Last Chance

9 - Talking

**4 MONTHS LATER**

**CHRIS POV**

It had been a while since everything went down with Aspen and I still hated how it went down but I still felt like I did nothing wrong, she wasn't ready, and I didn't think she ever would be.

Scott hadn't even talked about seeing her recently, so I wasn't sure what was even going on there and I was hoping she didn't cut off the entire family because of my stupidity. I was on my way to go to Ma's for the night to see her and ask for her opinion on the whole thing and what I should do next.

I pulled into her driveway and just wanted a quiet night. Talk to Ma about what to do and then nothing else. I was hoping no one else would be here. I walked in the front door and was instantly met by Bruno.

"Hey buddy, what are you doing here?" I asked him as I scratched behind his ears.

Before I could walk into the living room, I heard Ma and Scott start cheering really loud and I got confused.

"Okay what is with the screaming and why do you have Bruno?" I asked walking into the living room. I saw Ma and Scott sitting in front of the tv and some kind of gymnastics thing was on tv.

"A competition right now and Aspen is there competing." Ma said and I just groaned and sat down.

"Hey, no negativity. You tried to knock her down months ago and you obviously didn't succeed, it made her work harder. You need to leave her alone!" Scott snapped.

"Wait...what was said a couple months ago?" Ma asked and I groaned.

"Well, your stupid son came into the gym, Aspen wasn't able to stick a simple landing, she wasn't even trying, and your dumb son decided to tell her that she wasn't ready and couldn't do it. Told her she wasn't ready." Scott explained. Ma grabbed a magazine and threw it at me causing me duck since it was thrown at my head.

"What is wrong with you?! Why do you torture her?!" Ma asked.

"I'm not torturing her! I just didn't think she would be ready." I defended.

"Well obviously you were fucking wrong." Scott said pointing to the tv and I noticed Aspen was at the top of the leader board. The small smile on my face was well hidden but I was happy for her, she was doing well.

"Does she have anything left?" I asked.

"Yeah, her floor routine." Scott said and I smiled to myself remember what she said about the floor routines that day 'And floor? Are you serious? I mean, who doesn't wanna parade around in a leotard getting wedgies and doing dorky choreography? It's delicious.'

Bruno was sitting at my feet, and I loved having him around me again, it proved she hadn't turned him against me.

"So, when will she be home?" I asked.

"A few days. After this she will have something to do depending on how she places.

I just half nodded knowing I knew nothing about this and what she would be doing.

"Up next with her floor routine is Aspen Richardson." The announcer said. Scott and Ma cheered as I watched her walk up to the floor. She didn't even look nervous, she looked determined, she looked set and she confident.

I watched her walk to the floor and take a pose. The music quickly started, and I started counting 90 seconds in my head. She had 90 seconds to wow the judges. I also knew she couldn't go outside the white line around the edge.

90 seconds went by very fast. Soon she was posing again it and was over. She was out of breath and rightfully so. She did some amazing flips and turns in that routine. There was only one word I could use to describe what she did.