Swim Again
Page 12
The mood of the crowd shifted from cheerful to worried.
“Brayden!” Vincent said.
“Dad?” Brayden said. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Reed,” I said. “Are you alright?”
Vincent growled. “Don’t you talk to me! Don’t think about saying hi to my wife, and step away from my son!”
“What do you mean?” Brayden said. “We’re friends, Dad. Chill out. You’re scaring us.”
Mrs. Reed backed away from Vincent. “Honey,” she said. Their kids backed away with her.
“I’m scaring you?!” Vincent said and chuckled. “He should be scaring you! He took your coach! He took your gold! He took your chance to win! But you know what? I fixed it for you. He was gone. Nada. No more swimming for him. No more champion. No money. But now he’s come back, and took your girlfriend in the process. I taught you better than that.” He paused to laugh.
“He’s going to take all of your opportunities to win, to make money, and you, Brayden, you let him make us all look like a fool! You come out of here jovial, smiling, laughing, saying you’re friends. He took everything that you’ve worked for in your entire life, everything I’ve worked for your entire life, and you’re going to stand there and hold hands and dance with him.”
As he spoke, the undercover police had surrounded him. Before they could arrest him, he charged at me and yelled. I punched him in the stomach, hit him in the face with an open hand, and my mom, not wanting to miss out on the action, swept him to his feet.
My dad ran in to grab my mom to stop her from jumping on top of him. Mauri ran to drag me away, so I wouldn’t get in any trouble. And Brayden stood there, staring vacantly at his dad.
The police arrested Vincent as his wife, other kids, and the rest of the small crowd watched in horror.
“I’m sorry,” Brayden said, still frozen. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said.
“I should have known.”
“There was no way you could.”
“But he’s my Dad.”
“Brayden,” Mauri said. “Look at me. This is not your fault. You are not him. You’re not responsible for what he did.”
Mauri and I looked at each other, wondering if Brayden would be able to make it. Little did Vincent know that his actions had a greater chance at causing his own son’s demise instead.
Chapter 16
Kaz
Alright I’ll admit it. I’m nervous. I developed Mauri’s habit and kept wringing my hands. The music I attempted to listen to didn’t help. I blocked it out. All I could think about was how this was my moment. My journey back to the top, the best swimmer in the pool, or just another guy with a sad situation.
With my foot still planted on the floor, I wagged my leg around. I had been unconsciously moving my upper body back and forth. I was sure that this was the footage shown to everyone back in the states. People would make their conclusions—he’s too nervous to do anything. Is he the comeback kid? Or watch and wait. He is the heart of a champion.
All these things made my anxiety worse. If I let it take over one race, it could have a domino effect on the others. I knew I could win. I had the knowledge; I had the skill; I was ready, but I needed to focus. I shot out a gust of air from my lungs, and shook off the uneasiness.
I glanced over to Brayden, who nodded at me.
Don’t mess up.
I got this.
Mauri
The announcers on TV had to be going wild over the drama between the two, Kaz and Brayden, reminding the audience of how they got there. How Brayden’s father tried to ruin Kaz’s career. And on top of that, the 200 Free was one of the most anticipated events.
A few guys from various countries were picked to challenge Kaz. The gold really was for anyone to win. With Kaz coming close to breaking the world record in the trials, the Olympic record not far away, I had total confidence that he could beat out Brayden and take first place in addition to breaking the records.
Rubbing my hands together was a nervous habit that I had developed while I was swimming, and so it wasn’t right if I didn’t do it then.
“Don’t worry Mauri,” Kaz’s mom said. She sat next to me and my mom was to the right of her. “He’s going to win.”
“Not if Brayden has anything to do with it,” Brayden’s mom shouted. We turned around to see her grinning at us. “May the best man win.”
“Well, good luck,” Kaz’s mom said. “Cuz he’s gonna need it.”
Brayden’s brothers and sister laughed it off along with the rest of us and the crowd of people forced to hear our trash talk. We piped down then revved up our cheering section when the guys were announced. Due to the luck of the draw, Kaz got lane four and Brayden was right next to him in lane five.
It was happening. The first of many final races. Kaz versus Brayden. They took their marks on the diving board. The buzz sounded, and they were off. Kaz’s dive was one of the best dives I had seen him perform. Phew. That history of a fracture didn’t bother him. And he was able to travel under the water for a great distance, cutting down his swim time.
We cheered as he glided through the water. His form was better than the preliminaries, but Brayden was a tiny bit in front of him. I balled up my fists as Kaz reached the other end and was close to flipping over for the turn.
Yay! He got a good push off of the wall. He didn’t go too early. On the way back, Kaz kept the same pace, a few seconds behind Brayden. When they reached the second turn, I saw that they were both on pace to set the Olympic and World records.
The crowd’s cheers got louder as they made the last turn. The hype about another man winning the race was just that as Kaz and Brayden fought for first. Kaz was creeping up on Brayden. A few seconds later, he was neck for neck. We all jumped out of our seats for the photo finish. Four more strokes… No Brayden is almost there. But Kaz took one strong stroke and…
“Ahhhhh!!!!” all of the people around me yelled. I was jumping up and down with them. Kaz won! Or at least I thought he did. He and Brayden searched for the scoreboard as soon as they came up or air. Kaz yelled and threw up his fist then splashed the water. He carried on with his celebration as he had beat Brayden by half a second.
I turned to Kaz’s mom and mine, who were crying, embracing each other. Behind me Brayden’s family was celebrating as well, although they would have been a lot wilder if Brayden beat Kaz. One of Brayden’s brothers grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth. I received some pats on the back and Kaz’s mom grabbed me into a hug.
“Mauri!” she said. “No Coach Mauri! Ahh! He won! Thank you!”
“No, it was because of your support,” I said.
“Group effort.” She peeked up at Brayden’s mom. “What was that comment again Abby? He needed luck?”
“Congratulations!” Brayden’s mom said and smiled. “For now. There are two more races between both of them. So get ready.”
“We’ve been ready,” Kaz’s mom said.
My mom got a hold of my arms and started dancing as we all laughed. Our section cheered and yelled some more, nonstop. Ah. The camera men found all of us. I glanced over to Kaz, talking about his comeback to the sports announcer. I stared, proud, and didn’t realize that tears had snuck out of my eyes until they blurred my vision. No! Not on camera.
As soon as Kaz and Brayden were finished giving interviews to the media, they came and found us in the stands. Our whole crew, and Brayden’s, had to squeeze past the poor people in front of us to congratulate the guys.
I patted Brayden on the shoulder as he passed, and he returned the favor to my hand. Kaz was right behind him with the biggest smile that I’d ever seen him wear. He jumped up onto the, I guessed, stools, to raise himself up to us in the stands. I thought he was going to hug his mom first, but he outstretched his arms and cupped my cheeks. He delivered a gang of kisses to my lips, then secured me in his arms.
“Congratulations!” I said.
“I fo
rgot to ask if you’d take me back,” he said in my ear.
“Yes!”
“This is all because of you, Mauri. You kept me going. Thank you, love. Thank you so much. This is going to be you next time.”
“Funny,” I said.
I rubbed his back a few times. He should have moved onto his mother by then. His lingering was going to make me feel embarrassed. I didn’t like the cameras on me that much. Well, not much at all.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Kaz said. “And I’m going to take every moment to show the world how much I love you. Now and forever.”
The End
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Aimi loves reading and keeping up on her shows when she’s not writing. She resides in Texas with her family.