The Truth Hurts

Chapter 32

Elise's POV

The feeling of being on the balance beam gives me the rush of fear but exhilaration at the same time. The fear comes from, well falling obviously but the exhilaration comes from the trick itself and when you land it properly.

"You got it El!" Sapphire says from the beam next to mine.

I nod more to myself than her. I inhale a deep breath, pushed off on my left leg into a front aerial and connected it into a backhand spring step out. My landing wasn't the best. I wobbled just a bit but didn't fall off.

I turn so that I could jump off of the beam to get water but my eyes connected with someone's. I froze. What the heck was he doing doing here? I didn't even tell him I was attending here. I turned to Emerald and Sapphire and gestured to them that, that is Daniel. At first they had no clue what I was trying to signal at until I pointed to my red wrist. Their eyes widened and they jumped off of their beams.

"What's he doing here?" Emerald questions first.

"I don't know" I say shrugging my shoulders. "I didn't even tell him I go here" I add.

I looked back toward the area Daniel is which is also where some of the parents stay. Daniel is kneeling down and talking to someone. My eyes widen and I suck in a breath at who he's talking to. It's Maya. I haven't seen her in so long. She has on a pink leotard and a white scrunchy securing her hair. Maya then heads out to the floor and when she does, she looks my way and this time her eyes widen too.

"Elise?" She asks.

I offer her a small smile and walk up toward her. "Hey Maya" I greet. "You remember me?" I ask her.

She giggles and engulfs me into a hug. "Of course I do"

"Do you remember when you told me about Katie?" I ask her unsurely.

Instead of saying no like I thought she would do, she says, "Yeah" almost immediately.

"You were right...about her" I tell her.

She laughs. "I know. I heard Daniel talking about it when his friends were at our house" she explains. Her coach calls her to floor and she steps around me to go but she stops mid step and turns around. "You know, Daniel talks about you a lot" she adds and skips away.

Dumbfounded, I stay where she left me thinking about what she told me. He talks about me? About what? Are they good or bad? I look up toward the parent area where Daniel is to only see him already looking my way. He smiles down at me and gives me a head nod. I don't do anything but just turn on my heal and went to practice my bar routine.

As I shut my locker after grabbing my gym bag out, Daniel stood on the other side of it. Once he saw me look at him, he composed his posture and cleared his throat.

"Hi" he greets, nervousness evident in his voice.

I give a slight but stiff nod and stepped around him to go to my car. But I don't make it far as Daniel grabs my wrist making me turn around. I flinch my hand away looking at him with fear.

"I'm sorry" he says pulling away. "I...just wanted to say that you're really good".

My lips twitch slightly upward not making a smile but just enough to show him gratitude. "Thanks" I say my facial expression going back to its dull form.

There was nothing more I wanted than to go home, take a nice relaxing shower and go to bed. Staying here was starting to give me anxiety. Now that I know Maya goes here, it means that Daniel would be here too. Just thinking about it makes my heart sink and beat fast out of fear. This was supposed to be the place where I could escape him.