“Leaving?”Tyler knew he sounded like a fool, but he'd walked in the door hoping to share the great news with his best friend, and suddenly Eli was walking out of his life?He couldn't figure how he got there from here.
Eli's eyes softened, warming with the gold lights that Tyler loved...well, liked best.“Tyler, you're a smart guy, you work so hard.You could do a hundred other things besides gymnastics.If you stop now, while you're healthy, you could have a future.”His lips twisted wryly.“Maybe even find an actual boyfriend.”
Damn Eli for bringing that up, too.Tyler was in the closet and way too busy for relationships, and it was none of Eli's business anyway if he chose to stay that way.And why would he want to do something else when he hadthe worldin his hand?“None of those hundred things are the goal I've been working for all my life.None of them are what I'm the fucking best in the world at.”
“Third at Nationals.”
“Second on vault at Worlds last year and fuck you.None of those other things are what I've spent thousands of hours a year every year of my life training for.This is the Olympics, Eli.This is the gold ring.One more month.”
“A month of working harder than you ever have before?Going bigger, taking more risks?”
“I guess.”
Eli shook his head.“You don't need me anyway.The other guys on the team will come here to Colorado to train now, like you said.Pretty soon you'll have seven other guys to hang with who probably agree with your obsession.You won't even notice I'm gone.”
Eli turned and walked back into his room, slamming the door behind him.Tyler was left staring at his roommate's closed door.I definitely will notice.
Of course he would.Eli wasn't just his roommate.Over the last two years, Eli had become his closest friend and biggest supporter.Okay, maybe recently Eli had started this thing about how winning meets wasn’t worth the risk of getting hurt, but that was just because he wasn’t into sports.He didn’t get the point of playing hurt.Tyler figured once Eli saw that they Olympics weren’t just a pipe dream, once he realized Tyler really had what it took to stand on that podium under the Stars and Stripes, he’d quit nagging and get onboard with Tyler’s run for the gold.
The other gymnasts named to the team were great guys and would be fun to train with, but living here in Colorado Springs meant he didn't have to stay in the training center.He could hang out in his apartment right up to the moment they took off for London.He'd planned it that way, planned to share every moment of this amazing run-up month with Eli.
Except where was the point of that, if Eli wasn't going to be around?If Eli was angry, instead of excited?
He leaned against the wall and thought about Eli, gorgeous Eli, with his tanned skin and soft dark curls and changeable hazel eyes.When they'd first started rooming together, Tyler had been barely aware of the men Eli went out with, especially since a new guy showed up at the end of every term, hung with Eli for a night or a weekend and was gone again.Hookups were hookups, no big deal.
Gradually, he'd realized he was becoming pissed and jealous.He couldn’t pinpoint the moment when his feelings had changed, but he did remember an evening he spent pacing in his room, torn between his arrow-straight Olympic-bound career and the burning desire to march into Eli’s room and tell him that creep he’d picked up wasn’t good enough to lick his ass.And then offer… In the end, he’d focused on the approach of the Games and the knowledge that Eli’s flings were short-lived.He’d played it cool and he didn’t think Eli had noticed anything.After one careless remark, Eli had figured out that Tyler was gay too.Since then, they'd been even closer,as friends.But Tyler had never told Eli exactly what kind of guy made his heart beat faster.
That was one more thing he intended to put off until after the Olympics.
Tyler didn't have time to deal with Eli right now.He didn't have the heart for this.Damn Elifor doing this to him.Tyler needed to be at the top of his game, to get out there and compete with those Chinese and Japanese guys with their perfect routines.He couldn't afford a distraction.
Maybe if he put his objections that way, Eli would stay.Eli wouldn't want to make things even harder for him, screw up his concentration even worse.If Eli realized he couldn't get Tyler to quit, surely he’d stick around and support him like always, with a friendly joke or an icepack or just a quiet presence to watch a movie on those evenings when Tyler couldn't wind it down enough to sleep.Eli threatening to leave was probably all a bluff, to get Tyler to quit, and he was just going to have to call that bluff.
A guy didn't get named to the fucking Olympic team of the whole US of A and just walk away because his...his roommate...asked him to.
He'd call Eli's bluff, and they'd have three weeks together like always, until Tyler left for England, and then when he came back...When he came back, Tyler decided, he would tell Eli how he felt.He'd tell him how he looked for Eli's smile when he came home at the end of the day, how the smell of Eli's skin in the humid air of the bathroom after he'd had a shower could get Tyler helplessly hard, how intensely Tyler worked sometimes to get those hazel eyes to go warm and gold in amusement, or approval.He'd come out to the world for Eli and it would be okay.
Whistling softly, almost convinced, Tyler picked up his bag and headed for his room.
***
A week later, Tyler turned his car into the parking lot for the Olympic Training Center.The place was familiar, and yet suddenly different.For most of the year, security was low-key, and the athletes in training came and went with a wave at the gate.Being asked for his ID and carefully checked drove home the new intensity.This was it.The place was busy with top-level athletes of all disciplines, from boxers to swimmers, pouring in to start final training.His new teammates, and new coach, would be here.
The drive for the gold was on.
The past week had been an odd kind of limbo, working out at the Center, pushing himself and yet waiting for the real ride to begin.He'd come home more often than not to an empty apartment.Eli had been out a lot, and when they were both home they talked about boring stuff, like whose turn it was to clean the bathroom.Eli hadn't said anything more about moving out, and Tyler hadn't quite dared to ask.He felt like he'd been holding his breath for a week, in every sense.
Now it was time to breathe.
He sat in his car and stared at the building.He'd already spent long hours here, preparing for the Olympic trials, and before that, training for all the meets that had brought him this far.He was used to arriving at seven in the morning and putting in seven or eight hours of work—skills, strength and conditioning, massage, physiotherapy, ice baths, whatever it took.But the next three weeks would be one step beyond even that.Coach Andre Chilescue had been named to head the team, and he'd flown in yesterday.The man had a reputation as a hard, fair, and motivating team leader.
Starting now, Tyler's focus would be to eat, sleep, and breathe the Olympics.He got out of the car, ignoring the little twinge of his back as he straightened.Sitting was the worst thing for the pain.He was fine when he worked out, better than fine.He could almost fly.He shook off an image of Eli's face, of a sarcastic crack about being more worried about the landings.Doubt was a killer in this sport.A moment's hesitation would bring you down faster than all the bad form in the world.He was fine.
There was additional security at the door of the training center too.Once the trials approached, the center made every effort to keep reporters and fans away from the training areas, so the athletes could work undisturbed.The uniformed guard asked for ID and actually checked it against his list before unlocking the door.Tyler took a breath and stood tall.He’d done Nationals, he’d done Worlds, but this was the biggest yet: day one of the countdown to London.
He headed to the gymnasts' locker room and changed quickly.As he was stuffing an extra pair of socks into his grip bag, the door banged open and two young guys hurried in.“Stephen, Greg!”He held out his hand.“Good to see you guys!Welcome to Colorado.”
Greg shook hands briefly and then began unloading a duffel into one of the empty lockers, but Stephen grinned at Tyler and clapped him on the arm, excitement lighting his blue eyes.“Good to be here.This team is going to rock!”
