Austin Tucker couldn't really say he was happy, but then he couldn't really say he was unhappy either. Right now he'd say he was more happy than unhappy as his entire body ached pleasantly as he lay back against his pillow with a sigh, watching MJ pull on her dress. She was almost as sexy putting her clothes back on as she was when he'd been taking them off. Their relationship, if you could call it that, was purely physical and that was just fine with him. He didn't need any emotional attachments this close to the Olympic games. It would be his second Olympics and he'd be arriving with a huge target on his back. In Beijing he'd been a relative unknown, coming out of nowhere to win the All-Around, capitalizing on several mistakes from the favorites. Then at Worlds, his improved parallel bars routine had catapulted him to victory. The Olympics would be another story entirely and he had to be prepared physically and mentally.
She approached the bed, her back to him, "Zip me up, love?" she asked, the back of her dress still undone.
He reached up and pulled the zipper, covering the smooth mocha colored skin with the black silk. "Thanks," she said, picking up her purse from his dresser. "Gotta go, my flight leaves in an hour."
He nodded, swinging his feet off the side of his bed. His underwear was on the floor at his feet and he pulled it on quickly, walking her to his front door.
"See you in a few weeks," he said, kissing her quickly. "Have a safe flight."
He opened the door and his breath caught in his throat. There stood Kaylie Cruz, hand lifted, about to ring his doorbell. His heart began to race. "Kaylie," he said, feeling the tension swirl around them immediately.
"Hey Austin," she said as she eyes fixed on MJ. "MJ."
"Hi Kaylie," MJ said, nodding to her as she stepped out, walking quickly to her car, completely oblivious of the tension or deliberately ignoring it, Austin was not sure.
They both stood there, neither speaking a word as they watched MJ pull her rental car out of his driveway.
Finally, Kaylie turned back towards him, "Wow, I hadn't realized that things had progressed quite this far," she said, her eyes focused directly on the state of his undress.
"Kaylie, I," he trailed off, wondering why he felt like he owed her an explanation, when he really did not. She was the one who'd cut him out of her life. He shouldn't feel guilty about moving on.
"Are you going to invite me in?" she asked and he stared at her, not really believing what she was asking.
"Umm, yeah, come on in," he said, stepping back and allowing her room to walk into the front hall of his house. He closed the door and frowned, not knowing what to make of this situation. What was she doing here? Had anything changed? Everything about his relationship with Kaylie Cruz confused him. She was the only girl he'd ever met who'd done so, even compared to the other very complicated Rock girls that had drawn him to Boulder to begin with. Lauren was the simplest of them all, practically crying out for attention any way she could get it. Emily wasn't confusing in the slightest, especially after you got to know her a little. She was just a little fragile, though she put up a great front. Payson, what you saw was what you got, driven and passionate, about everything in her life. But Kaylie, she was an enigma, she ran hot and cold, definitely allowed outside influences to effect her, not only in the gym but in every part of her life, it's how the anorexia took hold in the first place.
"Are you going to put some clothes on?" she asked, looking away from him, obviously uncomfortable.
He shook his head. He was in no mood to make her comfortable. In fact he was glad to see her squirm a little. "No. Now what can I do for you?"
"I wanted to apologize," she said, still not looking at him.
He looked at her incredulously, "For what?"
"For how I treated you after I got home. You were there for me when no one else was and I acted like it meant nothing. It did mean something. I'm sorry."
Austin shrugged, "There's no need to apologize, Kaylie," he said.
"Yes there is," she began, but he cut her off.
"No, there isn't because I did what anyone else in my situation would have done, nothing more, nothing less. You didn't owe me anything. You still don't." It wasn't true and they both knew it. He'd told her that he could fall in love with her and she knew he meant it. She at least owed him an explanation.
Kaylie looked up at him and nodded, "Do you think maybe, we could be friends?"
Austin winced at the word. Friends. It was like a fate worse than death. "I don't think that's possible, Kaylie."
"I don't understand," she said, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "We've both moved on. I'm with Nicky and you're with MJ."
Her confusion would have been adorably naive if it didn't infuriate him so much. "Moving on, from what? We were never together, Kaylie. You drove me absolutely crazy and then one day I was just cast off completely." He tried to keep his tone moderate, clenching his teeth to keep himself from screaming at her. "I still don't understand what happened and frankly, I'm not sure I want to. You've moved on, great. Move on, but leave me the hell out of it." He had to walk away, he turned from her and walked down the hall towards his kitchen, before he completely lost his mind.
It seemed like Kaylie wasn't going to give up so easily. She followed him. "I don't understand at all. I told you what happened. I just - I'm with Nicky. I love him."
He wheeled around, "Then what the hell are you doing here begging for my friendship?"
"You're friends with Payson and Emily," she said, pursing her lips at him, like she'd won a victory.
"It's not the same thing," he said, the frustration apparently across his face.
She rolled her eyes, "Sure it is. You were interested in them both before and now you're friends."
Austin stared at her hard, trying to see if she really believed what she was spewing. "Where do you get this stuff? I was interested in Emily for about five seconds before I realized that it wouldn't work and as for Payson, that would never happen. You were the only one I was interested in. You were it, Kaylie. I'm not going to pretend that I didn't care about you, that I don't still care about you, but I'm finished being treated like shit. I don't want to be your friend." His tone clearly suggesting he wanted to be more than her friend.
"Austin," she said, her voice cautionary.
He groaned in frustration, "See, there you go again, I make a vague reference to the fact that I feel something for you and you pull away, with that stupid tone of voice like you're scolding a child. If you don't want me just say so, put me out of my misery."
Kaylie scoffed, "Yeah, you seem really miserable, Austin. MJ and you were just...you were just and people just don't...and you know what? How dare you say you have feelings for me when you're sleeping with someone else. Our agent to be precise."
"Technically she's not your agent anymore," he shot back just to be a smart-ass. "Your Dad fired her after your hospitalization, for what was it? Exhaustion? Yeah, it was all MJ's fault, wasn't it? Doesn't he represent you now?"
Kaylie narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head, "You know what I meant."
"Fine, whatever, besides why are you so angry about it. You don't have feelings for me, so why should it bother you who I sleep with?"
"It doesn't, I just hope MJ doesn't find out you have feelings for someone else," she said, her voice dripping with superiority.
Austin had enough. He'd reached his limit. "MJ doesn't care if I have feelings for anyone else." He moved closer to her with every word. "All she cares about is how I make her feel when we're together." He hovered over her, their bodies almost touching. "She just cares about how I make her body respond. Does Nicky do that for you, Kaylie? Does he make you scream his name the way she screamed mine no more than fifteen minutes ago?" he asked, in a low voice. He leaned down, his lips just above hers. Kaylie's eyes slipped closed, awaiting the contact, but he pulled back and then stepped away, leaving her standing there, mouth raised in anticipation.
He shook his head to clear it and when she finally opened her eyes again, he couldn't look at her, "Just get out, Kaylie," he said, his voice strangled with the effort.
She opened her mouth again and he shook his head, "I said, get out."
He watched her go, her shoulder stiff and her chin in the air. Then she was out the door and down his front steps racing to her car.
He regretted it immediately, but what was he supposed to do? Kiss her and then what? She'd toss him aside for the safe option again? The one that didn't make her feel too much? No, Austin Tucker was done being used by Kaylie Cruz.
Sasha unlocked the gym as Payson was finishing up their breakfast dishes. He groaned aloud as he saw the reflection of his father's car pulling into a parking space in the glass door. What the hell is the old man doing here? Boris, amazingly spry for his sixty-odd years, leaped out of the car and glared at his son.
"We must talk," he said. There was no option and no room for argument.
Sasha pushed the door open and swept his hand towards the inside of the gym, "Be my guest," he said as his father stormed past him.
"Sasha," he heard Payson call as she approached him. "You're Dad's here?" she asked, though it wasn't a question.
"Yeah, he wants to talk to me," he said. "Go on and start your cardio, use the elliptical machine, don't put any added stress on your knee. I'll join you in a little while and we can start your rotation."
Payson frowned at him, "I thought maybe I'd join you. If you're going to get a lecture, then I may as well too."
"Payson," he said, shaking his head. "I don't think that's a good idea."
She shrugged, "I'm not going to let you take it all on yourself. Besides, he might hold back a little if I'm there."
Sasha smirked, "If you say so, love."
Sasha hadn't been wrong. Boris had been yelling for ten minutes straight. It had mostly been unintelligible, Romanian and broken English merging together to make a language Sasha had been trying to interpret his whole life.
Then suddenly, Boris's voice became clear, "Are you having sex?"
Sasha, who had just been sitting there allowing his father to vent, looked up sharply. "Enough," he said, looking at Payson who'd turned several shades of pink. "Enough. We understand you're concerned. We understand you're angry and I understand you're disappointed in me. I'm disappointed in me, that I couldn't hold back and wait..."
Payson jumped in, "It wasn't just you," she said quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder lightly, trailing her fingers over the nape of his neck into the bottom of his hair. He turned his head towards her and met her eye. She smiled at him, "It was me too. It was the both of us," she said, then turned towards his father. "It wasn't just Sasha."
Boris stared at her hard, but she met his eye firmly. "Maybe so, but it is inexcusable. It must end."
Sasha looked his father dead in the eye, "You don't get to decide this, Dad."
Boris scoffed, "She is too young. The law says this cannot happen. So it must end."
Payson reeled on him, "The legal age of consent in Colorado is seventeen and I'll be eighteen next week," she fired in his direction and then rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm going to train, because World's are in two months and the Olympics are less than a year away."
Sasha stifled a chuckle at the expression on his father's face as Payson turned on her heel and marched out of the office.
They both watched her go and were silent for a moment, before Boris said, "You love this girl?"
It wasn't a question, but Sasha answered anyway. "I do. It's insane, but I do."
"And she loves you?" Boris asked, a frown still marring his face.
"I think so," Sasha said. "She says so."
Boris nodded and walked to the windows that overlooked the gym, he watched Payson running through her circuit, warming up for the day's training for a moment and then turned back towards Sasha, "In many ways she reminds me of your mother."
Sasha's mouth turned up just slightly, as his father echoed a thought that entered his mind regularly. "I know."
Boris huffed out a breath. "You are being careful?"
Sasha shook his head and gave in now that Payson wasn't in the room. "We're not - we're not sleeping together. I wouldn't ask that of her. She's not ready and I'm more than willing to wait."
Boris's eyebrows disappeared into his hair, "Patience was never one of your strong traits, son."
Sasha shrugged, "She's worth it."
"She may be," his father conceded, with a shrug.
Sasha shook his head, "She's my match in every sense of the word, Dad. It's crap timing, I know, but I can't change that and neither can she."
Boris's mouth twisted into a grimace and he nodded, "Honestly, son, objectively, there's a freedom in her that I could not understand. She is alive when she competes and I think that perhaps, it is you. You make her great."
Sasha shook his head. That simply wasn't true. Payson was a great gymnast long before he came along. "She was always great, Dad."
Boris held up his hand to silence him, "Not like this. No one has ever been like this. Not Nadia. No one. She has, how do you say," he mumbled something in Romanian, looking to his son for help.
Sasha provided him the word, "Out-classed."
"Yes, she has out-classed the world and it is not simply because of her preparedness physically and technically. She is different and it is because of you. It is the two of you together. It is something very special. Do not spoil it."
Sasha nodded, "I won't." Suddenly, Sasha felt the need for something he hadn't wanted for more than ten years, but had spent his entire youth searching for. He wanted his father's approval. "You like her then?"
Boris looked at him, surprise written across his face. Sasha met his father's eyes seriously. Finally Boris nodded, "Payson is a good girl. I like her very much. Your mother would approve."
The moment was over before it could really settle over them. Sasha stood from his seat at his desk and nodded to his father, "I've got to get her started on her rotation and the others will be arriving soon."
Boris nodded, "I will see you next week at National team practice. We will have World Trials here this year I think, two weeks from Friday. You will let Becca Keeler know she has been selected for the Pan American games? I would like to see how she does at the international level."
Sasha smiled, thinking about how excited the Keeler family would be. "I'll tell her today."
"Also, I must talk to you about Kaylie and Lauren," he said.
Sasha set his jaw. He knew this would be coming. Years ago the Olympic games had changed their format for team finals from a seven athlete team where six athletes competed on each apparatus, to six member teams, where the team's top three performers on each event competed and that was it. This year, the World Championships would be following the same format, to create a more streamlined system. After this year's Natioanls, Payson, Kelly Parker and Emily Kmetko had established themselves as the three top American All-Around gymnasts. That left three more spots on the team headed to the World Championships for specialists. Girls who excelled tremendously on one or two events, but not all four.
"Do you want me to talk to them or will you?" Sasha asked.
Boris nodded, realizing that Sasha understood. "No, I will speak with them. You are their club coach. They should feel you are on their side in all things. I will have Lauren on the beam for Emily. Kaylie on the vault for Kelly Parker. It is their path to the Olympics. They must realize this."
Sasha sighed. It had never happened to him, but he had seen it happen to his friends and teammates. One moment everyone competes, it is a level playing field. The next, they drop like flies as the degree of difficulty rises. Suddenly, they hit their ceiling, unable to add another half twist or hold that final handstand. That was the beauty of the team competition, six athletes could compete. Six athletes could earn a gold medal, as long as everyone performed to their strength. "They'll understand, eventually, it's good you're doing this now, though after Worlds things might change."
Boris shook his head, "I do not think so, though they must understand we will need solid scores from them on the first day, so they must not give up on the other events."
"They'll understand, Dad. It will just be difficult at first. It always is."
Boris scoffed, "What do you know of it? It never happened to you."
"It did happen to you though," Sasha said, not being able to resist the small jab.
"Ancient history," his father said. "You must go coach and I must go fish."
"Have a good day, Dad," Sasha said as he watched his father leave the office and march down the steps without another word.
Sasha followed close behind and watched Payson finishing up her circuits and wander over to the mats to stretch as the rest of the elites began to filter into the gym. He smile at Payson and she returned it brightly, before he turned to the other gymnasts entering the Rock. He smirked in their general direction. They did not know it yet, but the London 2012 Olympics, for them, started right now.