Chapter 6
Payson stirred awake and felt a massive headache come on. Kaylie and Becca were sitting on either side of her, holding each hand as though she might die if they didn't.
"She's awake!" yelled Becca. Payson didn't remember anything from the night before. She vaguly remembered some of her date with max, but nothing was too concrete. The entire night went by a blur and the last thing she needed was to be yelled at by her mother. Soon, Kim walked into the room, wearing her extremly disappointed face.
"Payson Anne Keeler, you got drunk on a week day before practice? This is so unlike you! I am very disappointed in you! And why didn't Max stop you from drinking?" Kim felt more than just rage when she looked at Payson. What was wrong with her? Where was that innocent, focused girl she had raised? Payson stared at her like she had three heads. Actually, Payson did see three heads, and had trouble focusing on any one of them.
"My head hurts." She mumbled and collapsed onto Kaylie's lap. Kaylie stiffened, and sighed. She knew how this was going to go down but really didnt want to deal with it. Kaylie jumped at the chance.
"Pay, let me go get you some eggs and bacon, it really helps when you're hung over." Kim glared at Kaylie and she instantly regretted saying it. "I've heard…." Her voice trailed off. Payson nodded and got off of her lap. She quickly made an escape out of the room. Nobody wanted to be there to face the wrath of Kim Keeler, including Payson.
"Pay… what happened? Why were you drinking?" Kim tried to approach the topic with as much rationality as she could muster, but it just wasn't normal. Payson would never do something this reckless or stupid. Kim knew something must have really set Payson off, and she wanted to do nothing more than to be there for her.
"I wanted to be a normal teenager, it's what normal girls do right?" Kim gawked at her words and rubbed a hand over her face, looking at her skeptically.
"Sis, hate to break it to you, but you aren't normal. You're an Olympic hopeful and you've never wanted to be normal. What gives now?" Payson looked up at Becca on the far side of the room. In plain sight, she was right. Payson never cared to be normal as long as she had an Olympic gold medal around her neck in 2012. This was just her being hung up on Sasha's words. She knew she shouldn't have let it get to her, and that he didn't mean it, but it really hurt her. More than she would ever admit to.
"Maybe that's all I want to be. Normal." Becca, Kim and Kaylie who had just entered the room all barked out a skeptical laugh. She had no idea what everybody found so funny. Was it really that hard to convince the people closest to her that she wanted something different, other than an Olympic gold medal?
"Pay, we all know you don't believe that, why don't you tell us what's really wrong?" Kim tried to reason with her, despite her previous failed efforts. Payson rolled her eyes and sat up. For a moment she felt as though the room spun, but she pushed that aside.
"I don't care that you don't believe me. Kaylie, we're late for training, let's go. It's 5 o'clock and we aren't even on the road yet." She got up and threw her gym bag over her shoulder. Kaylie snorted mumbled something to Kim.
"Yeah, every normal girl says that." Payson internally rolled her eyes again and ignored the comment. She continued her journey to the door and into the SUV. Kaylie followed and sat in the passenger seat, still not quite believing what had just happened.
The drive to the Rock was really silent. Neither of them spoke a word till the hit the pavement of the parking lot. After she parked the car and tried to get out of the car, Kaylie pulled her back in. The sun had barely risen and she really wasn't in the mood for Kaylie's effort to get her to talk. Payson pulled her arm away and crossed it over her chest.
"Payson, I know you love Sasha." She paused to make sure Payson was listening. "And I know he loves you too. Now what's wrong?" Her eyes went wide. How did she know Sasha loved her? What happened in Cambria, stayed in Cambria... right?
"W-What makes y-you say t-that?" She rolled her eyes and glared. I flinched.
"That doesn't matter. All that matters is that you tell me what happened in Cambria that's gotten you this worked up." She didn't sound sweet and innocent anymore. Her eyes were determined. Pure fire, and no fear. Rolling my eyes, Payson unlocked the door.
"That doesn't matter either. Nothing happened and nothing is going to. Yes, he loved me and yes I loved him. He made it clear he didn't want me and for all I'm concerned about, I don't care," she lied through her teeth and jumped out of the car.
Payson walked into the Rock and marched straight into the locker rooms before Kaylie could stop her. She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the steaming hot shower. Shivered at the contact of the hot droplets of water on her cold skin, she tried to figure out how to piece her life back together. She couldn't help it when a few tears slipped down her flushed cheeks. What had she gotten herself into? She still loved Sasha and she was trying fill the void in her heart by taking advantage of Max's love for her. Max didn't deserve that, and she clearly didn't deserve either of them.
Payson continued with her silent sobs in the cold, dark showers, hoping nobody would hear the great, Payson Keeler, in her moment of weakness.
#
Sasha sat in my office thinking of what to do. Any moment, Payson was going to walk in and start to practice. How was he supposed to pretend nothing had happened and continue where we had left off? He ran a hand through his disheveled hair and looked up to see Kaylie Cruz standing in front of him, wearing a disappointed look on her face.
"Hi Kaylie…" his voice trailed off. "What are you doing here? Practice doesn't start till 8 today, is something wrong…" she cut him off with a scowl. It was obvious he was about to take a lashing for something, just wasn't sure what it was yet.
"How dare you ask me what's wrong! A better question is what's wrong with you! What happened between you and Payson in Cambria? She's practically one more deed away from being put in a mental institution!" Sasha balked at her, his eyes wide with surprise. He shook his head and tried to find something to say.
"Nothing happened in Cambria, Kaylie. She just came and convinced me to come back to Boulder because you girls needed me here." She barked out a laugh. Sasha had never seen Kaylie so mad, ever in his life. She always seemed like a calm, level headed girl.
"You two keep saying the same thing, and it's getting old. I know she loves you, Sasha and I know you love her too. I'm just trying to figure out what happened in Cambria."
"Y-you think I-I l-love her?" He let out a nervous laugh and she rolled her eyes.
"Sasha I know you love her. You'd be surprised to know that things you mumble in your sleep" she mumbled and shuttered, trying to shake away the thought. Sasha raised his eyebrows. When would she have heard him mumble in his sleep?
"What. When did you see my sleep?" He asked, his voice reading of sheer panic. She chuckled.
"I came by to the Rock to yell at you about screwing up the Payson we all knew and loved, and Marty opened the door and I heard you mumble in your sleep from inside, but that's not the point. What did you say to her Sasha?" Sasha looked up at her. Her eyes were filled with concern towards the girl we all knew. He sighed.
"I told her… that she should be a normal girl for a while, before she decided whether she wanted to give up all the freedom it took to be with me." She nodded and a smile grew on her face.
"You don't know how much that explains." She chuckled to herself. "wow you screwed up. You really don't know how mad she is at you, she went on a date with Max yesterday and she showed up at Austin's place drunk. If I wasn't there, I'm pretty sure they would have slept together. She also mentioned something about loving you, but I'm sure they didn't think much of it."
"They?" Sasha felt his pulse increasing. Who else heard about this? Sasha knew he was playing a dangerous game, and if this got out, it could ruin them both.
"Max and Austin but don't worry about it, I took care of it." Sasha slowly nodded, not knowing whether to painc or to feel relieved.
"And… Payson's here right now?" Sasha wanted to crawl under a rock and never face Payson again. After what he had done, he felt like the worlds biggest jerk. Kaylie nodded.
"You didn't think you could just ignore her all day, did you coach?" Sasha had to admit the thought crossed his mind more than just a few times.
"I can't can I?" He asked, more playfully that seriously. She shook her head.
"So, just to warn you, Austin most probably told Max about you approving our relationship yesterday, which means you're going to have to deal with Payson's wrath today." Sasha groaned and rubbed a hand over my face. When he approved their relationship, he didn't think about what it would mean for everyone else's romantic lives. Soon he was going to have to face a bunch of teenagers wanting to have their way with who they dated.
"Who's going to face my wrath?" His head snapped up at Payson's staggering voice. He met her red rimmed eyes, which matched his own. Hangovers aren't nice to anybody.
"Sasha is" Kaylie's voice cut through my thoughts.
"Why would Sasha feel my…" she trailed off and rolled her eyes. "Never mind." She placed her hands on her waist over her signature purple leotard and her hair in a bun.
"Kaylie, let's go stretch, I have a long day of training in front of me and I'm NOT looking forward to it. Sasha I need you to take a look at my beam routine. Thank you." With that said she turned a heel and marched out of the office, not turning back. Kaylie and Sasha stood there, dumbstruck to what had just happened.
"Am I the bloody coach or is she? I take it you still haven't told her about the no dating rule?" she shook her head. For once this morning, Sasha was glad at something that had gone right.
"KAYLIE!" they both looked out the window. Payson was sitting in her split, motioning her to come down. Kaylie gave him her last stern look and leant down to say something.
"Do something or I'm going to have to survive a day with Payson the gymnastics robot." She turned around and ran down the stairs over to Payson, and starting stretching her straddle. Sasha couldn't bear having to inform Payson that the no dating rule was being over turned. He couldn't bear having to stare and Max flirting with Payson all day around the gym.
This was going to be a long day.
#
Focus Keeler, it's just you and the beam.
Payson gave herself a little pep talk before mounting on the beam. Every gymnast knows that the mount is the most important part of your entire routine. If your balance is off on the mount, there is almost no way to recover the balance.
She rose to the balls of her feet and took off for her Round off Arabian Walkover Mount. She ran, and pressed the palms of her hands hard, away from the earth, pounded on the springboard and twisted her body into a half twist and landed on her hands planted on the beam. She finished the rest of the walkover and firmly planted her feet on the beam. She quickly went into a split leap with a full turn and smiled when her balance was still intact. She swiftly went into her triple turn on one foot, her right leg parallel to the floor. She wobbled a little and felt a hand come up and steady her at the waist. She instantly froze, and the hand pulled away. She continued, with Sasha watching her every move. She did her full turn illusion and got ready for the dismount. She charged into a double back salto with a full twist and landed with a long stride to steady her balance, smiling widely and throwing her head back in the salute, proud of completing a G level dismount and not falling on her butt.
She turned to Sasha whose eyes were as wide as tennis balls and was frozen, staring at her with awe. For a few moments, neither of them spoke, just stood with huge, silly grins on their faces. Sasha opened his mouth, but no words came out. Finally he spoke,
"Oh. my. bloody god. Payson Keeler, did you just do a G level dismount?" Payson happily nodded and launched herself into his open arms. He blissfully spun her around a few times and brought her back down to her feet. She buried her head into the crook of his neck and he held her tight against his body. "Payson, with that dismount your DOD is a solid 5.7! You are bloody brilliant, love."
The moment he called her love, the both froze, not wanting to let go of each other. She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. They were filled with love, just like the night he left. Before he could pull back her hands travelled towards the nape of his neck and, she pulled him in for a longing kiss. He didn't spend a single moment fighting it, he simply took control and kissed her with just as much force. He spent no time before deepening the kiss, and swept his tongue across her lower lip. She welcomed him and he explored my mouth. They both pulled away breathless and pressed their foreheads together, her one hand resting on the nape of his neck and the other on his chest.
"Payson," he breathed. She looked up into his blue eyes. "I love you so much, and I'm so sorry for being such an arse." Payson smiled and pressed a small, chaste kiss to his lips.
"I love you too, Sasha. And I forgive you for being such an arse." She pronounced the last word the same way he had, mocking his accent.
"Finally! I thought I was going to be stuck with the 'normal' Payson!" squealed Kaylie, who was leaning against the set of uneven bars, smiling innocently.
Sasha and Payson quickly jumped apart, and Payson felt a blush creeping up her neck. She looked up at Sasha who looked mortified. Kaylie seemed to have been amused by our display of affection because she looked like she was suppressing a giggle.
"Well, let's face it, I'll never be normal" said Payson, breaking the silence. Kaylie barked out a laugh.
"Pay, none of us will ever be normal, including you coach!" Sasha ran his hand through his already scruffy hair and searched around for a retort. Eventually he got tired and turned back into coach dictator.
"Kaylie on bars, Payson in my office." He started walking toward his office and realized neither of them were moving. "NOW!" he yelled, sending them flying to where they were supposed to be. Payson followed Sasha into the office and he shut the door behind him. Payson took her place in front his desk with a teasing smile playing on her face, batting her eyelashes at him.
"I'm sorry I've been so bad coach, what are you going to do to me?" She asked in a playful tone. He took two long strides and trapped her between the desk and his solid rock body. He hovered over her, but refused to touch her, which drove her mad. She looked down at his stomach and started to trace the lines of his abs through his shirt. She traced up his chest, and cupped both her hands around his neck, pressing a soft kiss to his jaw. She looked up at his face, his eyes blissfully were shut. He opened them and met her eyes, sparking a smile on his face.
"I believe we got interrupted out there." He nodded towards Kaylie who was working on bars. His lips ghosted over mine, his hot breath hovering over her lips. "As I was saying, I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean to be telling you what to do when I told you to be normal." She chuckled. "And by the way, I didn't think you would ever in a million years get drunk." She wrapped her arms around his large torso and buried her face in his chest.
"Apparently I also almost blurted to Max and Austin that I loved you." He wrapped his arms around her small frame and pulled her closer.
"Yeah, and you almost slept with him?" she stiffened. Kaylie didn't mention that part to her. She felt her pulse increasing. How was he so calm about this?
"I'm sorry Sasha, but you really hurt me when you said that I needed to be normal. It made me feel like you didn't want me." His grip tightened around her and he rested his chin on the top of her head.
"I can't live without you love, you're the reason I wake up in the morning and come to this place, I would much rather prefer sleeping in dragă, ai încredere în mine." Payson pressed a kiss to his chest and pulled away, looking out the window as everyone started filing into the gym.
"Can we talk about this after practice? I still have to go perfect my double back salto with a full twist so I can have it ready by the Olympics, and you still have some explaining to do some of your gymnasts." She smiled proudly and Sasha pulled her in to kiss her forehead.
"Okay love, tell me when you're ready to talk." Payson nodded and skipped out of the office, her heart feeling whole again. She ran down across the floor to Kaylie who was chalking up her grips. Payson slipped her grips on and chalked them as well.
"Judging by the size of your smile, I take it you and Sasha are together?" she asked, her voice low so nobody could over hear them.
"We're going to talk about it after practice, but I hope so." Her smile grew wider at the mention of Sasha.
"I'm so happy for you Pay!" Payson nodded cheerfully in agreement. Before she could respond, she felt a pair of arms swoop her up from behind and force their lips onto mine. By instinct, she brought her hands up to his chest and pushed him away, hard. She looked up to see Max's face staring at her confused.
"What's wrong Pay…" he asked confused. Payson's eyes went wide, as did Kaylie's. Before either of them could muster and answer, a loud, angry voice boomed through the entire gym.
"Spencer! My office! NOW!" Max jumped at the sound, but made his way to the office.
"Oh god that can't be good." Payson looked at Kaylie and nodded in agreement.
"Is Coach Cranky back? What did I tell you!" she turned to find Kelly making her way towards her.
"Does he think he can just come back and start off where we left off?" Emily joined in at attacking Sasha and stood on the other side of her. Payson knew it was going to take some convincing, but she hoped they would give him a chance.
"You know what, we could have survived without him." However, her teeth clenched at the screeching sound of the bitch of the beam.
"Let's just give him a chance guys." She knew it wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try, right? She got eye rolls from both Lauren and Emily.
"I trusted him Payson, and he left again, how am I supposed trust him ever again?" Emily ranted. Payson let out a sigh and turned to face her.
"I don't expect any of you to trust him like you did before, but I expect you to try. I know he's going to try to gain your trust back, so I expect you to try your best here, just like he will." Again earning myself eyerolls.
"Till this gets out of hand, why don't we practice while we can?" she asked hopefully. Kaylie nodded and they headed towards the beam, leaving Lauren and Emily speechless. Right when they both hopped onto the four inches of wood, a voice boomed through the gym yet again.
"Payson, in my office!" She turned to Kaylie who gave her a small smile, and she was off to the small office on the other side of the gym, awaiting whatever was about to come.
A/N I'm not going to lie, after writing my new story in third person, and reading this over again, I don't like the way it sounds at all. The one thing I hate more than writing something bad, is continuing it knowing it could have been better. I really feel like I'm not doing my best with this story and it's killing me! So, I'm going to scrap this story and start from scratch. I'm so sorry I didn't think of all this before I started this story! I'm probably going to take a month or so to get this all organized, and I'm going to post it again with the same title. Again, I'm so sorry for the inconvienence! I can't stress that enough! So, work on this fanfic shall cease for now!
If you are reading this story, I promise I will keep you updated on the reconstruction of this story. Just leave a review and I will PM you about it every once in a while I make progress. Again, I'm sorry, but I'll make the story better! Promise! Till then, check out my other story, Champion from Ashes: The Rebirth of Payson Keeler.
