The Summer Games: Out of Bounds by R.S. Grey

ankle?” Lexi asked with a knowing smile.
    I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”
    “You know, I had to wrap my ankle this morning as well and Coach Winter didn’t bother helping me.”
    I kept my focus on my grips. “You should ask him to help next time, maybe he thinks you’re better at it than I am.”
    Molly snorted. “You’re delusional.”
    She and Rosie walked off to take the bars first and I hung back with Lexi. She nudged my shoulder and tilted her head to where Erik was working with June at another set of bars. He held her arms above her head and swept them down, showing her what form to take her for dismount. “You know he used to compete.”
    I nodded. “Most coaches were gymnasts at one point.”
    She shook her head. “He didn’t just compete, he made it all the way to the Olympics and quit just after trials.”
    “Really?” I watched him step back from the mat and wave June onto the bars. He was focused on her, his eyes narrowed, his coaching face in place. “Was he injured or something?”
    She shrugged. “No one knows for sure. He never did an interview about it or anything. He’s pretty much stayed out of the spotlight ever since.”
    Weird.
    “After he quit, he disappeared for a while and then popped up in Seattle to open this gym. He was only nineteen at the time. Crazy, right?”
    I nodded, mesmerized by the missing parts of Lexi’s story. Why would he quit right before the Olympics? How could a nineteen-year-old afford to start his own business?
    June dismounted from the high bar, stuck her landing, and squealed.
    Erik clapped. “Great, June. Did you feel how fast that last twist was? It needs be like that every time.”
    June nodded gleefully before turning to us. Her expression changed quickly, turning supercilious. She sauntered off the mat and walked right up to me, clapping her grips so chalk particles spiraled through the air, nearly choking me.
    “You’re up, Brie.”
     
     
     
    I called my mom later that night when Molly and the other girls were downstairs finishing up dinner. She’d been trying to get ahold of me since I’d arrived, but I’d been busy, not to mention a part of me wanted to put distance between my life in Seattle and my life back home. I could almost feel normal here, light, free from the pressures mounting in Austin.
    “I checked your bank account today.”
    I cursed under my breath, annoyed with myself for giving her access to it in the first place.
    “Oh?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it.
    “You promised me you had enough money to get through until Rio.”
    I could feel my throat closing up. I hadn’t thought about the balance in two days, but I knew it was still as abysmal as when I’d left it. I’d counted the drinks at the bar the night before, tallying up what it had cost Lexi to pay for them. She didn’t ask us to reimburse her, but I’d been nervous the whole night that she would.
    “And I do,” I replied, pulling confidence out of thin air.
    My mom sighed, and the weight of it nearly broke my heart in two.
    “Mom, I swear. I still have some cash on me and besides, everything here is pretty much paid for.”
    The cash was a lie, but the rest wasn’t.
    “They’ve got food and everything for you?”
    I smiled, because for once I wasn’t lying. “Yes. Tons of healthy stuff that tastes like high-protein cardboard, and they aren’t charging me for rent, obviously. The airfare to Rio has already been covered, so don’t worry. I don’t need much money while I’m here, I swear.”
    This time when she spoke again, I could sense a lightness in her tone. I figured she was relieved to know I wouldn’t be asking for any money.
    “And you know what?” I continued. “When I get back from Rio, we’re going to celebrate on me ,” I said, smiling at the image of my mother and me dressed up at a fancy restaurant. We never ate out while I was growing up. I hadn’t even been to a real restaurant until I went with a friend’s family