Emily's knee bounced rapidly with her overabundance of nervous energy. Her nails had all been gnawed to shreds over the course of the last twenty minutes. She wanted to pace, but didn't want to draw more attention to herself.
She shouldn't have come here. That much was becoming abundantly clear.
She hadn't exactly wanted to go to the gym, to watch everyone (Chloe) training and getting better while she was sidelined, quickly losing flexibility and muscle tone...but literally anything was better than sitting at home with her mother.
Truthfully, watching practice had only been an excuse – she was there to see Ian, as she wanted to talk to him, but she hadn't been about to invite him within five hundred feet of her mother, for obvious reasons.
When she'd arrived, however, she'd gotten no more than a brief glance and a distant greeting before he'd turned back to Chloe and her parallel bars practice. She might as well have been invisible...
Watching as he moved to steady her on the dismount, his hands on his hips in an entirely too familiar manner, Emily made a noise of disgust, rolled her eyes. Chloe was smiling flirtatiously up at Ian, reaching out to stroke his arm. And for an engaged man, he was sure doing a piss poor job of putting a stop to her overtly obvious advances.
Seeing them together made her stomach turn. "I think I'm going to be sick," she muttered to herself as Chloe giggled coquettishly at something he'd said.
"Disgusting, isn't it?" a voice said, startling Emily as its owner settled beside her on the bench.
She whirled around, relaxing when she realized it was only Tsia. "Are they always like this?" she asked as she pulled her friend in for an embrace. She wanted to ask if she and Ian had been that obvious, but didn't want to open herself up to questions she couldn't answer.
"Pretty much," Tsia answered with a shrug. "Thick as thieves, ever since you left." Seeing the way her face fell at the answer, she quickly offered, "But I think it's just because he's trying to replace you."
Emily's brow arched in question.
"I mean, because you were his star athlete," she explained. "Not because you two were..." She trailed off, shuddered as if the idea of the two of them acting all lovey-dovey was vomit-inducing.
If only she knew...
"How do you feel?" Tsia asked, changing the subject. "I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital...
Emily waved away her concern. "I feel like I'd like to get back to training before Chloe gets any cockier and her head swells up too big to fit through the damn door."
She laughed. "If anyone can put her ego in check, it's you," she agreed.
If Emily heard her, though, she didn't respond, gaze going distant and sad as she watched Ian wrap his arms around Chloe, whispering something in her ear. "I need to go," she said suddenly. "I can't... I have to..." She trailed off, shook her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Without waiting for a response, she dashed from the gym.
Tears filled her eyes, obscuring her vision so she couldn't see where she was going as she put as much distance between herself and the gym – and Ian – as possible.
She didn't stop until she was out of breath – leaning over, hands on her knees, panting and sobbing in a noisy and awkward combination that was surely attracting attention from passersby...attention she really couldn't handle just then.
As she struggled to catch her breath, she glanced up, realizing she'd made it all the way to the rugby field. A part of her that she really didn't want to examine just then hoped that Derek was there. If anyone could succeed in making her feel better just then, it was him. (And God, how did she let that happen?)
"Hey, are you okay?" a voice asked from behind her, startling her out of her thoughts.
She jumped up, whirled around, coming face to face with a girl she didn't recognize, but was looking at her with sympathy all the same.
"Whoa! Sorry, did I scare you?" the girl apologized, holding up her hands in supplication.
Emily brushed her hair away from her face where it had stuck to her tears. She shook her head. "No, no, it's fine. I'm fine. I..."
"Why don't you sit down?" the girl suggested as it was apparent she was absolutely not fine with her puffy cheeks and eyes red from crying.
Emily attempted a reassuring smile. "Really, I'm fine, you don't have to..."
Her assurances were interrupted by the girl grabbing her hand, pulling her down to sit on the nearby bleachers. "Do you want to talk about..." she started to ask, then paused, recognition dawning in her eyes. "Wait – are you Emily Prentiss?"
Emily frowned. "Have we met?"
Seeming to realize that had sounded a little creepy, she apologized and introduced herself, "I'm Savannah – we haven't met, I just heart about you through the grape vine... You're kinda famous around here."
"You're Savannah?" she repeated, stomach sinking for reasons she had no intention of examining.
If she found that response odd, she didn't comment, just nodding with a bright smile. "So, do you want to talk?"
Mouth hanging open for a brief moment, she debated what to say, eventually sighing, muttering, "It's nothing. Just boyfriend troubles..."
"Ha," Savannah said humourlessly. "Tell me about it..."
Emily felt a wave of perverse curiosity wash over her in spite of herself. "Yeah?" she asked in an attempt at nonchalance.
"It's whatever." Savannah waved off her concern. "I think he's in love with someone else..."
"Oh... I-I'm sorry to hear that," she stammered awkwardly.
"It's not like we were going to get married and raise a family anyway," Savannah said matter-of-factly. "We're still just kids, really. And neither one of us really has the time and energy to focus on a relationship with the Olympics coming up. You know?"
She nodded. She did know. Those were all the reasons she told herself why she shouldn't accept Ian's proposal. And yet...
Emily shook her head, sighed. "Boys..." she muttered.
Savannah laughed. "You can say that again."
