Page 67 of Going for Gold (Sweet Cravings 3)

I opened my eyes. "I'm great." And I meant it. I was hyper focused. There wasn't a doubt in my mind about what was about to happen on that court. I'd finally beat Gabriela once and for all.

"You should probably get dressed. The game starts in 20 minutes." Kristen already had red, white, and blue Kinesio tape wrapped up and down her arms and legs and lots of the other girls were already doing their pregame rituals.

I nodded and stood up. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and opened up my locker. As soon as my locker door opened, photos fell out, spreading all over the floor.

"What the hell?" I bent down to pick them up and froze. Oh God. I could feel the tears coming to my eyes. Chris banging Gabriela. Tons of photos of Chris fucking Gabriela against a wall in Club Blue. It was obvious because there was a neon blue sign above their fucking heads that said Club Blue. I flipped one over. It was dated from the night Chris had won his gold. He lied to me. I knew he lied to me!

"Alina?" Kristen's voi

ce sounded miles away. I saw her crouch down next to me and before I knew it, she had grabbed all the photos. "Alina?"

I sat down on the locker room floor. It shouldn't hurt like this. Chris and I had broken up. I liked Bryce. Why did it hurt so much?

"Alina?" Kristen put her hands on my shoulders. "Gabriela's just trying to get in your head. Don't let her win."

That's why it hurt. It wasn't that Chris had cheated on me. I knew he was a dick. It was the fact that Gabriela had won him over. She always beat me. She always took everything away from me.

"Alina, say something."

Instead I burst into tears.

"Shit," Kristen mumbled. She wrapped her arms around me. "Alina, you can beat her today in the one thing that matters the most to her. In front of the whole world."

But I didn't feel like facing her. I felt like admitting defeat. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and pull the sheets over my head.

"It's time to kick her ass once and for all."

***

I knew my eyes were still puffy as I made my way out of the locker room. The pep talks from Kristen helped.

The pregame warm-ups went by in a blur. All I knew was that way too many of my practice serves hit the net. Focus!

When it was time to shake the other teams' hands, I knew exactly what I was going to say to her. I was going to look her in the eyes and say, "Nice try." And then I was going to annihilate her in the game. When I got to Gabriela, she locked eyes with me and smiled, just like always.

She grabbed my hand under the net. Before I could say what I wanted, she said, "I'll make sure to tell Chris you said hi." She winked at me and released my hand.

I was going to kill her.

Kristen put her hand on my back and pushed me forward to shake the next player's hand. "I hope you're enjoying Alina's sloppy seconds," she said to Gabriela.

Gabriela scoffed.

Why didn't I say something clever like that? Why didn't I say anything at all?

I took my place on the court. I scanned the crowd looking for Bryce. That's what I needed. To see him cheering me on. To know that one person was on my side. I saw him smiling, holding his sign. Tim and Alex were on either side of him. Alex had a sign of his own: "I heard gold wasn't even the best thing you ladies are getting tonight." There was a winky face at the end.

Oh my God. I laughed out loud. I shook my head and looked across the court. There was no way Gabriela fucking Santos was beating me again.

And she didn't. We won the first game by three points, despite the fact that the refs were making awful calls. Coach Hammond's face was bright red from yelling so much.

As we switched sides, Gabriela walked by me. "Looks like your boyfriend's here," she said with a huge smile on her face.

Again, I couldn't think of anything witty to say to her. We had just beat her in the first game, and she was still the one crawling under my skin. Was she trying to have sex with Bryce too or something? I looked up at the stands to see what Bryce was doing. Instead, I saw Chris taking a seat a few rows in front of Bryce. He was wearing a Team Brazil T-shirt. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand, like he already knew Gabriela was going to win.

Are you fucking kidding me? Traitor!

My first serve of the game went right into the net. The rest of the game wasn't much better. None of my bumps seemed to hit the mark. And every single one of Kristen's spikes went right at Gabriela's face. The only problem was that Gabriela was good, and all she had to do was take one step back and bump it perfectly to their setter.

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