Gym Rats - Jackson Olson x OC

20

Jackson's POV

Lola, Cecelia and I are eating lunch before Cecelia goes to the pool. Cecelia was the quiet one, as Lola and I talked for a bit. Lola notices Cecelia's body behavior.

"You nervous, Cee?" Lola asks.

"Yeah, I am, I can't lie. I'm going into this event ranked second overall... and it's not by much. I'll be in guaranteed if I place second."

I watch as her eyes are not drawn on any particular person, they are darted in front of her. I put my hand on her back, and she exhales a bit.

"You got this, you're already going to Paris!" Lola encourages.

"Yeah but I don't want to be a one and done. I need another event like I need air. The 200... I knew I wasn't getting that one, but the IM I really want," Cecelia says. "I know I can do it."

"Hell yeah you can!" Lola says.

"You're going to be great," I say to her, and she turns to me and smiles. My hand is still on her back as she leans towards me, and I give her a side hug. Lola laughs at her.

"What are you laughing for?" Cecelia asks her.

"You look so stupid."

I smile a bit as Cecelia stands up and smacks Lola on the arm. I laugh as Lola looks straight at me and Cecelia sits back down.

"What are you laughing for?" She says to me.

"That Cecelia can beat the crap out of you."

"Yeah I can!" Cecelia says, smacking Lola again. Lola winces out in pain. Thankfully, we are sitting outside at this restaurant and nobody else is around. We have already paid and everything, we were originally just waiting for Lola to finish her drink... which she did.

"Abuse!" Lola cries jokingly.

Cecelia laughs and I do too. She looks over at me, and her face turns red. I find my cheeks turning red too. She doesn't look stressed anymore.

————

It's time for Cecelia's last race. Now that Cecelia knows where we are sitting, when she is introduced she waves up to us. We all cheer back to her, before she goes behind the blocks and gets in her zone. I look over at Sean, who has his stopwatch out and a clipboard. I look back at Lola.

"He's getting her splits, between each 50," she informs me.

I nod my head before turning back to the pool as the first whistle blows. Learning about this has been fun.

"Pop quiz," Lola says, "IM strokes in order."

Cecelia and Lola have been teaching me a lot throughout the week when we hang out in Cecelia's hotel room. Every night she comes to the pool to watch the races, but I've been able to spend a good bit of time with her before she's pulled away to be with her parents or Sean.

"Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle," I respond with full confidence as the second whistle sounds and we turn to watch Cecelia. She shakes out her arms on the block.

"Take your marks."

The beep sounds again and we watch Cecelia take the water. As suspected, she is ahead during the butterfly leg of her race. Once she hits her turn and switches to backstroke, that's when the rest of the field catches up to her. It's a tight race through backstroke and breaststroke, where she has an amazing pullout that gets her extremely far across the water, but she hangs in at third place. The freestyle leg is the last one, and she hangs a quarter of a body length behind the two girls in front of her. Sean whistles like crazy.

"Cmon Cecelia!" Lola screams.

"Go Cecelia!" I cheer as I watch her kick it into high gear.

I watch as Cecelia's kicks get faster. She's directly in line with the two girls ahead of her now, it's hard to tell which will win. The last 25, the girls all hang together. Into the wall, Cecelia comes ahead by the length of her head, shoots her hand ahead and out-touches the two girls closer to her. She won.

Lola and I's mouth hang open as we look over at each other. She starts screaming and jumping up and down. She was not slated to win that race... at all. She was slated to lose by a full second. A second is a lot of time in this sport.

Cecelia looks up to us and waves to us as Sean and her parents cheer after their moment of shock has passed. She slams her hand back into the water with a big splash. She hugs the girls around her again. She's victorious again.

————

Later, she rushes out to the group of us, throwing her arms around her mother, her father, and Sean. They all can't believe she did that, and that's what they tell her. Of course, Lola is up next where she hugs her excitedly.

"You are a beast!" Lola exclaims as Cecelia laughs out loud.

"I'm so shocked," Cecelia says. Lola doesn't let go of her, as Cecelia looks over at me. I silently clap my hands for her, and she laughs again. She won again... and she did it for me.

Once Cecelia is free of Lola's grasp, she comes over to me and I wrap my arms around her yet again. I take a deep breath in, not minding the smell of chlorine. It's her scent. And she wears it well.

I want to kiss her so badly.

"I'll come to your room later," she says softly with a smile before we all trail off to go back to the hotel.

I sit around in anticipation for about an hour before I hear a knock on my door. I quickly get up, as I've been sitting on the edge of my bed the whole time, and open the door for Cecelia.

Her long hair is wet from her shower, and she's wearing a baby blue tank top and light grey sweatpants. Her hands are behind her back, her blue eyes, which perfectly match her tank top, stare up at me. I can't help but to smile at the sight.

"I was promised something..." she says in a very lighthearted tone. It's killing me. I can't wait anymore.

"Oh, right," I say jokingly as she steps into my room and I close the door behind her. "What was it we agreed upon again?"

She glares at me, a smirk on her face as she wraps her arms around me, which makes me put my hands on her waist. I look down at her soft, pink lips before I gently press my lips to hers. She tastes so sweet, I can tell that she put on some mint chapstick before she made her way over. I want to go further, but I refuse to without her permission, and I pull away. I can't help but to let the reality of the moment sink in as I open my eyes, "I just kissed an Olympian," I say with a chuckle.

She laughs, letting the entire week leading up to this moment finally click in her mind, "I just kissed a baseball player... and I want to do it again."

And, of course, I can't say no to an Olympian.