10. Camden
Camden
“Best friends?!”
I knew Coach wasn’t kidding. And while Coach didn’t know the specifics, he knew we were dating in Brisbane and we weren’t now. He knew Shane was fired and replaced with Cassandra. For him to say we had “history” was putting it lightly.
And now we had to pretend because some asshat at NBC had a boner for his own voice. Wonderful.
“You okay, sugar?” Colton asked.
“Don’t you ‘sugar’ me.”
“Oh, is that how it is?”
I didn’t have time to get away from his arm as it curved itself around my neck.
He pulled me close to his body and dragged his knuckles across the top of my head.
I hated noogies, and Colton knew that. I tried to push him off, grabbing his waist, but Olympian versus Olympian meant we were evenly matched.
Him being taller than me didn’t help my predicament.
I gave up. “This is really helping, Colton.”
He finally let go. I shoved him away from me and fixed my hair. “What do you want to do?” I asked.
“Morning nap and then get lunch?”
“Sounds good to me.”
We headed back to the dorm. I flicked on my bedside lamp and lowered the room-darkening curtain.
“Why am I so tired?”
I looked over at Colton as he slipped his shirt over his head. That fucker had the body of Apollo. He caught me looking.
“My eyes are up here, you pig.”
I took my shirt off quickly and threw it at him. He leaned back against the wall. “Ooh, a striptease. Let me get my singles,” he said, shoving his hand in his pocket for his wallet.
I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, pulling my pants off.
“That’s more like it. The good stuff.”
“Oh my god, Colton. It’s nap time. Sorry I was staring. You’re...hard to miss.”
“Oh, I be-”
“Keep that innuendo to yourself, Colton James Walker.”
“Fine,” he said, giving up his spot on the wall. He turned his light on and I heard his bedsheets rustle. I slipped my briefs off and got under the covers. I was about to turn the light off when he asked, “How do you know my middle name?”
“I heard your mom yell at you once.”
“Hmm.” A few seconds of silence passed. “I don’t know yours.”
“Oliver.”
“Camden Oliver Kane,” he said, slowly.
Here it comes.
“Wait! Your initials are C.O.K. as in cock?”
“Yeah, you’re not the first to notice, dickhead.”
“Oh sweet baby Jesus, this is too good. I can’t believe your parents did that to you.”
“Sleep tight, Colton. Don’t let my initials get you too horned up.”
“Well, cock does it for me, so you know it will be hard.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I checked my alarm and shut the light off.
“See you in a coupla hours,” Colton said before I drifted off.
The nap was rejuvenating. We had lunch in the village and somehow the rest of the afternoon passed quickly. Colton, Alex, Orion and I met up at the shuttle stop around six-thirty to take it over together.
Erika: Flight was delayed. We just landed. Hope to make it through customs quickly. Good luck and I hope to catch at least the last half.
Colton leaned over.
“Nosy much? Erika’s late, that’s all.”
“Reel it in, sugar. Has Luke texted you at all?”
“No. Why would he do that?”
“So, y’all have no plan for how you’re gonna act?”
I hadn't thought about it much. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll just see what happens.” I shrugged.
“You’re gonna need a little more than that to convince the world that you’re best friends, don’t you reckon?”
Well, shit. I hadn’t reckoned, thank you very much, Colton.
I hated being fake. Being in the closet was one thing, but pretending everything was fine was another, especially when it wasn’t.
Not that the video was completely accurate, but Luke and I weren’t on friendly terms. So... this was going to be awkward.
“Alright, boys. Get changed and we’ll see you out there. Stay loose. Work out the nerves. We’ll have a huddle before the event selection.”
I emptied some of my bag into the locker and kept my phone, earbuds, and water bottle. My comp suit was hanging in my locker already.
“This is fancy,” I heard Colton say. He held the comp suit up to his chest.
“Yeah, they’re specially made for each of us,” Luke answered.
I made eye contact with him, and he smiled at me. I spun back to my locker. A butterfly or two had definitely fluttered its little wings. I needed to get over this mental hurdle getting dressed in front of me and go with it. It’s just pretend. I could do this.
“We look like superheroes,” Alex observed. We all had our comp suits on as we headed to the arena.
“I’d like to be Captain Abs. How about the rest of yo-” Colton’s snark ended the moment we stepped into the arena. It was packed. I watched Orion, Alex, and Colton soak it all in. Their eyes were practically bugging out.
“How are we supposed to do this?” Orion asked.
“You just have to pretend it’s like any other competition,” I said.
“Ignore everyone and focus on one or two things. Your family, your team, the bar, the vault. Just pick something,” Luke added.
“Y’all didn’t say it was like this,” Colton whispered in my ear.
I shrugged. “It’s not exactly something you can really prepare for.”
And you couldn’t. I’d been here before, and I still felt the nerves creeping up my spine.
China, Brazil and Germany were in our division and a group of athletes that didn’t have full teams. Most of the individuals were specialists, meaning they excelled in one or two specific events.
Rasmus Ivanov from Estonia was the reigning world champion on the pommel horse.
Team-wise, China was the biggest threat, but Brazil had become a team to watch out for the last few years.
Their star was hard to miss. Inácio Silva.
He could’ve been Luke’s little brother. Similar build, tan skin, dark hair, though he kept it shorter than Luke.
He was all business on the apparatus, but as soon as he was done with any routine, he broke into this ridiculously adorable smile.
He was something of a social media darling known for his emotive displays - the opposite of me in both respects - and he got a lot of attention for it.
“Should I be happy with the division we have? Seems like a lot of big guns,” I asked Noah, dropping my bag on the floor.
“Do you want the real answer?”
Not when you put it like that.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Great Britain annihilated their division. Home crowd advantage dwarfed anything Ukraine could muster. Russia and France didn’t come close to Japan this afternoon. You guys are the big team here. You’re going to crush it.”
Perhaps I wanted to hear that after all. “Thanks, Noah.”
“Go warm up, Cam.”
I headed over to the parallel bar. It was one of my weaker events.
One of China’s gymnasts was on it. The warmup was a weird set of unwritten rules regarding sharing equipment and time on c each apparatus.
Basically, don’t be selfish. Work your routine or skill and let someone else have a turn. I was next.
“You’ll do great.”
I practically jumped out of my skin. I knew that voice.
“Just tighten your core more on the first release and it’ll help keep your elbows in,” Luke continued.
I turned my head slightly. “Why are you talking to me? Isn’t Cassandra going to yell at you?”
“Di-did you…uh,” Luke stuttered, “f-forget we’re supposed to be friendly?”
Fucking hell. Yes, I did. “No.”
“You totally forgot.”
I smiled. “Okay, so yeah. I did.”
“There’s your smile.”
I turned around. Big mistake. I hadn’t bothered to look at him yet. Comp suit Luke was my second favorite Luke. This year’s singlet was bursting with his muscles and I could see his chest hair peeking out.
I could do this. I could pretend we’re friends. Just like last time.
But without fucking him.
I hoped he couldn’t see the bulge in my pants, but who was I kidding? He, of all people, probably noticed it right away.
I don’t know what made me say it, but I did.
“Do you have the coin?”
He smiled. “It’s in my jacket. Why? Do you need it?”
“No, I-” I what? “I was just curious, I guess.”
“Well, if you want to touch it, let me know.”
His grin said it all. He knew what he said. My cheeks pinkened a tad.
“Looks like you’re up.”
I stretched my arms across my chest a few times, chalked the bars and my hands, and swung myself up to start.
Luke was on fire. I had never seen him like it.
It motivated me to keep up with him. The other guys were a mixed bag.
Alex didn’t stick the landing on his vault and stepped out of bounds twice on the floor.
It seemed the pressure had gotten to him.
He was like Grant, though. He liked to be left alone.
Colton was first in our division on the horse, which was a big deal with Rasmus here.
And same for Orion on the floor. They were all but guaranteed to qualify for those event finals.
Ford was running the stats as we competed.
We had the two bar events left. Our fate in the other four event finals was sealed, but I didn’t want to know yet.
And they wouldn’t tell us even if we asked.
It would be too much of a distraction. The results flashed on the scoreboards around the arena, but I avoided looking at those as well.
I saw Coach walk over and sit next to Alex, who took off his earbuds.
Hopefully, whatever he had to say would work.
I ended up doing okay on the parallel bars.
I knew it wasn’t enough to make the event final, but I was hopeful I’d still qualify for the all-around.
Luke crushed his routine and my hug for him afterward was completely spontaneous, though I hoped Cassandra and Noah thought it was manufactured. Fewer questions.