Chapter 21 #2
As soon as the awards are done, instead of going back into the competitor waiting area, the guys jump down from the front of the stage and come right down the aisle to us.
All around us, the audience is chatting and moving toward the exit, so we move out into the aisle to let others out of our row and wait for the guys to reach us.
“Congratulations!” Their moms rush forward to hug them and share in their success.
I hang back and wait for my turn, even though I want to shove to the front and throw my arms around them.
But I know I need to let their families come first. Not to mention, I’m still worried that maybe I’m the reason they weren’t as successful as they could have been.
If I wasn’t here distracting them, would they have completed their scrambles in the two nanoseconds that would have led to them winning?
Lukas meets my eyes over his mom’s shoulder as they hug.
In fact, all of their eyes are on me, waiting behind their parents.
Their gazes are intense, but I can’t read their expressions to know if they’re thinking “later tonight, we are going to have amazing celebration sex” or “we lost because you distracted us, so later tonight we’re going to dump you. ”
No, not dump. You can’t dump someone you’re not in a relationship with. But that doesn’t make the idea of them being done with me hurt any less.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get first for your relay,” I say when it’s finally my turn for a hug, and they all wrap around me at once. “At least you can still go to Worlds for your individual events.”
It feels so good to hold them after worrying about them up on stage all day. And there is no way I’m going to miss out on celebrating with them or comforting them after their loss, even if I did insist that we avoid any physical contact that could be construed by their parents as remotely sexual.
Besides, we’re friends. Friends hug each other when they win or lose a competition. And their parents were hugging them all. It would be weird if I was the only one not hugging them.
They all pull back at the same time, and I feel the sudden loss of their warmth keenly.
“Actually,” Sebastian corrects me, “because we podiumed, we’re still technically allowed to compete in the Worlds relay event.”
“We knew you’d make it,” says Andrea, rubbing her son’s shoulder soothingly. “That’s why your dad already booked our hotels and flights.”
“Always good to be prepared,” says Sebastian’s dad, nodding as if to himself.
I don’t think any of the boys would disagree with him. They take planning ahead to extremes in ways I’ll never tell their parents about.
“Even though we had every confidence that you’d win,” says Felix’s mom, “we should still go out somewhere nice for dinner tonight to celebrate.”
“Actually, we’re thinking of driving home tonight,” says Lukas.
“But it’s such a long drive!” Lukas’s mom looks to her husband for backup.
Hank obliges. “You’ve had a long day, you deserve to kick back and enjoy yourselves.”
“And we’re all here right now, it’d be so nice to spend quality time together.” Elliot’s mom glances quickly to me, then back to her son.
Elliot shakes his head. “We don’t have any events tomorrow, and we need to catch up on all of the homework we didn’t get done because we’re here,” he says. “We can’t risk our grades slipping.”
“Besides,” Lukas chimes in, “Rebecca has to work at the newspaper tomorrow. We don’t want to wait until tomorrow to leave and then hit traffic and make her late. That could jeopardize her job.”
The parents all turn to look at me, and I try to smile but it feels more like a grimace. I don’t mind being the guys’ excuse if they really do want to go home tonight, but I don’t want their families to feel like I’m stealing their kids away.
“All right,” says Felix’s mom. “I supposed we can’t argue with that logic. I just wish you could let go and have a little fun once in a while. You boys work so hard.”
“But all of their hard work is going to pay off, and they’re going to have a great life and be able to have all the fun they want after graduation,” Jen says, laying a hand on Lukas’s shoulder.
“At least tell me you’ll stop for food on the way home.
You don’t want Rebecca to starve before you get back to Boston. ”
“We’ll take good care of her,” Sebastian promises.
But the way he looks at me when he says it, I suspect he might be referring to more than just dinner tonight.
His expression is soft, not at all the way you look at someone who is just your friend.
It’s very sweet, and in another life I’d be melting, having a guy look at me like that.
But I’m getting tired of reminding them that we aren’t dating.
On the upside, at least he’s not looking at me like he’s thinking about eating out in a non-restaurant sense. Given our audience, that would be even worse.
We agree to meet up with the parents after we’re packed up to say goodbye, then make our way to the elevators. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay here?” I ask as the doors open and we pile inside.
I know they booked another night when they made the reservation, so clearly they’d intended to stay originally.
Are they truly changing their plans to make sure I’m not late to work?
Or because they didn’t get first in their relay and they’re tired of being around me, the reason they weren’t as focused as they could have been?
I’m not sure which idea I hate more. Obviously I don’t want them to be angry with me, but I also don’t want them to rearrange their plans on my account, especially given that traffic would have to be apocalyptically bad for us to get back late enough that I’d miss work.
It makes me think of how my mom will drop everything to accommodate my father, and he takes complete advantage of her willingness to bend to his will.
I would never intentionally take advantage of their kindness, but I don’t want to end up on a slippery slope where all of us just come to expect that my schedule is more important than what they want.
“Yeah,” says Felix, “we would rather sleep in our own beds.”
“And it’s better to be at home where we know everything is clean,” adds Elliot.
“What should I do with my slippers?” They’re super cute and fuzzy—not what I would pick out for myself, but they have been cozy to wear around the hotel room.
“We’ll pack them up for Worlds,” says Elliot, wrapping them in a bag and placing them in one of their suitcases.
They’re planning for me to join them for Worlds? I suppose that means they’re not blaming me for their second-place finish today. And it would give me a chance to continue my article series for class, which would be great, but they should ask me instead of just assuming that I’ll join them.
Between the way Sebastian looked at me downstairs, and their assumption that I would join them for Worlds, we need to have a conversation about what’s happening between us.
Later though. Their parents are all downstairs waiting for us and if we take much longer, I fear they’ll think we’re fooling around up here before we drive home.
Back downstairs, their parents wait with us while valet pulls their car around.
“I know you’re anxious to get home, but don’t drive too fast,” Jen tells Lukas, who nods solemnly.
“You all did a great job at this competition, and there’s no sense rehashing everything. Just keep working towards Worlds,” says Andrea.
“And Rebecca, you keep an eye on these guys. Don’t let them work too hard,” Summer tells me.
Then, quietly enough that only I hear, she adds, “And don’t forget to keep an eye out for signs.
They’ll lead you where you need to go.” She gives me a wink and then steps back as the car arrives, saving me from having to figure out how the hell to respond to that cryptic statement.
“We’ll be fine,” says Elliot, loading our suitcases into the trunk.
Then there’s one more round of hugs from the parents—even for me—and we’re on the road back to Boston.
There’s so much traffic, I’m glad Lukas is the one driving and not me. We’re all quiet, not wanting to distract him at all as he navigates the busy streets.
As soon as we’re out of the city, we pull off and grab a few wraps to go from a sandwich place just off the highway.
“What did you think of the competition?” asks Elliot, interlacing our fingers.
“It was really cool,” I tell him. “I don’t think I’ve seen so many people with such fast fingers in my life.”
“I’m sorry we weren’t the fastest ones there,” says Sebastian. He sounds so disappointed, and I grab his hand in my free one.
“No! Don’t you dare apologize for that. You all did a fantastic job, and I’m so proud of you. You’re all faster than I could ever believe, even having seen you solve cubes a lot of times before this.”
“Still, we weren’t the best,” Sebastian mutters, half to himself.
“Do you—” I start, then chicken out.
“Do we what?” Lukas asks, glancing at me in the rearview.
I sigh. “I’m just worried that I’m the reason you didn’t take first. That I distracted you or something, and you couldn’t focus as well as you normally would have because I was there. And I would feel really awful if that was the case.”
All of them begin to protest at once. From the driver’s seat, Lukas says, “You were absolutely not a distraction. Not at all. We loved having you there. It was awesome to go out to solve and see you out there watching. We didn’t take first because we weren’t fast enough, full stop.”
“But if you hadn’t spent so much time with me in between events, you could have been practicing more.”
Felix turns all the way around in the passenger seat and takes my hand from Elliot, gripping it firmly as he says, “There is nowhere else we would have rather been between events than up in that room with you. What you gave us yesterday was worth more than any first-place medal.”
I find it hard to believe that sex with me was a better prize than meeting their goal of first-place team at Nationals, but when I try to protest they all shoot me down. “But—”
“No buts,” Elliot says. “You being there meant a lot to us, and you were not a distraction.”
“If anything, we probably did even better than we would have normally, because we wanted to impress you,” Sebastian tells me, breaking some of the tension in the car as we all laugh.
“You always impress me,” I tell them. “You’re all amazing.”
“I just realized,” says Felix, letting go and twisting back to a more comfortable position, but keeping his head turned towards me. “We didn’t introduce you to people like we said we would.”
“Yeah, you only got to meet Calvin and Stephen,” Sebastian says, Stephen’s name coming out like it leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
“I liked Calvin, but Stephen was a real asshole. I hope he steps on a Lego right before he competes at Worlds.” This makes all of them groan with imagined pain, even as they laugh.
“Anyway, I’d actually kind of forgotten about that you were going to introduce me to people, to be honest.” Between parents and hickeys and sex, I’d had other things on my mind.
“Well, Worlds is longer, so hopefully we’ll have more time between events and then we can introduce you to people,” says Elliot, completely convinced that I’m coming with them when they haven’t even asked me yet.
I decide to just let it go for now. They’ve had a couple hard days, and we have a long drive ahead of us.
Instead, I let them slip into a discussion about what they can do differently for Worlds, from practice sessions to items they need to remember to pack.
It’s sweet that they want me there, and I’m going to let them go on believing that I will be for a little while longer.