the love project ➛ austin mahone

20 - "Everyone was counting on me."

Chapter 20

"So we have 8,000 words right now," I told Austin and showed him the computer screen.

"That seems good. We've been working fast. Maybe we should get together on Sunday to write the last 2,000 words," Austin explained and I nodded.

"That'd work for me. Do you want to just come over here at any time? We'll be here," I told ustin and he nodded. 

"Sounds great, well I better get going, bye Hayden. Oh and see you at the race. We're betting on you," Austin said and grabbed his bag off the floor.

"Thanks," I mumbbled and watched him leave the room.

 I looked at the time on my clock and groaned. Today was our meet, the day my mom came, and after that I get to go to a sleepover with a bunch of lame, annoying losers.

Lucky me.

I got up from my bed and walked over to my closet and grabbed my cross country uniform and put it on. I looked at myself in the mirror as I put my hair up. I was wearing shorts that came to my mid-thigh and a tank top with the school logo on it.

"Hayden honey, your meet starts soon, are you getting ready?" Uncle Ben asked from outside my room and I took a deep breath.

"Sure," I mumbled and sat down on my bed again.

Everyone was counting on me today to win the trophy. The team, my coach, the whole school really.

But how could I win when I know that my mom is coming today? I bounced my knee up and down as tears threatened to leave my eyes but I blinked them away and stood up.

I can't cry.

You won't let your mom ruin your cross country meet.

You already let her ruin your childhood. You aren't going to let her win, Hayden.

You're stronger than that.

I forced myself to walk over to the door and walk out into the hall. I saw Uncle Ben sitting on the couch in the living room with a waterbottle in his hand.

"Hi Hayden, you ready to go?" he asked and smiled at me but the smile didn't reach his eyes and I knew that he was just as nervous as I was.

Not only about the race, but my mom.

Uncle Ben came from my dad's side. My dad and him were brothers. More than brothers, they were best friends.

But when my dad married my mom, Uncle Ben didn't like her and she didn't like him. They never had a good relationship.

I sighed and took the waterbottle out of his hands.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I exasperated and faked a smile.

***

"Okay so let's do this! I've trained you for weeks. You're ready and we'll win! Are we ready?" our coach yelled and put  her hand in the middle of us. We all piled our hand on top of hers and smiled.

"Go Team!" we shouted, since we didn't really have a team name.

"Alright, now you have ten minutes until the race starts, so get water and go to the bathroom. You have 5 miles ahead of you," she said and walked off to talk with the other coaches.

Everyone else disappeared and I walked over to my water bottle and took a big sip out of it.

"Hey," a voice said behind me and I turned around to see Alex. Uh oh...