The Summer Games: Out of Bounds (33 page)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Brie

Winning gold in
individual all-around finals had been an accomplishment that never seemed attainable. Even as I stood on the podium, clutching my bouquet of flowers and waving out at the crowd, I expected someone to force me from the dream. I clutched the bouquet to my chest as tight as possible, prepared for someone to try to rip them from my clutch and apologize about the mistake. How could a girl from nothing make it to this point? I felt a million miles away from my old life in Austin—the alarms that rang before the sun rose, the stiff, discolored seats on long public bus commutes, the stinging of ripped hands, and the lonely nights that never seemed to end.

I stood on the tallest podium as tears spilled down my cheeks. I was tired and sweaty and sore. I’d had a long day of competing, but the adrenaline pumping through me made it easy to stand up tall. The national anthem streamed through the speakers and I glanced to my left, meeting Molly’s eyes as she stood on the podium to my right.

“Congratulations,” she whispered, reaching out to clutch my hand. We stayed linked through the remainder of the anthem, and with both of my hands occupied, the tears slipped from my cheeks and down onto my leotard.

Erik had been by my side all day, helping me breathe when my nerves tried to take over and pulling me into tight hugs after I’d finished one perfect routine after another. On television, his embrace probably looked identical to the ones doled out by the other athletes’ excited and supportive coaches, but between us, I’d felt something more. When I’d finished my final routine, he’d gathered me into his arms and whispered in my ear.

“You did it. You won.”

He hadn’t even seemed shocked about it, not like I was.

I looked up and scanned the crowd, trying to find him. There were people everywhere, reporters and Olympic staff crowding around, but he stood just to the side, in front of everyone else, wearing an easy smile. When our eyes locked, his smile widened and I held his gaze.

“I did it,” I mouthed.

He nodded, once.

After that moment, the rest of the day was a blur. I was ushered off the podium and directed toward my first interview. Erik stayed close, standing by my side as the NBC reporter doled out question after question. I tried in vain to suppress the tears so I could answer the questions without sounding like a blubbering mess.

After that, I was swept away for more interviews and photos. Molly stayed close by my side and as much as they wanted to interview me, the bigger story involved the two of us. Only once before had two American gymnasts snagged both gold and silver in the individual all-around competition. They tried to scoop the story of resentment or hatred between us, but Molly only squeezed my hand tighter.

“She deserves that gold medal more than anyone I know,” she insisted with a firm tone. “Besides, silver works better with my complexion.”

For the remainder of the day, she and I were photographed and interviewed by dozens of reporters. It was one of the best, most exhausting days of my life, and by the time we made it back to the condo, I couldn’t believe I had to wake up the following day for more.

After that day
, the event finals dragged on for four solid days. I rode the shuttle with my teammates and walked into the arena, ready to compete. I tugged off my warm-up clothes and stretched, going through the motions that seemed to get easier with each day. Lexi won first on vault as she’d predicted, and Molly won first on bars. I won first on beam, tipping back into skills that were as natural as breathing. Bars and vault weren’t my strongest events and though I did win a bronze medal in both, I was counting on floor to bring my gold medal count up to four.

The night before the final event, I stood in the condo’s tiny kitchen, rooting through the cabinets and trying to find something,
anything
to bake.

“What are you doing?” Molly asked from behind me.

I jumped in the air, surprised by her silent approach.

“Trying to find sugar.”

“There’s nothing in those cabinets. If you’re hungry, I’ll go down to the food court with you. I’m seriously going to miss that smoothie bar when we head back to the States.”

The States.

Right.

“Even if I have one with every meal, that means I only have five left before we have to leave in two days. I’m going to have to open a freaking Jamba Juice in my house.”

Molly was trying to make light conversation, but she was also unknowingly breaking my heart.

It was Monday night. The following day, we were set to compete in our final event and attend the closing ceremonies. My flight back to Texas was first thing Wednesday morning.

My stomach clenched.

How could time have slipped by so quickly? How could things with Erik still be up in the air? I thought I had done the right thing by putting distance between us and clinging to the excuse that we’d figure things out
after
the Olympics were finished, but now that the time was actually approaching, I was terrified. The delayed feelings between us hadn’t been lying dormant; they’d been morphing and evolving into something I didn’t even recognize any more.

Erik was there with me in the arena and standing off to the side during my interviews, but he never joined me for lunch or dinner. He didn’t try to ask for another date or press for my time. He was polite, but distant, not quite cold, but alluring. In other words, he was driving me freaking insane. How was it possible? How could every decision be the wrong one? I’d wanted to push Erik out of the forefront of my mind, reclaim the right to my own thoughts, but he was always there, forcing me to second-guess my every decision.
Was I too hard on him in the food court? Should I have accepted his date? Did he miss our fighting the way I did? Not the anger, but the feeling of being near each other, of owning that part of each other.

“Why the hell does this place not have any sugar?!”

I slammed a small cupboard door closed and turned on my heel.

“Where are you going?” Molly asked, concerned.

“To bed.”

I shut myself up in my room. Technically, I did go to bed, but I didn’t sleep. I laid on top of my sheets, stared at the ceiling, and tried to figure out what I wanted. I couldn’t keep delaying the inevitable or I’d be on a flight back to Texas, settled into a seat by myself and staring out the plane’s window with only memories of Erik to keep me company.

By the last
event final, I was a bundle of anxiety. I walked into the arena hyperaware of my shaking hands, of the tension pooled in my stomach. My bun was a little too tight and my leotard was already damp with sweat. I could pin part of my nerves on the competition, and part on exhaustion. Floor was the last event final and I was slotted to win gold.

Beam and floor came so naturally to me, it seemed unfair to the other competitors. My music was a soft lyrical piece that brought me back to my days in ballet. I warmed up in my own space, swallowing past the lump in my throat when they played my music over the loud speaker. I settled into the rhythm of the piano and tried to ignore Erik’s presence just outside the white out-of-bounds line.

Warm-ups slipped into competition and I fidgeted off to the side of the floor, hopping back and forth on the balls of my feet to keep warm. I stretched my arms across my body and rolled out my neck, oblivious to the other competitors on the floor before me. Their music filled the arena and their bodies hopped and jumped and tumbled across the floor, but it wasn’t until Erik’s hand hit my back that I realized I was up next.

“This is your final event,” he said, leading me to the spot just to the side of the floor. “Are you ready for it to be over?”

My gaze sliced up to him as adrenaline spiked my blood. Was he referring to the competition or my time in Rio?

The answer was the same for both.

“No.”

He nodded just as my name was announced over the speakers.

“Brie Watson from Team USA.”

He tipped his head down and took a step back. “Good luck.”

I took a deep breath and spun to face the judges. I arched my back, saluted them, and then walked gracefully to my starting position in the very center of the giant blue floor. I paused, dropped my weight into my right leg, and crossed my hands overhead. In a moment, my music would start. I’d kick my leg up high and then complete three quick spins that would transition easily into my first tumbling pass. I’d hop and bounce, using my beauty and grace to captivate the judges, but before all that, there was a brief moment when my eyes were squeezed closed, when I was alone in that arena and my breath was the only sound I could hear for miles on end. My heart rioted against my chest and I knew then I’d go home from Rio proud of myself. For all the pain and doubt I’d endured, one thing was beyond question: I was an Olympian.

The music began, and so did I.

Chapter Forty

Brie

The rumors about
the closing ceremonies at the Olympics are mostly true, and I found that out the hard way. Athletes are finished competing, their lives and destinies are once again their own, and suddenly the arena turns into one massive party. They carted us over in buses and although alcohol was prohibited, flasks and water bottles filled with booze were getting passed around like crazy.

I kept my mouth on the bottle Lexi had stuffed in her bag upon leaving our condo, and even then, I took tiny sips, exaggerating about how much I’d really consumed so as to forgo any pressure to drink more.

Though we’d missed the opening ceremonies, I wasn’t all that excited to attend the closing. Everyone was rowdy and insane, and truthfully I was tired and needed to get back to my condo and pack for my flight in the morning. Of course, if I’d dug a little deeper, I would have found that I mostly didn’t want to be there because Erik wouldn’t be there.

“See! I told you it wouldn’t be so bad!” Lexi said, stringing her arm through mine so we were locked together in the hoard of athletes. Our team—
even June
—was sticking together, trying to stay safe in the crowd. We were in the arena, standing among thousands and thousands of other athletes as celebrities and musical guests took turns serenading the crowd from center stage. From my vantage point on the floor, I could hardly see. There were too many athletes in front of me, jumping, dancing, and trying to snap photos while they could.

“How hard do you think it would be to try to find the soccer team in this mess?” Lexi asked, pressing up on her tiptoes to scan over the crowd.

I laughed. “Nearly impossible.”

We were wedged between groups of South African and Japanese athletes. Mixed among those were a few American and Canadian teams. It was a complete melting pot and the only common denominator was that everyone was getting more drunk by the second. I edged closer to Lexi, too nervous to drift into the crowd alone.

“I keep trying to FaceTime Duncan, but there’s no cell reception in here,” Molly frowned, holding her iPhone up in the air as if to snag some spare radio waves.

“Uh, Molly, there are like a million people stuffed into this stadium. There’s no way you’re going to get service, much less be able to stream video.”

I told myself that’s why I didn’t have a text message from Erik waiting for me now that I was done competing. I’d assumed he would have found me after I finished with the medal ceremony, but that’d been hours ago and I still hadn’t heard from him.
Maybe that’s because you told him no too many times, genius.

“Who cares, you guys?” Lexi said, wrapping her free arm around Molly. “Everyone is drunk and happy and we should be too! I’m pretty sure that’s Justin
fucking
Timberlake on stage, so just shut your traps and listen to him sing.”

“Really?!” Rosie asked, hopping up and down to try to see past the tall athletes in front of us.

“Here, get on my shoulders,” June said, bending down in front of Rosie.

My brows nearly fell off my face I was so shocked—first, that June was even hanging around us, and second, that she was seemingly enjoying it.

“Guess you don’t hate us any more, June?” Molly asked, just as surprised by her behavior as I was.

“Truthfully, I thought you all were going to blow it in competition and kill my chances at a gold, but since you guys didn’t
completely
ruin everything, I’ve decided to give you a second chance.”

In June-speak, she’d basically just declared her undying love for us.

“Huh.” I smiled. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

She shrugged. “I mean, you guys still annoy the hell out of me, but it’s whatever.”

I laughed. “There’s the June I know.”

She rolled her eyes, but I didn’t miss the slight smile she was trying to hide. June didn’t 100% despise us anymore, which basically felt like an Olympic miracle.
HALLELUJAH!

June held out her hands for Rosie so she could hop on her shoulders. Once she was situated, she screamed loud enough to rupture my eardrums. “That is Justin! GUYS!” She whipped around to look at us with eyes the size of saucers. “We need to get closer to the stage!”

After that, the night turned into an absolute mess. We pushed closer to the stage with linked arms so we wouldn’t get separated. Everyone groaned as we pushed and shoved, but Lexi plowed right through, oblivious to the giants around her.

“Move it or lose it, people!” she bellowed, tugging me after her so fast I lost my footing and tripped. The rough concrete scraped the skin on my left leg, and when I glanced down, I saw blood.

“Lexi! Slow down. I’m bleeding!”

“I can’t!” she argued, continuing to drag me after her as I tried to keep blood from dripping down my leg. “We’re so close!”

Clearly, I’d made a mistake in pretending to drink as much as everyone else. I was nowhere near drunk enough to be fooled into enjoying myself there.

“I wonder if he’d leave Jessica Biel for me,” Lexi contemplated with a serious tone. “I know it’d be hard with their new baby and all, but…”

As she continued to ramble on about divorce rates amongst celebrities and her ability to make a man like JT “happy in the sack”, I tried to find something in my purse to wipe at the blood running down my leg. The cut had started to sting, and the tiny wrinkled receipt I was using to wipe up my leg wasn’t helping.

I tugged on Lexi’s shoulder and shouted in her ear. “I’m going to go try to find a bathroom.”

She groaned. “No! I don’t believe you! You’re going to sneak out of here, aren’t you? The night is just starting. I already got an after party invite from the British rugby team. BRITISH GUYS, BRIE! WITH ACCENTS!”

I smiled and tried to feign excitement. “That’s awesome, I’ll be there. Honestly, I’m just going to go try to clean up my leg.”

Even to my own ears, I didn’t sound very convincing, but Lexi was too concerned with JT’s onstage gyrations to focus on me. I told the rest of the team I’d be back soon and then I turned and started to slip back through the crowd. The arena was disorienting—dark, loud, and packed with enough bodies to make my skin crawl. I ended up fighting my way through the chaos for what felt like an hour before I finally broke through the last row of people. I inhaled deep, taking in the cool night air. The crowd had been stifling and claustrophobic and I had no desire to slip back into it after I was done in the bathroom. Lexi would just have to take on the British rugby team without me. Somehow, I think she’d manage.

I stepped into an empty bathroom and cleaned up the dried blood on my leg. It didn’t look half as bad as I’d suspected. A quick shower and a Band-Aid and I’d be good as new. I tossed the paper towels in the trash on the way out and felt my phone start to vibrate in my purse. It’d been silent all night—a fact I’d tried hard to ignore—but now that I was out of the crowd, I had reception again.

When I pulled it out of my purse and saw Erik’s name on the screen, my stomach flipped with anticipation. I didn’t give myself time to register how excited I was before swiping my finger across the screen and pressing the phone to my ear.

“Finally.”

“Brie.”

I stepped out of the bathroom and lingered in a no-man’s land between the back of the arena and the crowd of people hovering a few yards in front of me.

“I thought you’d call earlier,” I admitted, holding my hand against my other ear to block the noise from the stadium.

He didn’t sound all that amused when he replied. “It was you that asked for space. I think that means you were supposed to call me.”

I smiled. “Maybe I like to watch you squirm.”

There was a long pause and I pulled the phone away to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. When I pressed it back against my ear, he finally spoke with a low, controlled tone. “I’ll remember that.”

A blush crept up my neck. I tipped my chin down, as though he could see my face through the phone.

“You asked me to give you space until you finished competing,” he continued.

“Yes…”

“And I’m done waiting.”

My heart fluttered in my chest as excitement settled into my body.

“I’m still at the closing ceremony,” I admitted, glancing around to find the nearest exit.

“Walk to the tunnel where you entered.”

Was he there?

I didn’t ask.

I followed his instructions, curving around the back of the arena to find one of the two tunnels that led outside. We’d entered through them a few hours earlier as TV cameras hovered around us, broadcasting our every move to viewers at home. Now, the TV cameras were aimed on the stage and I was all alone wandering along the back wall of the arena.

“Erik?”

“I’m still here.”

I smiled as the wide tunnel came into view. There were a few security guards manning the perimeter, but the lone figure standing in the center of the walkway caught my attention before they did. He dropped the phone from his ear and pushed it into the back pocket of his dark jeans. His bright eyes were pinned on me as I approached and his mouth curved into a panty-melting smile. My body stilled a few feet away. His head tilted as he watched me reach up and touch my hair then smooth down the hem of my dress. I was suddenly nervous to leave with him and he knew it. His eyes smoldered with the intensity of the moment and though I tried to cling to some shred of control, I knew I’d go with him no matter what. My knees trembled with a need to step closer and touch him.

Erik
.