Lost in You

Chapter 16

"Why didn't we do this earlier?" Maja screams in my ear. I dug under a Polish flag that waves past my head. "Because we didn't have the time?" I scream back, over the music and the announcer that tries to keep the crowd's spirits up until the competition starts. We came early and Maja's already on her second mulled wine. Only to keep her warm of course as she says. At least working fast this morning and coming early rewarded us with a place right in front of the fences. Front row view to the jumps. Sophie and her boyfriend are somewhere here as well, the reason we even came in the first place, but unlike with the training she once advised us to go to, we're actually excited about it this time. I smile when I think back to that training. Had Sophie not told us to go, Marius would have never caught my eye. Or I his glove. "Or a competition near us," I add, but Maja is already distracted with chatting to a family next to us before taking a photo of them. A moment later, her arms are around my neck. "Smile," she shouts in my ear which makes my smile end up looking a little painful when the father of the other family returns the favour and takes a photo of us as well. "Do you want anything else?" Maja puts her phone back in her pocket and waves her empty cup in front of me. I take her wrist. "No, and neither do you. We'll be here for at least two more hours and there's going to be a break in which you can drink more, but I do want to make it to the end of the competition." Maja giggles. "Of course. You need to know if he wins. Are you even going to cheer for our jumpers?" I roll my eyes. "Of course. I'm going to cheer for everyone who makes it down safely." "Don't forget that I'll watch you and now, can I at least bring the cup back?" Maja asks. I laugh. "Only if you promise to come back without a new one." When Maja has vanished in the crowd again, I turn back to the illuminated hill. The sun has begun to set behind the mountains around us. My eyes follow the slope of the hill upwards to the small wooden plank in the distance where the first jumper will soon sit, looking like a play figure that a kid pushes down the hill. They'll only become real when they stand right in front of me, full-sized. I wonder if Marius is somewhere up there, thinking of me as well. But no, he needs to focus. He doesn't even know I'm here. I kept telling him I have to work during the competitions, that I'll depend on his information again because there won't be any time to watch it on the TV in our hotel room. Because our decision to come today had been so spontaneous and I didn't want to disappoint him in case it didn't work out."What are you thinking about?" Maja is back next to me. I shrug. "Only that I'm glad I'm not the one who has to jump down there." Maja tilts her head to the side. "Maybe it's the alcohol, but I'd like to try it once. Not here of course, but a small one. Did you know you can take a course and try it?" Maja drums her fingers on the metal fence in front of us, eyes still on the ski flying hill."I think I did, somewhere," I mumble, not wanting to mention that Marius has mentioned the same thing once and I'd looked it up afterwards. "Maybe I'll come back here for a holiday once and then I'll do all the things we don't have time for right now," Maja says, rocking back and forth on her feet to keep them warm."I'd come with you, but we might have to split for a day or two, depending on what you want to do," I say. Maja smiles. "I'll take it as a challenge to convince you otherwise until then." I want to say something back, but the announcer gets louder and draws our attention to the fact that the competition has started. It's not the first time I see them jumping right in front of me, but it's the first time I'm in the crowd of a real competition. Soon the mood has swept me along and I cheer along with Maja and the people around me, no matter who is jumping. It becomes a blur of faces and jumps around me until I hear a familiar name that makes me freeze and my heart skip. Maja gives me a curious side glance when she notices the change, but doesn't say anything. Instead, she raises her hands to show me her fingers are crossed for him as well. It doesn't matter that he crosses the green line. I'm much more relieved when he stops his skis in front of the swinging door and has made his first competition jump safely down. I relax against the metal fence and miss the next jumper because I watch him change and pack his things as much as I can from my position. Until Maja hits her elbow in my side to draw my attention to the fact that a German jumper is next. She's so excited, I'm not sure another mulled wine in the break is that good of an idea for my sanity. "I thought you couldn't come." Maja distracted me enough that I didn't notice Marius coming until he's right in front of me, skis propped up in the snow next to him. "I thought so too, but we hurried in the morning and then got the afternoon off," I stutter, taken aback by the fact that he's standing right in front of me now after I've just seen him fly. And by the fact that my first impulse is to ignore the fence that is separating us and hug him because I'm so glad he made it down uninjured."I'm glad you were able to come and watch this." He looks back to the hill where someone else flies down right now. The people around me cheer, but I have no idea who just jumped. "Me too. I've never been to a real competition." "But I saw you here before," he says. I smile because he remembers. "On the advice of someone in the hotel we used our break to come to the training even if we had no idea what we were supposed to do here. Maja hadn't even watched a competition before," I tell him. He chuckles."I'm lucky you came anyway then. We might have never met otherwise." For a moment, the world around me seems to fade. I forget the people around me that have already started casting us curious glances. The competition that goes on in the background. "I'm glad I came that day as well. And today of course." He bites his lip and looks at the fence between us as if he's about to say something else, but then thinks better of it. "I need to go up and get ready for the second round. But we'll talk later?" There's hope in his voice. "Sure. Text me when you have time," I say, trying to make it sound casual while my heart does somersaults in my chest. "I will." "Good luck," I call after him. He turns around and gives me a thumbs-up before he vanishes out of my sight. I don't think I process anything of the competition after that.