Diving Into Love, I Go - A Tom Daley Love Story

Chapter Six

Tom's POV

"Let's call it a day." Andy Banks, my coach, stated as I got out of the water. We've been training for almost 7 hours now and in my opinion I think we both had enough of training today.

"Good work Tom." he said and patted my shoulders as I did my stretches to cool down.

Andy is someone I truly respect, he's been my coach since I've been talent-spotted when I was a tender age of seven. Andy never lets me live down the day I met him. He always remind me that when he first saw me I was just a little boy by the side of the pool crying and refusing to get in. I didn't even get on the board let alone dive off it. He said to the assembling coaches that I will not make a diver. But in his defence he hasn't seen me dive off the board!

Andy can be a bit of a tough and strict trainer but I respect him for that. He's been training me for more than half my life now and he's very good at reading me. He knows when to push and when to hold back especially if I'm in a bad mood. He knows how I truly work and has seen me through my ups and downs and has always been there to see me through all my competitions. He's more like family than my trainer.

"Who's the girl?" Andy asked out of nowhere and caught me of guard.

"What?"

"The brunette in the red bikini" he smirked knowingly.

"Just a friend" I replied, as I tried to mask the ghost of a smile that was tugging at the corner of my lips.

Erin, to my surprise, came to the pool today with her room mates. I was up on the edge of the diving board when I spotted her in the crowd that gathered around the diving pool. I winked at her and she blushed a deep red that rivals the colour of her bikini.

She nearly threw me off my concentration when I first spotted her today, her body glistening with water. She has a slim build and the just the right amount of curves for her lean body and short height of 5'4" that they're not in your face. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head with few loose curls framing her pretty face softly and her warm green eyes still stood out as usual.

"Oh, just a friend is she?" Andy laughed.

"Yes. Just friends" I tried to mask my disappointment. Andy laughed at my attempt of masking my disappointment and shook his head.

"Oh Boy Wonder, carry on lying like that and you'll set your speedos on fire! You make a better diver than you do a liar."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I saw the way you look at her, so smitten. I'm fine with you dating, after all you're only 18 and you have your needs. She seems like a nice girl and as long as it doesn't get in the way of training I'm happy for you" Andy looked at me in a serious gaze with a matching tone of voice.

I on the other hand couldn't help but cringe at the mention of 'needs'. I'm not going to lie, I have raging hormones like most teenage boys do, but whenever Erin crosses my mind she sets off my hormones and emotions ablaze like wild fire. I was always convinced that I had a good control of my hormones and emotions and they know that I'm the boss but when Erin turned up, she proved me very wrong. I didn't have a control over them after all and now they've rebelled and are sending mixed messages that swirled around within me like tide, slowly growing into my skin and my mind whirling with thoughts that shouldn't even be there.

Andy and I once agreed that I needed to concentrate on my diving and there isn't enough hours in a day to have a girlfriend. Also I'm always away a lot that it'll just go wrong. Saying this I had my fair share of girlfriends, true they weren't very many and they weren't very serious but I had my share of fooling around without it getting in the way of my diving. Diving come first above others. At least that's what I thought until Erin came along.