Falling

Chapter Eleven

"I have to admit something." Owen's voice worried Sarah. He never sounded guilty. He never showed emotions like that.

"Okay." Sarah said, trying to grin but that slipped off of her lips. She leant back against her bed and turned towards Owen beside her.

"Ruby messaged me last night, and we started talking." Sarah didn't know why, but she felt cold. Her heart felt still in her chest and goosebumps lined her skin. She smiled at Owen though and sat up, looking down over him.

"Are you two getting back together?" She asked, closing her eyes for a second. Owen's body flooded with regret even as he said:

"I'm thinking about it, if that's all right with you?" He knew if it wasn't, that he wouldn't, but he knew that if he didn't, he'd regret it, because he did truly love Ruby, even after all of it.

"Hell yes! Of course that's fine with me! Anything that makes you happy." The words made Sarah want to choke and she didn't understand.

"But what she said to you..." Sarah waved her hand about even as her heart broke.

"Don't worry about it. She already apologised. She believed me. She was caring. There's no problem between us." When Owen left the room a few minutes later before Vic got back, without knowing why, Sarah began to cry.

#

Her heart was racing. She could hear them shouting behind her, but she needed to breathe. She needed to breathe or she knew she'd start to panic. She just had to make it through three arrows. Three arrows at a time. She could see the other girl beside her. Francesca something or rather. She was skinnier. She was prettier. Sarah could see her muscles as she shot. She forced her eyes on to the ground. She couldn't panic.

Sarah knew that if she started to panic, she would mess up this shot, and she couldn't mess up this shot. She'd already heard that in the gold medal match, Francesca had started by getting a ten.

Doubt crept in to the side of Sarah's mind, and she knew that she couldn't let it consume her. She paid attention to how her fingers were on the string. She knew her twenty seconds were rapidly counting down. She started her shot, and immediately flinched as her baby kicked her and her arrow fell off.

"It's okay! Just follow your process!" She heard Amelia shout. She started to reset, she only had ten seconds. The countdown began. By the time she was at transfer she had three seconds. She stabilised her arm and the moment her clicker went off, she followed through. Eight.

She took a deep breathe, staring at her feet as Francesca took her second shot in a slow, calm and collected manner. She saw Sarah as no competition.

Air felt thick and viscous as it entered Sarah's lungs. She knew what was happening. She knew that within a few seconds she wouldn't even be able to stand. She started to go through it all. Every language she could count to ten in. Every home she'd ever lived in, then the alarm went for her shot, and she realised she didn't know what her opponent had gotten, and she liked it that way.

As she set her shot she sent a message to Baby.

'Darling girl, can you hold off for just a few minutes?' Baby replied with a kick as Sarah got to extra set but she managed to stay steady. She loaded her shot, found her anchor position and transferred once again. There were no shouts of a time shortage so she focused on the gold. She focused on the gold, expanded and followed through cleanly, keeping her focus on that tiny spec. The arrow flew and she heard the word 'Nine' shouted from behind her. She turned to look at Amelia and both nodded. Amelia pointed up and Sarah nodded.

She heard 'ten' from behind her as the buzzer went off again. She repeated her shot process, only aiming a little low to the bottom of the gold. She held her breath as she went through expansion and willed the shot to go where she was hoping it would.