False Starts

Chapter 1

“RELAY!” Abbie exclaimed, smacking the dashboard with her hand. “It was the relay, the 4x100 freestyle relay that I missed because my idiot brother broke my tooth and we had to go to the dentist.” 

      Ryan laughed as he drove with one hand while reaching for Abbie’s large soda with the other. They were on their way to a club in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2012 Charlotte Grand Prix had just ended and Ryan had only a couple of nights of relaxation before he started training for Olympic trials. Abbie was trying to remember things about the 2008 Olympics. “Did he finally take a swing at you?” he asked, sipping at the soda. Because they had not spoken much in the past few days during the meet, Ryan was tolerating the swimming talk, a fact Abbie was well aware of, but she kept talking anyway. 

                “No,” she said, shaking her head, “We were playing catch and he hit me in the mouth with the ball. I told you all this when you got home. You never pay attention.”

               Ryan just smiled at her last comment. Yes, he did sometimes tune out but it was probably because Abbie had gone on about something irrelevant before getting to her actual story. She didn’t really mind, but he did tend to miss some of the things she said because of it. She probably didn’t mean to talk so much. Abbie was a fast talker and she covered a lot of ground especially when they hadn’t seen each other for a while. So Ryan did his best to listen to Abbie and vice versa because that was what best friends did for each other.

      Ryan and Abbie met when they were both just freshmen at the University of Florida. One afternoon, he saw her, in front of the library, her dark hair pulled back into a messy bun, arms loaded with books, red-framed glasses sliding down her dainty nose. She looked like she was trying to return about a million books, and it was only the 3rd week of the semester, which made Ryan think she was either a total nerd or a book hoarder. Ryan went over and opened the door for her and one of the books Abbie was carrying slid off the stack, falling soundly on his toe. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, dropping about three more on the ground as she bent to pick up the first one.

      Ignoring the pain easily, Ryan shook his head and smiled, waving it away like nothing. “Nah, it’s all good,” he said. “Let me help you with those.” He bent down to pick up the books and read out the titles: “’Ballet Shoes’, ‘Skating Shoes’, ‘Tennis Shoes.’” He looked at Abbie, his head tilted to one side. “Are these about shoes?”

      Maybe it was because she was looking at him in confusion but Ryan was able to take a couple more of the books from Abbie, taking her silence as an unvoiced request for help. “I mean, they’re like, all about shoes right?” he asked again, holding the door open with his foot.

      “Um, not really,” Abbie said, walking through still looking a little confused. “They’re about these three sisters, well adopted sisters who go into showbiz to earn money, only not all of them have the talent or even want to – And you’re not even paying attention,” she said, interrupting herself. “I’m sorry, apparently I like hearing the sound of my own voice.”

      Ryan just shrugged and smiled at her. “Love your own, right?” he said. He led her to a table and placed the books on top. “Where do you want these?”

      Abbie looked at him in confusion again. It seemed he was very good at doing that. “Just here, I’m going to read them some more before I return them,” she answered. Setting the rest of the books on the table she faced him. “Thanks, um…”

      “Ryan,” he supplied, holding out his hand. “Ryan Lochte.”

      Abbie took the offered handshake. “Abbie Dunham. Sorry you had to carry all those books.”