Release (Off Balance 3)

"And…"

"Is pizza okay? I'm starving and don't want to wait long."

I grimaced, my mood changing instantly. My mouth watered at the thought of eating a supreme slice of pizza. One day, I told myself. One day I'd order a whole pie just for me and scarf it down with a two-liter bottle of Coke. But not today.

"Remember what happened last time I had pizza? The horrible stomachache I had? I don't want to chance it. I'll order a salad, if that's okay."

Hayden eyed me. "Of course it's fine."

We pulled into the shopping center and parked. In less than five minutes, we were inside and seated with drinks.

"So, what kind of pizza should I get?" he asked, looking at the menu. My patience was running thin. I wasn't good with surprises, much less waiting for them. Not that this was a surprise, but it sure felt like one. I could never hold back when it came to birthdays or Christmas gifts and always caved beforehand.

Basically, I ruined surprises.

And friendships.

And relationships.

And marriages.

When I didn't answer, Hayden peeked over the menu at me. I leveled a stare at him and he busted out laughing. I tried to hold the flat line of my mouth and the heavy I-want-to-strangle-you-with-my-mind look, but I couldn't and started giggling. Picking up the straw wrapper, I formed it into a ball and threw it at him.

"Alright, alright, alright," he said.

"Get on with it, Matthew McConaughey."

"Since this is my last season with World Cup, I've been thinking a lot about my future and what I want to do. I debated whether I wanted to continue gymnastics in college or not. I kind of want to just experience college and the whole party and fraternity thing, but the thing is, you know as much as I do what this sport means. I don't want to give up gymnastics yet. Letting go would be extremely difficult, but given the hours we practice now, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the full college experience and train at the same time."

Shit. I'd forgotten Hayden was a year older than me. That meant he and Holly would be leaving soon. A sadness I wasn’t expecting crept over me. When they left, I’d have no one.

"But the more I considered collegiate gymnastics, the more I realized I could have both. Apparently, we only have to train like half of what we're training now."

"Half?" My eyebrows shot up. Half was a walk in the park.

"No more than twenty hours a week."

"Oh my God! That's nothing. I practice twenty hours a week just in my sleep." I joked.

"Right? Once I figured that out, I applied to schools all over the country. Ones that offer degrees in something I'd possibly be interested in, and ones with a decent men's gymnastics program."

I stared wide-eyed. "When did you have time to apply?"

"Over the weekends when the girls team was away at meets. I didn't apply to all of them, some recruited me."

While Hayden worshipped and found misery in the sport in the same manner as I did, going to the Olympics was never his dream.

I smiled. "That's so good. Where did you apply?"

"University of Florida, though they don't have a men's team. I just like the school. Stanford and Berkley both have men's teams, as well as Oklahoma and Arizona. But it was a school I'd never considered that requested for me to apply. University of Michigan. I figured there was no way I was getting in there"—he shrugged—"but I thought, why not? It couldn't hurt. Not my ideal school, it's cold as fuck there, but I have nothing to lose."

"Michigan has a great men's team. Some of the guys even competed in the Olympics, I believe."

"Yeah, I know. I mean, I found out after I looked at the school. I was pretty shocked."

His pizza came out with my salad, and Hayden slid a slice onto my plate just to be nice, then slid one onto his. I took a bite and nearly sighed, but I pushed it aside and dug into my salad. I took two huge bites when a thought popped into my head.

"What is Holly going to do?"