Page 62 of Revived
Elena Rossi
TheLuckyOnesGroupChat:
Knox: Good luck today. Miss you, Ellie.
Dom: I’ll be watching. Miss you.
Flynn: I know you broke up with all of us, but the Russians couldn’t even keep me away from today. You get to choose who you talk to, but I get to choose if I show up at an open event or not. Snap out of this soon, Ellie-Bellie. We’re miserable without you.
Xavier: Go out and show out. I’m proud of you no matter what. Love you.
** Sully has removed himself from the group chat**
Knox: Well, shit.
I don’t know how we got here so quickly. I was just losing my shit in the hallway of the gym. Now it’s the morning of the Olympictrials, and I have to pull my life together enough to compete. It hasn’t been easy ignoring everyone. I’ve been on the verge of breaking for almost a week. The only thing keeping me going is this competition. I had to turn off my text notifications the other day because the guys are still randomly texting me. I’m going to handle this, and then I’m going to beg for their forgiveness. My phone pings, snapping me out of my thoughts.
YSA: I want to see you before the gym today.
Yeah, apparently this guy is Mac 2.0 and knows how to get past any phone setting I throw up.
Elena: I can’t. I have to be there soon.
YSA: Make time, orI’llmake time to go visit your dogs.
He calls the guys dogs. I don’t know why or why he hates them so much, but he’s figured out that if he threatens them, I fold. Every single time. I know it isn’t good to show my achilles but I can’t help it. I’ll rip his throat out with my teeth if he so much as breathes in their direction.
Elena: I really do have to be at the gym soon.
YSA: Fine. I’ll see you after your competition. I’ll be in the crowd.
My stomach rolls with nausea, and I barely make it to the bathroom in time to empty its contents. My fingers itch to callsomeone.My Papa, the guys, Sullivan, anyone to help me. Instead I call one of the only people who I’m still talking to right now.
She doesn’t even get a chance to say anything before I’m rambling. “Addy. He’s demanding to meet with me before trials. What am I going to do?”
“It’s seven in the morning and he’s demanding to see you? Can he just fucking not. Remind me again why we aren’t going to your hot dad or the cops?”
She’s not a morning person as is, but add in the psycho who scared us that night, and she’s intolerant.
“We are, remember? Just not today. I have to get through today, secure my spot in the games, and then I’m going straight to the cops. You know as well as I do that a scandal the morning of the trials is not what any of us need.”
“I mean, technicallyyounotwe,but I get what you’re saying. Fine, so let him come to the gym. It’s secure, and what’s the worst that could happen? He asks for your dirty socks?” She laughs at her own joke, but I’m not laughing.
Addy doesn’t understand the severity of any of this. In her eyes a stalker is just some guy from high school who wasn’t in your league. It’s just someone desperate for attention; a noncredible threat. Only I was kidnapped by this asshole once before, so I know better.
We talk for a few more minutes before hanging up so I can grab my bag and head to the gym. It’s going to be a good competition. Kenz left about thirty minutes ago, so she had plenty of time to get her morning coffee fix. Now, as I’m sliding into my car and feeling the unnerving prickle at the side of my head, I realize I should have just gone with her.
Forcing myself to shake my head, I clear out the dark thoughts that are beginning to surface and pull out of the parking garage. I have fifteen minutes to get my head together and get ready to go kick ass and earn my spot on the team. Everything else can be dealt with tomorrow.It’s time to put up or shut up, or, as X has told me every competition since my first one as a kid.‘Go out and show out.’
The drive to the gym is quicker than I expected. Probably because I’ve been lost in my own head for the majority of the trek. Pulling up in the back of the building, I make sure to park right in between Addy and Kenzie. Trials don’t start for a few more hours, but we’ll mentally prepare, check our gear, and visualize our routines in the meantime.
I push out of my car and throw my strap across my chest to carry my gym bag. I throw the hood on my lucky jacket up, and with my head down, I make my way inside of the building. Once I’m in the locker rooms, I find my spot and drop my bag. We have warm ups that we have to wear when we go on the mats, but for now my baggy black sweatpants and Sully’s old cross country hoodie are my safe space. My makeup is already done, and my hair is pulled up into two French braids that lead into a high ponytail on the crown of my head.
Instead of socializing and joking with the girls like I typically would, I place my headphones over my ears and blast my ‘competition playlist’. Our lockers are less metal boxes and more a cubby with a bench in front of it. I curl myself up on my seat as I draw my knees up and lay my head on top of them. My eyes shut on instinct, and I allow myself to completely relax. Thoughts of everything and everyone aside from myself and the job that I have to do are pushed to the back of my mind.
I’m unsure how long I stay like that when I feel a hand land on my shoulder. Looking up, I find Addy staring down at me with concern creasing her features. I remove my headphones and straighten up as my muscles groan in protest after being frozen in one spot for a while.
“What’s up?” I ask while looking for the third member of our group, whom I’ve yet to see this morning.
