It had been two weeks since Payson kissed Sasha in the gym, but it felt like two months.
Somehow, an altered version of their kiss had been leaked, and Sasha had been badmouthed endlessly. Parents of the Rock girls were demanding that he leave. Accusations of all sorts had been made against him since Ellen Beals had shown up at a parents board meeting displaying the photo.
Payson took out her anger on the vault. She ran, furious, and pounded both the springboard, the vault itself and the mat as she performed her new artistic vault and consequently fell flat on her back. She punched the mat with her fist as she pulled herself up and came face-to-face with Sasha.
"Payson-"
"I know, I know," she said, "slow down on the run and touch down lighter in my Yurchenko-"
"Payson, stop." Her coach grabbed her shoulder and stopped her from starting over. "Payson, we need to talk. My office. Now."
It wasn't a negotiation any more. She reluctantly followed Sasha across the floor, very aware to the stares of her teammates as the gym fell silent.
When the door was closed, Sasha pulled a shredder out from underneath his desk. "Look Payson," he said, gesturing for her to sit. "We can't change what happened. But we can change how we look at it."
"Yes?" she said, suddenly interested. He pulled two copies of the infamous photo out of the top drawer. He handed one of them to her. Payson's cheeks burned as she saw, once again, herself embracing her coach.
"I'm shredding this photo." He dropped it into the slot, and Payson watched it turn into tiny snowflakes of paper. "It doesn't mean I'm forgetting about it, but I'm not going to let it affect our coach-athlete relationship. Now you can choose whether to hold onto this, or to let it go."
Payson squirmed. "I made a mistake," she said, allowing room for him to respond.
"Yes," he acknowledged.
She sighed. "But I'm letting it go." She dropped her copy into the shredder too.
"Good." He sounds like Dr. Phil.
"Yep." She stood, and turned, ready to return to training.
"Oh, and Payson?" he asked, as she rested her hand on the doorknob. Her heart jumped.
"You were right about that Yurchenko." He smirked, and she rolled her eyes.