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Elijah fitted on his roller skates, checking the smoothness of the wheels' rotation.
"If I don't find you a woman to get your flirt on tonight, you don't get to drive us home" Elias muttered beside him, fixing his own skates on his feet. "Prolly total the car seeing red if you did"
His brother was determined to get him laid.
Probably thinking his anger was due to pent up sexual frustration as usual.
Elijah just needed to cool off.
Work was putting both of them through the ringer, their autoshop busier in the summer. A new customer was yelling at him accusing him of conning the man for the recent job he did for him.
The man pointed at the wrong thing on the car to begin with, that Elijah hadn't even touched.
Then it was a couple that came in, asking if it was possible to bring their prices down for a job that'll take two weeks and had the audacity to call them cheap labor.
Coming into their own business, asking for their help, and then insulting them?
Elias was right that he might crash his car if he failed to calm down tonight.
But the roller skating rink usually helped. It occupied his mind away from the stress at work, at least for a while.
"Shit, lace's broken, forgot to bring a spare, I'll check the desk if they have one" Elias held his skates in one hand, patting Elijah's shoulder. "Meet you on the rink" He sighed, still muttering to himself as he walked away.
He took a minute to check the wear and tear of his own skates, the fabric a little scratched at the sides but they still worked well. He had spent so long choosing a pair that he liked around a year ago, and decided on plain black and white nike skates, the simple design was a contrast to Elias's prized possessions – Nike Air Jordans, shiny black on white with a gold tick.
The same contrast was present in their outfits; Elijah wore a simple long sleeved black sweatshirt, most of his tattoos hidden, except for the lettering just after his knuckles. A silver chain around his neck that paired with his silver watch. He went with cream colored pants, not too tight, not too loose. While Elias wore a white T-shirt with red writing and a graphic of a ribcage over it, his tattoos on display. The black cargo pants he wore had a silver chain hanging in a loop at one side.
Elijah went for comfort and Elias went for style.
The roller rink was pretty crowded, still room to join but it was busier than usual on a saturday night. First thing he noticed was a majority were around his age, men and women, and he turned his head towards the banner hung across the entrance of the place.
Ah, shit.
He should have suspected why Elias was so eager to make it to the rink tonight. Elijah was close to just going home and resting, but his brother was desperate. Saying ridiculous things like he was going to fall into depression if he didn't get to skate tonight.
The banner read:
Will tonight be the night? The night you find your love at the roller rink? Well get your skates on and get ready to boogie! Tonight is for love!"
He pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning quietly for falling into another of Elias's traps. Wasn't like Elijah hated the idea of love, but his mind was scattered everywhere lately.
He stood up from the bench, giving his skates another rotation check before making his way to one of the entrances of the rink, the music somehow turning up, bass thumping and people cheering as a more upbeat song came on.
Elijah had gotten half way around his first round on the floor, his worries slipping away with the music, the passing chatter of people around him – when Elias practically crashed into him, his hands grabbing Elijah by his shoulders and they collided into the railing.
"The fuck!" He choked out, the railing had hit his stomach and he nearly bent over it, gripping the steel.
"Lo–lo–lo–over there" His brother pulled him upright, spinning him around to face the direction he was looking at. His voice was by his ear and Elijah sighed, a grimace on his face, pushing his brother's face away from him – but he ignored it.
"Right there, see 'em? Behind them guys" He was grinning from ear to ear, smacking Elijah's right shoulder hard. "That's some fine ass ladies right there"
He focused his gaze to where Elias was pointing to, waiting for the guys to move enough until behind them revealed two women.
His brother's damn eagle eyes.
One had her hair done in long knotless braids, brown skin, cropped pink tank top on her slim frame with soft black ribbed pants. Good looking, but he was not interested. The other had her hair tied in a slick high pony, white, tight plain white t-shirt on her slender frame, paired with light grey straight joggers. Hell no, still not interested.
He didn't entertain it, pressing a hand to the centre of Elias's chest till he rolled back unwillingly. "Leave me the fuck alone, I'm just gon' skate tonight."
"Man, you say that every night!" Elias's feet adjusted on the floor, skating towards him and swung his arms in a circle to grab Elijah again, and he would have had him, if Elijah hadn't ducked. "Neither of them was the one I wanted you to see! Leave them both for me–ha, shit, I’ll–stop moving!"
Elijah doubled back from his position ahead of Elias by sliding in a half circle and held his brother's forearm. "You wan' 'em? Go get 'em" He yanked it, sending his brother rolling down ahead of him at a faster speed, his arms out in a panic as he nearly collided with a group of men moving and dancing in sync to the beat.
He reached out a hand to the railing, stopping abruptly.
He needed to fucking go alone from now on.
Elijah rubbed a hand down the back of his head to the nape of his neck, massaging it momentarily and turned the opposite way, mainly to search for another area far away from Elias, when a body knocked into his chest.
The knock hardly budged him. He caught the person with one arm circling them, slotting around their waist as he steadied the both of them with his other arm by the railing, hearing laughter just before he looked up at who he was holding.
“You okay?” He asked.
And his eyes locked onto big, round brown eyes staring wide-eyed back at him. A rich, dark brown skinned woman with her hair done up in a braided bob, thick plaits falling neatly just above her shoulders. The ends were cut blunt, fanning out. As if she spent time getting it done with how polished it framed her face, but effortless with how it suited her.
And her pretty hands, with light blue manicured nails, on his chest. Her silver bracelets on her wrists felt cool on him compared to her warm hands.
His awareness of his surroundings disappeared. His eyes roamed her face, subconsciously noting the details of her features in silence as she looked over him too, liking everything he saw. Her glossy lips parted as she was catching her breath.
She was dressed in clothing that looked real soft, hugging all her curves. A tight white t-shirt he saw behind her black cropped hoodie zipped half way up, tight fitted around her big titties. A necklace on her with an ‘A’ charm dangling for dear life in the middle. His gaze travelled lower, seeing matching black soft pants that outlined her thick thighs. God damn. Her silver hoop earrings glinted from the lighting above.
“Annie! Girl! What you doin’?!”
He heard a loud call for someone behind him, and the beautiful woman in his hold responded. She leaned to the side, looking past him and mouthing something quickly. She then straightened up, eyes darting to her hands on him and to his gaze before she pulled her hands back fast in shock. Like she hadn’t realised she was touching him.
She said something to him directly, in a quiet voice, but the noise on the rink prevented him from hearing it. With his brows furrowed, he turned his head, leaning towards her, indicating for her to say it again so he can catch it.
She placed the side of her hand to the back of his ear and he felt a tingling sensation run down his spine when she leaned close to his ear and whispered a ‘thank you for catching me’.
He stilled in his position, frozen until she moved back, him standing upright to look her in the eyes again but the moment ended. She skated behind him towards the two women that Elias had pointed out earlier. Her heeled skates matched the light blue of her nails, white stripes lining the sides with tidy white laces.
He didn’t realise how long he was standing there staring until his brother’s voice brought him out of his trance.
"Well well, who looks like a fucking punk now? That's the one I was tryna show you!" He smacked the back of Elijah’s head, the sting barely making him flinch, his eyes still on Annie, who was giggling with her friends, their backs to him. “I know you like ‘em thick like that, shit, I saw how dumbfounded you were when she crashed into you, fate is your wing man, but I’m better” Elias grabbed his brother’s shoulders, squeezing them in excitement as he sported a devilish grin.
They stood off the rink, skates still laced, leaning their backs against the railing. Elias had an arm draped over Elijah’s shoulders as he launched into his first plan to get Annie’s attention.
“Ok, so what you gon’ do, is slide along the railing up to her and say “I’ve been wanting to butter your muffins all night”
It was Elijah’s turn to smack the back of Elias’s head, the latter yelping at the contact and swearing.
“Fool in what world would that work?!” Elijah shook his head, lip curled into a scowl. He looked over his shoulder and found her again, laughing whole heartedly, eyes creasing from something she heard from her friends.
Man she was gorgeous. He wanted to hear that laugh.
“Aight, ok, bein’ serious” Elias cleared his throat, resuming the position of his arm around his shoulders and one hand out illustrating his thoughts. “What about that ‘how low can you go’ limbo thing? Showing your core strength? You can do that trick where you slide under it, back nearly touching the ground”
“Will she even be looking?” Elijah questioned. He was getting interested in the debate, he really wanted to talk to her but didn’t know how.
“I’ll make her look” Elias winked and Elijah smacked his hand away, looking in the opposite direction.
“Nah–nah nah not like that!” He shook him, asking for his attention again and Elijah reluctantly looked back at him. “I mean I’ll time it right so that she’ll right behind you when it’s your turn”
Something about this didn’t seem as impressive as he was making it out to be.
“I don’t know man”
“Trust me”
Thirty minutes and an injury to a random skater later, the brothers were back off the rink again, in the same position as earlier, Elias explaining his next plan.
They had tried out his first plan, Elijah getting in line when Elias told him to. Annie had ended up three positions behind him, the two guys in front of her blocking her view.
He watched Elias panic, planning how to fix the situation. His brother tapped the shoulder of the first guy, telling him something which made the guy exit the line fast, speeding off the rink.
Annie glanced at the situation, then looked past it and met Elijah’s eyes with a small smile. He blinked, beginning to return it—until Elias obstructed his view by bumping into the last guy in front of her. He tried to play it off as an accident, but the man lunged for him. Elias sidestepped just in time, and the guy stumbled into a few others, causing a messy crash of people on the floor.
The limbo contest went on pause, the staff who held up the stick had moved to go help with the damage.
“Your plans are shit, dumbass” Elijah scoffed, cutting off his brother mid sentence.
“Man, you got anyone else helping you?!” He raised one brow at him.
Elijah groaned, rubbing his hands down his face.
“Listen, my next plan is we impress her with all that steppin’ like we in one of those movies, we have so many of our own routines to choose from! Waylon and ‘em texted saying they are on their way too so we can have a session, and you can woo her that way” He sounded giddy, hitting Elijah’s chest when he didn’t respond. “Come on man! This is it! You’ll show off your moves, do a lil’ spin, catch her looking and the deal will be sealed. “
Again, roughly forty-five minutes later, they were back where they were earlier. Elijah wasn’t talking to him. He was too busy pissed off at what happened. He really should stop listening to Elias, getting him nowhere.
“It wasn’t that bad” Elias remarked, glancing around them to see if anyone was listening. The roller rink was still lively, laughter and music blending together.
Elijah gripped his brother’s shoulder. “I’m gon’ kill you if you keep talkin’” He seethed, fingers digging into him, making Elias dip his body from the pain and tap out like it was an MMA match.
They had tried out his next plan, meeting up with Waylon, Amir and Bo. Elias set out the routine they were aiming for, one that had Elias in the middle, and Elijah at the end.
Being at the end, Elijah was free to manoeuvre around the group as they skated, stepping to the heavy beat of the song in time. They curved the corner of the rink, Elias whistling as they turned in sync to the beat and skated past people watching with their mouths hanging open.
His eyes scanned the people they passed by, searching for her and found her in front, near the edge of the rink with her friends as she moved gracefully, her hands swishing with the swing of her hips.
Elias met his eyes and they nodded, signaling their friends to swap places so Elijah was lined up in her pathway and the group split from him to skate in between people.
He saw her hand touch the nearby wall, her stance a little unsteady and he couldn’t believe fate was helping him. Rolling up behind her, he lifted his right foot and let it glide along the edging of the rink, his left hand gently catching under hers, steading her as he lined up beside her while his group of friends came into view in front.
Her head whipped to him, braids swinging as he let go of her hand once she was steady, skating a little in front before turning around, rolling backwards as their eyes locked on to each other. He gave a quick, knowing glance down her curvaceous body and back up to her, a shy smile on her lips and then turned back around to join his friends.
Feeling like his chest was light, finally getting something right tonight – until the formation of his friends suddenly changed, Elias suggesting something else mid skate, knocking Waylon sideways and Amir heading for the railing. Bo tripped up over Elias and crashed into Elijah, who caught him as they fell to the ground together.
Bo rested on top of Elijah's legs on the floor, rocking back and forth holding his ankle and calling for someone to phone his girlfriend Grace. Elijah sat upright on the floor, looking down at his friend while staff circled them, asking if they were all ok, and Elijah wanted to sink into the earth and disappear.
“I ain’t listening to you no more” Elijah let go of Elias’s shoulder, pushing off from the railing and went to get a drink, ignoring his brother calling for him.
He took out his phone as he rolled over towards the counter, ordering a drink. Bo had texted him that he was in the ER with Grace, and was told he had a sprain around his ankle.
His friend suffered from Elias’s dumb plans once again.
“Is your friend ok?”
The smooth, sweet voice, that sounded a little familiar, in front of him made him look up from his phone and he was met with the gorgeous woman he was trying to impress all night. She was staring at him, brows lightly pressing together, big eyes rounding, her mouth in a pout.
He opened his mouth to speak but her citrus perfume invaded his senses, dulling things around him and his eyes flickered down to the line created in the middle of her titties, that peeked out above the neckline when she bent down to adjust one of her skates.
She stood back up, batting her eyes, and he found some words.
“Yeah, he’s in the ER, just a sprain”
She sighed in relief. “Thank god, that was a nasty fall y’all had”
He placed his phone back in his pocket, hypnotized by her stare as she chewed the corner of her lips before letting it go with a smack. She wasn’t ordering anything.
“A shame, with the way y’all were movin’, it would have been amazing” She smiled sweetly, and by her accent, he clicked that she wasn’t from around here. Or at least, didn’t grow up here.
He chuckled quietly, paying the guy at the counter for his drink but not paying attention to it. “We do aight”
“More than aight, if I could move like that, I’d be on the rink all night, I can barely skate backwards" She laughed, leaning on the counter with one arm. “My friends tried to teach me but they said I’m a lost cause” She glanced at the rink, waving to her friends who were skating by waving back to her.
“I could teach you” The offer left him quieter than he expected. Blindsided by all of her.
The music was still loud, and she turned her head, leaning closer to him like he had done earlier, she couldn’t hear him. He moved closer instead, until she turned back to look at him, straightening her back at the close proximity.
“I could teach you” He said it again, and her eyes lit up, brows raised as she smiled slowly.
“I’d like that”
They moved towards the rink, and Elijah caught eyes with Elias, his shoulders slumped, resting his forearms on the railing. His eyes widened, mouth opening but Elijah gave him a death glare, shutting him up before he looked back to Annie.
Elias simply nodded, barely containing his grin.
“Alright, what are the steps?” Annie asked as she stepped onto the rink with him.
They moved a little further down to an area away from the lines of skaters.
“It's a C motion with your feet you wanna make, you start like this” He demonstrated by putting his feet together. She copied his actions as he did them.
“Your toes and knees facing each other” He bent his knees slightly as he did it. “Then you push back, letting them glide like this.” His feet curved in a wider circle as he rolled slowly back, watching her watch him. She was really focused.
He asked her to try the steps and she lined up from the beginning, hands out and attempted it but her skate skidded and his hand grabbed hers to balance her again. Her thumb brushed his palm and then let go. “Sorry” She gave a sheepish grin.
“You're good” He moved to stand in front of her. “It’s your head that’s the problem. You keep looking down, have to trust yourself to co-ordinate your feet while you do it and keep facing forward”
She thought on his words a couple of seconds, unzipped her hoodie and then tried again, lining up.
Form is good. Her hands were out to steady her. She was looking ahead. Her toes and knees pointed inwards. All ok. When she moved her feet in the C shape, her head started to dip, but he caught it, his right hand shooting out and his finger pressed under her chin before he could stop himself.
She glanced at him, her head straightening but she moved backwards in a perfect motion finally.
She clapped once, loud and squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, hands up in the air.
“See? You ain’t a lost cause” He smiled at her.
She rolled towards him, her smile infectious “Ok what’s next?!”
He taught the rest of the basics, watching her catch on fast, teaching her how to lean into the motion for easy movement until she got it down. She was doing it in no time, and while she was testing her backwards spin, Elijah saw Elias in the background, motioning with his hands the exaggerated curves of a figure with a wolfish grin.
He rolled his eyes, signalling him to fuck off, when her next question brought his attention back to her.
“How do I do that?” She pointed towards couples rollerskating backwards together. The partner behind had their hands on the hips of the one in front as they did so.
“Backpacking?” He asked back. His mind was in the gutter already.
“Is that what it’s called? Can you teach me that?” She asked him, her brows raised, eyes twinkling.
“If you want” He said lowly, voice dropping as he mentally was picking himself up from the gutter in his mind.
She grabbed his hand suddenly, pulling him along with her until they rolled to the side of the rink where others skated by, slowly moving around to position herself in front of him and looked over her shoulder. “Lead the way” She smiled coyly, grabbing both his hands and placing them on her hips.
Man she was so goddamn thick around there.
His pulse spiked in his chest, heat rising up his neck as his grip flexed. “You gon’ need to be closer” He managed to say.
She looked over her shoulder again, scooting back closer until her juicy ass nudged against his dick and paused, moving a little forward making a gap again. She laughed, tilting her head back towards his shoulder “I have no spatial awareness” She gave a sly smile.
God give him strength.
A slower song started playing on the speakers, and he took that as his cue to start.
He gulped down his rapidly increasing heart beat and began moving backwards, guiding her hips with him as their skates rolled. He mentioned some tips at maintaining the form, and she giggled at them, getting used to the motions that the sway of her hips started to get playful. Real playful. Her ass brushed his dick lightly a few times, pretending to be oblivious but he saw her glances back at him, eyes sultry in their gaze, a coy smile on her lips.
In the next round, she straightened up, moving one hand of his until it curved around from her hip to over her stomach. She waited, as if wondering if he’d retreat, but he pressed gently until her back touched his chest, and her hand remained over his as they swayed backwards.
“So Louisiana huh?” He asked her, finally pinpointing her accent. She felt so soft against him, smelled so good.
“That’s right” Her voice smooth, airy. He could make out the smile on her widening. “You from here?”
“Mhmm” He hummed, his free hand reaching for hers, holding it out to the side of them as they moved to the song playing, making her hips move in time with his, his other hand still on her and he felt her quiet laugh. “You here for long?”
“I live here” She turned her face a little towards his, watching their linked hands sway in the air. “Moved here a few months ago”
He hummed again, happy at her answer.
“You know you ain’t asked my name yet” She questioned, lacing her fingers with his.
“Same goes for you” He pointed out, the hand on her stomach twitching, thumb tracing a circle on her t-shirt.
“I heard your twin yelling it to you when your friend crashed into you” Giggles erupted as she recalled it, her hand over his on her body tightening. “You need to ask mine”
“Well when you crashed into me, I heard your friends calling for you” His face was close to her ear, and she tilted her head back slightly, like she was trying to hear him clearer.
“Well…do you remember it?” Her voice was only loud enough for him to hear.
“It’s Annie, right?” He said, and he could have sworn he felt a shiver run down her body.
“Mhmm” She hummed, bringing their locked hands that were swaying by them, to join their other around front, both of his arms wrapping around her waist snugly, her hands over his.
“You remember mine?” His voice was low.
“Elijah” She met his eyes in a sideways glance, her voice sweet.
He watched her for a beat, and then something ticked in him. A sense of his own playfulness.
“I didn’t catch that” He smirked, avoiding her gaze and his grip tightened around her, bodies swaying to the music, skates gliding on the floor smoothly.
“Elijah” She said it slower, like it rolled off her tongue with ease.
His hands splayed open on her stomach, and her breath hitched.
“I like how you say it”