Valencia Vicory
“Go Michael!” I shouted, jumping up and down alongside his sisters and his mom, “Come on!”
As Michael hit the wall, taking his sixth gold in the Beijing Olympics, I was engulfed in a hug with his mom and his sisters, all of us shouting. His next race had the same end results with us all cheering him on the entire way. I pulled away from the second group hug to make my way down to the ready room, where I would wait for my last race.
“Valencia!” Jeff called, catching up with me. I held out my wrist, already knowing what he was chasing me for. He inspected it again nodding and telling me to take hitting the wall carefully. I nodded, taking a deep breath and jogging the rest of the way to the room. I sat down, blasting music to distract me from the nervous chatter going on around me.
I prepped myself to jump into the pool, waiting for the signal. As I came upon the wall for each turn I reminded myself not to hit my wrist too hard, only really allowing myself to slam it as I pushed myself into the wall for the win. Pushing myself above the water I stared at the board, not quite believing that I had in fact, gotten another gold. After my medal ceremony and answering questions from reporters, dodging the questions that were asked about my relationship with Michael. I wasn’t quite sure what we were, so I decided to play it safe.
After Michael’s final gold, by a fraction of a breath, and his medal ceremony, I tackled him in a hug. He caught me and spun me around laughing. Forgetting ourselves, we kissed each other, hard and long. After we were bombarded by questions from reporters immediately.
“So does this mean that you two are together?” A reporter asked, excitedly.
I glanced up at Michael, silently hoping he would take the lead in answering this so that I wouldn’t say the wrong thing.
“Well, that depends. I’ve been putting off asking this until after the Olympics, but, Valencia, will you be my girlfriend?” Michael asked, looking down hopefully at me.
I felt myself breaking out in a gigantic smile, “Yes!” I said, “Of course!” Then he kissed me again.
Michael and I spent a week off of training to go on dates and just hang out and relax after the Olympics. Michael swore that he was done and that he was retired, but I knew he still had a large what-if on his mind. I left him to his decision, telling myself that I’d only step in if he didn’t figure it out soon. As much as I enjoyed relaxing, I knew that I still had to get back to training, and hope that Michael would understand my hectic schedule.
