Page 81 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Her?

For one terrifying second she honestly thought maybe she had a fever and had simply imagined it.

“Really?..” she asked at last, almost in a whisper, with her mouth still slightly open in disbelief.

“Really,” Arkadiy repeated, coming closer and putting the ointment down beside her. “And now the work begins for real, Alisa, because you have very little time left and the preparation will be even worse.”

She blinked several times.

“But my knee?..”

“Tired muscles. Some inflammation. Nothing terrible,” he said, already kneeling in front of her and carefully spreading the ointment over both knees, because both of them hurt now, only one much more than the other. “Bandages, ointment six times a day, rest when you can. You’ve skated through worse.”

“Well…” Alisa tried to smile, although her lips trembled helplessly. “That’s just part of our lives.”

Arkadiy looked up at her.

“There shouldn’t be.”

Alisa lowered her eyes.

“There’s no pain on the ice,” she whispered after a moment, so quietly that she almost did not hear herself.

For a second Arkadiy said nothing at all, and then he only put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“Are you ready to go out?” he asked softly. “The others want to congratulate you.”

Alisa nodded.

Getting up was unpleasant, her knee immediately ached again, but not as badly as before, maybe because the ointment had finally started working.

Beijing. I’m going to Beijing!!!

The corridor outside was full of skaters. Almost all the boys from Arkadiy’s group were there, all the girls from Alyona’s group too, everyone talking loudly at once.

Everyone except Cherry. She wasn’t there. And the moment Alisa realized that, it felt as if somebody had suddenly driven a knife straight into her chest.

Because why her?

Why Alisa?

Had Cherry really skated worse?

Had Alisa really taken her or Anastasia’s place?

“Congratulations, baby!”

“You’re insane!”

“You’re a rocket!”

“We’re so proud of you!”

“You wanted this so much!”

“You trained harder than anyone!”

Voices crashed into her from every side, skaters hugged her shoulders, touched her hands, smiled at her, and Alisa smiled back automatically, nodded, whispered thank you, thank you, thank you, but somewhere deep inside there was still that horrible, painful feeling of guilt.