Chapter 33
Dom and I finished the short program in first place, three-tenths of a point ahead of Evgenia and Pavel.
I didn’t know what to do with myself. We were only halfway through the competition.
Less than halfway, since the next skate was longer and would be worth more points.
Plus, we were so close in score that we could easily be knocked out of our position by one of the other pairs.
We had to be every bit as dedicated going into the next skate.
My brothers hugged me between them. They both towered over me and I worried they would crush me in their excitement. “You kicked ass,” Isaac said approvingly.
“Thanks,” I replied. I knew my brothers hadn’t loved being dragged to my skating competitions in the past. The fact that they’d both come meant a lot.
Levi clasped hands with Dom. “Congratulations, man,” my older brother said. He and Dom had gone to school together, but were never close. Their social circles didn’t overlap except for me. “What are you guys planning on doing the rest of the evening?”
“Nothing,” I said, not giving Dom a chance to respond.
I knew what my brothers would suggest. They would be eager to go out for something to eat and to see what else was happening in the area.
I had no interest in any of that. As exciting as it was to be in first place, I couldn’t get ahead of myself.
I needed to focus on tomorrow. There wasn’t much time between events this time.
We would have to start the next morning bright and early.
“I need to have a long shower and try to get to bed early.”
Isaac rolled his eyes. “Don’t you remember? She has to act like a grandma in the middle of competitions,” he said to Levi. “She won’t be able to relax until after her skate tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah,” Levi said. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry. Maybe tomorrow, then.”
Win or lose, we were going to need to let loose a bit tomorrow.
Either we were going to need to celebrate or we were going to need to drink away our sorrows.
We’d spent the last week watching people do the same as soon as their events were done.
And, judging by how early the partying had started, plenty of people had done the same as long as it wasn’t the nights before their competitions.
Since nobody wanted to be the reason Dom and I weren’t sufficiently prepared, it was easy to convince them to let us head back to Athlete’s Village. Our parents insisted on giving us another round of hugs and congratulations before they followed my brothers in the opposite direction.
Dom and I made it back to our building with the other skaters who had come to watch us.
Most of them were talking over one another, but Dom and I walked in relative silence.
I was still trying to wrap my head around the results.
Maybe he was too. Whatever the reason, our building was in sight before Dom nudged me and asked, “Are you really planning on just showering then passing out tonight? Or did you just not want to hang out with our families?”
“Probably,” I said. That was my usual routine. “Maybe I’ll watch some trashy TV. I think the new episode of that campy murder mystery show I like should be online by now. Then I'll just hope that I can fall asleep before midnight. How about you?”
He shrugged. “I know I should relax and go to bed. But knowing what I should do doesn’t make it any more appealing.”
We told everyone that we were going to grab some food from the cafeteria quickly before calling it a night.
It was dinnertime and I was starving. I hadn’t been able to stomach much earlier in the day.
Now that today's skate was done, my stomach was grumbling. If it wasn’t so noisy in the massively crowded cafeteria, everyone would have been able to hear it.
There was no worry about that in the cafeteria.
It was always filled with people, jammed together in whatever space they could find that were remotely large enough for their group.
When it was time for dinner, I often found it difficult to hear my own conversation through the cacophony of noise.
“It is going to be impossible to find enough seats close together for all of us,” I said to the large group of skaters.
Most of them had followed Dom and I to grab a bite.
Truthfully, that didn’t bother me. It gave me a built-in excuse to say I would separate from the rest of the group.
I appreciated their support, but I didn’t want to feel like I had to be on in front of anyone at that moment.
“Are you sure?” Blake Richardson asked. As one of the tallest members of the skating delegation, he took it upon himself to crane his neck and see if he could find a place that would fit us all with a bit of finagling.
“I’m sure,” I assured him. “It has been a long, stressful day. I just want to eat, then have some peace and quiet.”
We ended up separating into two groups. Dom and I grabbed a small table that could technically fit six.
Elodie, Seohyun, Alexa, and Seth joined us.
For Dom’s sake, I was glad he had Seth. They had really hit it off when we were together for the team event.
For me, I was grateful that Elodie and Seohyun volunteered to stay with us.
They could tell how overwhelmed I was. While Dom, Seth, and Alexa talked, they let me shovel food into my mouth in silence.
I closed my eyes as the warmth of the steaming bowl of soup radiated through me.
The cold from the rink had sunk into my bones.
The only reason I hadn’t been shivering all day was the combination of adrenaline and anxiety.
After the walk back in the cool air, I had been desperate for the first hot thing I could find. The soup was the perfect start.
By the time I was full, I had eaten enough to put my brothers to shame.
I didn’t want to know how many calories it was taking to fuel my body the last couple of weeks.
What I did know was that I would be hitting up the dessert bar and going back for seconds once we were done with our free skate.
I had been exercising remarkable self-control and ignoring the assortment of sweets, limiting myself to one small portion a day.
But after tomorrow, there would be a full month before the World Championships.
I could afford to cheat a little then. The only thing on the schedule after tomorrow would be the exhibition gala the top skaters from each discipline would take part in before leaving.
I let my spoon fall into my bowl with a clatter, not caring about manners, and leaned back in my chair.
With a full stomach and sore muscles, having a hot shower and a restful evening sounded less like something I needed to do and more like my ideal evening.
“I am going to head to my room,” I said to the rest of my table.
Dom put his nearly empty water glass down next to his empty plate. “I’ll head up with you,” he said. He stretched, raising his clasped hands over his head. “Olga would smack me if I stayed out.”
The thought of Dom being beaten in a physical altercation by petite, middle-aged Olga made me smile.
If it were anyone else I would have thought he could easily win.
But after so many years working with Olga, I knew she was tougher than she looked.
She was deceptively strong, both physically and mentally.
“Thanks for coming to support us today, guys,” I said to everyone else.
“You’re all going to come again tomorrow? ”
“Of course we are,” said Elodie. She sounded perplexed that I thought I even had to ask the question. “I want to see you guys kick ass again.”
Her confidence in my skills made me happy. “Thanks. Have fun tonight.” I didn’t know what they planned on doing, but there was something for everyone to enjoy. Whether they wanted to watch other sports, hang out and drink with friends, or check out the local nightlife, they had plenty of options.
Dom and I left the cafeteria to head to our floor together.
As always, noise from several of the other rooms was audible as soon as we stepped foot into the long corridor that ran the length of the floor.
I didn’t think there was any time, day or night, when it was actually quiet.
It was going to make going to sleep a struggle.
Going to sleep on the night between the short program and the free program was always hit or miss.
Either I was so exhausted that I just passed out or I was up half the night.
Sleep had been a struggle even when I didn’t have any events.
It seemed inevitable that the combination of the noise and the fact that my entire career had been building towards tomorrow would lead to a rough night.
I looked down the hall toward my door. I wondered how long the hot water would hold out for me. The weight of the next day was settling like a weight in my stomach. Tomorrow, we would know if our best was good enough. “We should probably call it a night.”
Dom shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Yeah.” He sounded like he had something on his mind, but it seemed silly to ask what it was given the situation.
“I can’t believe that it’s finally here,” I said, gently offering him an opening if he wanted to talk about it.
“I feel like I can reach out and grab everything I’ve wanted for so long.
” With a gold medal in the team event and a pairs gold medal, I wouldn’t even care that we hadn’t won the World Championships yet.
That was every year. There would be several more opportunities.
But this? Something that happened every four years meant you might have two chances in your entire life for victory.
Dom swallowed hard. Maybe my attempts at making him feel better had backfired. He usually didn’t mind talking about the competition we were in the middle of, but maybe the enormity of this was hitting him differently. He had a funny expression. “Winning tomorrow is everything you want?”
Shit. If he hadn’t felt the pressure before, he certainly was now. “Well, professionally it is most of it. I’d like to win Worlds at some point, but this is the big one.”
One half of his mouth raised in a crooked smile. “I love how you throw out Worlds like winning it wouldn’t be momentous in its own right.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that we could win gold before winning Worlds, but here we are.” I raised my hands. “I can't think about anything else.”
“What about—” Dom was interrupted by a sudden burst of noise as one door down the hall opened and half a dozen people poured out.
I couldn’t identify which language they were speaking, but even without understanding the words I could tell from their outfits and their behaviour that they were ready for a night out.
Dom and I moved to the side of the hall in unison, stepping out of their way.
When they had passed us by, I looked back to Dom. “What were you going to say?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing.” He directed the word more to his shoes than to me. There was something on his mind, but the interruption had clearly thrown him off.
I didn’t want to push. “I’m going to head in now so I can relax, if that’s okay with you.”
Dom nodded. “Goodnight.”
As soon as I’d locked the door to my room, I dropped all my things on the floor and headed to the bathroom.
I’d had a quick shower after the competition, but that was only to wash the sweat from my body.
My hair was still hair-sprayed within an inch of its life, I had my over the top performance makeup on, and I hadn’t gotten to stand in the steam.
I stripped out of my clothes and kicked them towards the bathroom door.
While I waited for the stream of water to heat up, I began the tedious task of pulling all the bobby pins from my hair and removing my hair tie.
My shoulders dropped as I stepped into the shower.
The pressure of the water on my shoulders was what I needed.
I stood there without moving for a few minutes before I started washing up.
It took two shampoos to feel like my hair was properly clean, so it took a while, which was just as well.
The smell of oranges and the heat were what I had been waiting for the last few hours.
Once I was done showering, I changed into a pair of close-fitting charcoal grey sweats and an emerald green shirt with long sleeves.
I towel dried my hair and let it fall over my shoulders.
I was going to have to spend plenty of time the next day getting it to look a certain way.
There was no point in standing under a hair dryer tonight.
That time would be better spent lounging on my bed, watching something over the top.
I was in a good mood and not feeling as anxious about tomorrow as I had been expecting.
There was no reason to mess with a good thing.