Mind the Gap (In Too Deep) (7 page)

Before long
, people from Art walk started filtering into the library and I had no time to think about anything but the questions they were firing at us. After the whole thing was over, I looked back on my evening and realized there was something to be learned from the fact that I was crushing on G.I. Joe.

Was I daydreaming about kissing Trevor?

No.

Should I stay in Seattle to have a relationship with someone I've never even
considered
kissing?

No
.

Was I excited about heading to California in December?

Yes!

Do it.

Chapter 8

Josh

"Wh
at the hell happened to
you
, Fight Club?" Collin inspected the side of my face with great interest. "Why are you going so hard?" he asked. "I thought you were just doing it to stay in shape."

He was talking about my black eye. It was more like my upper cheek/corner of my eye, but it was a nice one, full of blues and purples.

"I swim to stay in shape," I said. "MMA is for fun. And to answer your question, no, I'm not getting all Fight Club with it." I pointed at my eye. "It was an accident."

I couldn't see Collin's expression because my eyes were on the road. I was taking him to the airport to head for the Olympic Trials in Nebraska.
Rachel really wanted to be there, but she had some last minute stuff with one of her clients at the ad agency, and couldn't make it happen.

It wasn't that big of a deal. In two days, s
he and I, along with Gretchen, Joel and Emily would be getting on a flight headed for Nebraska to meet him.

"Is Zack on your flight?" I asked.

"Yeah, I asked him if he needed to ride with us, but his mom and stepdad wanted to bring him."

"Speaking of parents," I said. "When are your parents getting there?"

"They'll be there Sunday, same as you guys," Collin said.

"Meredith and Carson are both coming, I assume."

Collin laughed. "Meredith wouldn't miss it for the world, and not because she wants to watch me swim."

"What then? She's into swimmers?"

"No, she's still star-struck by Gretchen. She thinks it's
so
cool that I know a soap star."

"Didn't you tell her Gretchen's not on the show anymore?" I asked.

"She knows that," Collin said. "She doesn't care. She still loves Gretchen, and seems to think she can still pull some strings to get her on the show as an extra."

"
She probably can," I said. "And if not, just talk to Bailey."

"Oh, please don’t encourage her," Collin said.

"Why? You don’t want her to be an extra on a soap?"

"It's not that so much as I think she's sort of wanting to experiment and stuff, and I don't want her getting crazy with a bunch of actors."

"If it's not actors, it'll be her friends in San Diego."

"Yeah,
but if she comes here to try to be an actress, I'm gonna feel responsible for her. At least if she goes nuts in San Diego, it's on my parents."

"You can't be worried about that, dude
. Technically she's an adult."

We were just approaching the departing flights drop off, so Collin
dropped the subject of his sister and her impending meltdown. "Hey, thanks for bringing me," he said

"No problem," I said. "I'll get Rachel to you safe and sound. We'll be seeing you in a couple of days."

"Thanks man." 

"Hey," I said. "You got this."
Collin smiled a thankful, humble smile even though we both knew he was about to crush it in Omaha. He held out his fist for a bump before grabbing his bag from the floorboard of my truck and climbing down to the sidewalk.

****

Two days later, I was enjoying my own room at the nicest hotel in Omaha. As a part of Collin's endorsement, Joel paid for not only Collin's room, but also those of his friends and family. I heard he was planning on doing the same thing for the Olympics. Joel had more money than all of our dads and granddads combined, and he and Gretchen were both extremely generous with it.

A big group of us
decided to go out to eat the night before the Trials started. Ethan and Emily offered me a ride from the hotel since they had a rental car. As far as I knew, we were just planning on meeting everyone else at the restaurant.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Ethan. I knew he was looking good, but I wanted to feel out what sort of headspace he was in.
I was in the backseat so I saw Emily as she looked over at him, waiting for his response.

"I feel good. I hate to put it this way, but I think I can at least get second, which still puts me on the team."

"I know you're gonna make the team, but I think you can best Anthony."

"I'm in a good place with my game." Ethan said. "I'm feeling
confident."

I watched as he
smiled and reached over the console to grab Emily's hand, which made me shift in my seat and look out the window.

"Are your parents coming Emily?" I asked. Then I suddenly remembered Ethan mentioning something about Emily being estranged from her parents or something.

I felt terrible, but before I could try to take back my words, Emily said, "Actually they are, which is extremely weird for me to say since I haven’t seen them since I left home." I didn't say anything, but I wondered why they'd chance family drama at something as important as the Olympic Trials.

As if she read my mind, Emily looked back at me. "We've patched things up over the phone recently, and they're totally stoked to be here to support Ethan. They're not coming till Wednesday, anyway, since Ethan doesn't swim till Thursday morning."

"And if they act the fool," Ethan said, "I have a friend who gets in street fights all the time." He was
referring to my still-thriving black eye, which was now sporting some green tones.

"You just say the word, and I'll take care of it," I said.

There was close to two dozen of us that all sat down together at an Italian restaurant. The Trials would start in the morning, and the tables were buzzing with excitement and conversation. Rachel was sitting on my left, and Ethan on my right. Collin was on the other side of Rachel, and I saw her as she looked at her phone and then held it out to let Collin see whatever was on the screen.

"That looks good," he said.

Rachel was smiling and looking around the table like she wanted to show someone else whatever was on the screen. She looked at me, obviously deciding if I was a good enough option. "It's from Brit," she said. She waited for me to not look disgusted then flashed her phone. "Isn't it cool?" she asked.

The screen was small, but I could see that it was a cartoon picture of Brit sitting on a stool with a guitar. It must have been a flyer for a show, because her name was written on it, and there were details of when and where something was going to take place. I figured it was likely a concert instead of an art show or something since she was depicted with a
guitar. She shook the phone, making me lose focus. "Isn't it cool?" she repeated.

"I guess so," I said, shrugging. "What's it for?"

"She's done three shows at this little bar during happy hour, and apparently she's killing it," Rachel said. "She text me a photo of how packed it was this past weekend, and I got nervous just looking at it. Anyway, they're putting her on stage with one of their rock bands this Saturday to see how she does with their late night crowd. She may end up with her own band and a regular gig."

"I thought she had school and
a job with Gretchen." I knew it sounded stupid, but the thought of her singing in a band made me feel jealous for some reason. "And how's she supposed to do anything in Seattle on a regular basis when she's moving to Los Angeles?"

"S
he's not moving till December," Rachel said. "That's a lifetime for Brit. It wouldn't surprise me if she recorded an album and toured the whole Northwest before then." 

I had to work to school my expression. Hell, I had to work to try to figure out what
was going on in my own head at that moment. Part of me thought it was so cool that Brit was making things happen with her music, and the other part of me was slightly unnerved at the thought of her getting all that attention. I knew what the sound of her voice did to me, and I could only imagine hundreds of guys reacting the way I did.

"Do you remember hearing her sing in Portland? She's really good."

Did I remember hearing her sing?
What Rachel didn't know was that I'd thought about that song and the kiss that followed quite a few times since it happened. It wasn’t like I was obsessed with her or anything. If that were the case, I would have contacted her by now. It was just that I thought back on that evening with fondness, which surprised me considering I technically didn't care for the girl.

****

It was an outstanding week for our group of friends. The Olympic Trials were held for seven days straight, starting and ending on a Monday. During the morning hours, the swimmers competed in heats. The fastest times in the heats moved to the semi-finals. That was how the beginning of the week went. The finals in each event were held toward the end of the week.

I'd been around swimming for a long time and this meet was
by far the largest one I'd ever been to. We had a lot of down time, but it was worth it to experience the races. It was so exiting watching my best friends swim in such a prestigious gathering of athletes.

Was I jealous?
Absolutely not. I loved my job, and the choices I'd made in life in general. From time to time I felt nostalgic about swimming competitively, but I never felt bad about
not
doing it anymore. And let's face it… I wasn't good enough to make it this far, so it wasn't really an option for me. I did love being a spectator, though. Especially because I knew what awesome people these guys were outside the pool.

Guys
and
girls, I should say since I knew a few of the girls at the trials too. Most of the girls I knew well (including Zoey) didn't make the Olympic team. Sabrina, the girl Ethan messed around with, was the only one of our good friends who made it. She was pretty much a bad ass. She would be swimming in six events next month, which was more than any other athlete on the Olympic team, male or female.

Ethan
made sure to threaten my life if I mentioned
anything
about Sabrina to Emily during this whole Olympic process, or
ever
for that matter
.
He was totally whipped. I never thought I'd see the day when Ethan Erickson only had interest in one girl, but here we were. That day was now, the girl was Emily—and my life had officially been threatened if I let it slip about Sabrina. Not that I was scared of Ethan since I could totally take him, but I liked Emily and didn't want to do anything to jeopardize their relationship. Girls get testy when it came to exes, after all.

I couldn't imagine Sabrina not saying something to hint at it, but I didn’t
mention that to Ethan. I just promised to keep my mouth shut and he was good with that.

Anyway,
getting back to the results of the trials as they pertained to my boys. Collin did what everyone knew he would do. He would be swimming in five events at this year's games… more than any one else on the men's team.

Zack wo
uld be swimming in four events, and for two of them, he'd be alongside Collin. During one race, they'd be teammates on a relay, and the other, they'd be opponents in an individual race. They would be going against each other on the 400 Individual Medley, and while Collin was the favorite, Zack would definitely be giving him a run for his money. There were no relays in the Trials. They just made up the relay teams from the swimmers with the fastest individual times. Collin would swim in three individual races and two relays. Zack would swim in three individuals and one relay, and Ethan would swim in two individual races and one relay.

Ethan and his coach were both beyond excited at the outcome of the trials.
At this year's games, he would swim in both the 50 and 100 Free and because of his time in the 100 Free, he'd swim the 4x100 Free Relay. The icing on the cake was that he went all week without losing to his long time rival, Anthony Davis. Anthony made the team, and would be competing both against and with Ethan, overlapping just like Collin and Zack. Even though they were rivals, and a little less friendly about it than Collin and Zack, they would have no problem putting their differences aside to compete as a team in the 4x100 Free Relay in this year's Olympics. The whole team would be like a family.

Joel and Gretchen were grinning like Cheshire cats all week.
Joel knew having Collin endorse his goggles was a good move, but having that confirmed was a nice feeling for him… I could see it all over his face this week. I was happy for both of them on a personal and professional level.

Gretchen came to the Trials even though she was seven or eight months pregnant and Joel
acted like a crazy person when it came to her and the baby's safety. She wasn't going to miss the trials when the Olympics were out of the question. Even if Joel
hadn't
been overprotective (which he was) Gretchen would have known an international flight just two weeks before your due date might be a little risky.

Joel offered to stay home, but after
some coaxing from Gretchen, decided he would be going to the Olympics without her. The only reason he could be talked into it was because should she go into labor, he could be home quickly. When you're richer than sin you charter private flights that can leave immediately, and Joel was richer than sin.