arcade. Its less mainstream down here. There are antique shops and a bo okshop, which we decide to go in to as we know that reading is a common interest we share.
    They have beautiful books here, ones with really elaborate rare covers. On one of the shelves I spot Wuthering Heights, my favourite book.
    “You’re my Heathcliff Calix” I smile at him, because he really is just as brooding and intense.
“You’ll be Cathy then, Seren” he says with all the magnetism of  a gothic romance hero.
    This bookshop really does have it all. Classics, new titles ,fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Its a treasure trove of words. Calix and I are in such bliss, we lose track of time.
“Calix, the ice skating, we’re about ten minutes late, come on!”
    We run all the way through the shopping centre, stopping only for the busy road. We cross then resume our haste .
    Luckily, our class is still queuing to go on the ice when we get there. We stand at the desk to get our ice skates. There are rows and rows of orange coloured skates in different sizes ,all wanting to be taken onto the frozen lake of the winter wonderlan d that awaits. As we get into the queue together, people seem to momentarily forget their ice nerves. Everyone is looking at us questioningly and I can hear whispering among the crowd.
“Are they dating?”
    “ I cant believe he’d want her”.
    Then one of the mos t up-front members of the class decides to find out for herself and ask the question no one else has been brave enough to ask.
    “ Are you two together?”.
    I look at Calix to gauge his reaction and he says “Yes we are. We’ve been dating for about three months now” he answers coolly, without any shame in his voice.
    “ Oh okay, you look good together” she says, taken aback slightly by Calix’s honesty.
    “ So, here we are” I say, nudging him as he feigns terror.
“I know I will end up flat on my face, please help me up if I fall” I plead to him, making myself sound like a puppy whining.
“I’ll help you up, that is if I don’t fall over myself”
    “ Oh Calix, you will never fall, you have all the grace of a ballet dancer. Besides those skiing lessons must have taught you some sort of balance. You’ll be Mr. Elegant and I’ll be a heap of arms and legs with everyone pointing and laughing at me”.
    “ You’re always so hard on yourself Seren. Why do you always assume the worst? Besides the amount you’ve hyped me up now, its inevitable I wont live up to your expectations”.
    “ I’m not hard on myself, I’m just accurate and from past experience I know I’ll be clumsy. This isn’t about balance, I can ride a bike, this is about people watching me. It doesn’t matter even if I’m extremely good at something, put me in front of a crowd and instantly I’ll fall to pieces”. Calix looks at me like I’m exaggerating or like he doesn’t actually believe me. Its okay for him, he’s used to doing everything in front of an audience. He’s a Prince!
    “ So are you still going to go on the ice?”
    “ Calix ,of course I’m going on. I know I’ll stumble but I still want to experience it. It sounds so romantic, ice skating with my boyfriend in December, all bundled up in scarves, hat and gloves. It could be a postcard scene, if only it wasn’t for the girl in the middle of the rink who’s knocked herself out from tripping over her own feet”
    We both snigger and Calix tries to comfort me
    “Please calm down Seren, I promise you’ll be fine, here I’ll hold your hand”. He does and suddenly even I feel confident., like I’m a professional ice dancer or a swan skating on her own lake, frozen from wintry nights and frosty days.
    The class have started to go on now, and the more