Page 55 of More Than Chemical
“I’m not sure how close I’ll be able to get, but I’ll try.”
I looked out the window to see if any other app-based cars had come yet to pick up Jay’s cross-country friends from the dorm. But my breath fogged the glass and blocked my view. At least it wasn’t frost. A warm front had moved in, and we were experiencing temperatures in the high twenties. When a January thaw hit, you went outside as much as possible. Everyone needed a surge of fresh air.
The driver took off and then jerked to an abrupt stop. The three of us in the back seat braced ourselves.
The car accelerated again.
Good thing my tailbone had stopped hurting from that fall I’d taken on the ice.
Priya pulled out her phone. “Emma, make sure you split the fare before we get there.”
Seconds later, my phone dinged at me, and I accepted the charge.
I kept looking at my phone, hoping for a new text from Dallas, but there was none. This morning, he hadn’t been in our chemistry lecture, and even though neither of us had attempted to connect in class before, I’d been disappointed. No fine shoulders to stare at for an entire hour.
I took a deep breath. Well, if he wasn’t going to text me, I would text him.
On my way to ice cross.
Where are you?
I waited, but nothing. The message said delivered, but not read. I put the phone to sleep and put it back in my cross-body bag.
Priya was elevated on the center hump, inches taller than me. I was like a child stuck in the corner. With nothing to see out the window, I listened to her chatter, making sure to lean back whenever her waving arms got too close to my face.
“It’s a twelve-hundred-foot track of ice and drops ninety feet.” It almost sounded like Priya was out of breath. “There are turns and jumps and a hill to ascend. I read online that the skaters can reach speeds of over forty miles per hour.”
I paused to listen closer, trying to glean as much information as I could.
She kept on. “They’ve been running heats all day to narrow it down to the semifinal pool of competitors, and from that number, the fastest will continue on to tomorrow’s finals.”
“Are you feeling okay, Priya?” Emma asked.
“Of course.” She was smiley and bouncy. “Why?”
“I’ve never seen you this excited about…well, pretty much anything before.”
I had. When she’d found out I was the girl in the hoodie.
Priya’s eyes widened. “I love the Winter Olympics. When they’re on, I’m glued to the television.”
Jay cleared his throat. “This isn’t the Olympics or an Olympic sport.”
“I know that.” Priya licked her lips. “But it’s the closest I’ve ever come.”
“Give her a break.” Emma was tapping away on her phone. “From what I can tell, it’s kind of like snowboard cross or ski cross. Those are in the Olympics.”
Soon we were standing shoulder to shoulder among thousands of people. It didn’t seem possible for us to find other people we knew, but somehow Jay’s cross-country guys found us.
I was enthralled by the production of circling spotlights, the glistening serpentine track, and the roars and whistles coming from the crowd. Cowbells rang on all sides of me. I didn’t have a drop of alcohol in me, yet I was dizzy.
The loudspeaker system echoed in my ears. Then over the shouts came “Racers ready. Five-second warning.”
I rose onto my tiptoes. We still hadn’t muscled our way close enough to the track.
“Can you see what’s going on?” I asked Jay.
He pointed to a huge video screen. The camera zoomed in on the top of the track, where four riders were crouched behind gates, their names listed below them. There were female workers up there too, standing behind them, smiling, wearing cold-weather berets and black peacoats.
