He let out a deep sigh. “I picked up an injury. There’s not much I could have done differently.” Whether he believed it or not was irrelevant; Elliot needed to get his dad off the phone so he could wallow in peace.
“I don’t understand how you could have let this happen. Everything we’ve worked for, Elliot.”
Elliot let himself fall backwards onto his bed. “I didn’t let it happen, it just did. And you should be happy. You’ve still got your little prodigy on the team; hope he doesn’t crack under the pressure.”
It may not have been fair to Chris. He liked the kid, but Elliot had been working towards this for years, and to fall at the last hurdle made him want to tear everything down.
His father let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know what to do with you, son. If you were any other athlete, I’d have dropped you from the books for this.”
“But you won’t, right?”
Silence from the other end said everything.
“I’ll figure something out…a plan….I will,” he said.
His father grunted. “I know you will. I want you to stay close to the team. Watch Chris for me. You’re not wrong about the pressure.”
“I will,” Elliot replied. And he meant it. Elliot needed to find a way to get his life back on track. He could support Chris, and maybe that would give him a tiny slice of redemption that he desperately craved. He doubted it though. Nothing had even come close to giving him that sense of absolution. Nothing except the quiet undoing that came from kissing Jackson Jennings. But he’d never have that again.
“How’s Mum?” he asked in a too transparent effort to change the subject.
“She’s well. Sends her regards.”
Elliot doubted that. For all of his father’s micromanaging, he had nothing on Elliot’s mother, who simply didn’t bother with him at all.
“Send her mine as well.”
“Of course.”
The line went dead, and Elliot stilled, staring at the ceiling, almost unseeing. He lay there for a moment, wondering where it had all gone wrong. Then he picked up his phone and navigated to Jackson’s profile, maybe to make it all hurt more. There were plenty of new videos. Sponsored posts, as well as the more personal ones. Jackson with his family, with Darius and his boyfriend, all smiles and surrounded by people. It was the full gamut of the things that made up Jackson Jennings—the public persona, at least.
He sighed and put his phone away. Because, though he’d never voice it out loud, the worst thing about losing the Olympics was that he knew he wouldn’t be able to be there on the start line next to Jackson, sharing the biggest moment of their lives. And he’d done it all to himself.
Chapter 21
Jackson
London, May, 12 weeks to the Olympic Marathon
Announcements were out. His recovery period had passed in a haze of press, physio, and short trips to Leicester whenever he could swing it…and wallowing. There had been plenty of wallowing.
Training was starting up again, and Jackson knew he should have been thrilled to be working alongside his best friend. Thrilled that his next big race would be on the Olympic stage. Thrilled that he was finally earning the kind of money that allowed him to help out back home, despite his parents' reluctance to accept any of it.
But he wasn’t.
He was restless.
A text came through from Brea.
Brea
Have you seen this? You should thank him, my phone hasn't stopped since it went up.
She'd attached a link to a video published on theRunner's Lifesite. When he clicked the link, a still image of Elliot smilinghis practised smile at the reporter greeted him. Jackson's heart stuttered. Elliot had been through so much lately, between the injury and losing out on the Olympics, and Jackson knew he hadn’t made things easier.
A part of him regretted how it had ended. He’d overreacted to Elliot’s jealousy. In the moment, the reminder of what he’d been to Darius, how he’d been nothing but a casual secret for years, had hollowed him out. He’d known he was standing on the precipice of something similar with Elliot—or worse, because the feelings he had for the man were about as far from casual as you could get.
In the image, Elliot looked as calm and press-ready as he always did. It was nice, in a way, to see that not even the implosion of his greatest ambition could stop him from turning it on for the media. Jackson clicked play on the video, and his heart hammered as Elliot's smooth voice came out of his phone. Jackson’s breath caught as he heard the tiny Elliot on the screen say his name.
