Some Things Are for Sure. This Was Unexpected

February 27, 2010

Emma and I were lying on my bed; she cuddled beside me with her head on my chest and my hand resting on her side. I was going to miss this so much. The games ended tomorrow and I would leave Vancouver two days after that-if only I could stop time.

“My hand is so much smaller than yours.” She commented as she observed and compared the size of our hands against each other.

I rolled the tips of my fingers over hers. “Haha yeah it is.”

“I can’t believe it’s all over tomorrow.” She said sadly looking up at me.

“Yeah, I’m finally done with the season I’ve trained my whole life for.” I said thinking over the events that happened the last month.

“You trained well. Bringing home two medals, that’s amazing.” She said closing her eyes.

“Thanks, I’m really happy with the outcome.” I said as I stroked her hair.

She started to get up. “I should get going.”

I grabbed her hand as she stood up. She looked back at me and I just smiled at her. “No, don’t leave. Stay here with me.” I said pulling her back on the bed.

She started laughing as I pulled her into a hug. “Okay okay…just a few more minutes though.” She said turning around to face me.

I would stare into those eyes and hold her in my arms for eternity if I could. I ran my fingers through her hair and watched as she drifted to sleep. I knew she would fall asleep, a ploy if you want to call it, so she would stay the night with me. Tomorrow we had a lot to talk about. I kissed her forehead and closed my eyes as I felt the sleep take over.

February 28, 2010

I kept hearing an alarm go off, but I could’ve sworn I turned off mine because we were done with practices. I reached my arm out to wake Emma up but my hand landed on the soft sheets of the bed. I woke up and found the bed empty.

“Hey. Sorry, I didn’t mean for my alarm to wake you up. Go back to sleep.” She said walking into my room.

“It’s okay. What are you doing up so early anyways? Come back to sleep.” I said patting the empty space next to me.

“Oh, I wish. But I have this thing I have to help with for the shadowing program.” She kneeled down by my bed and leaned in to kiss me. “But I’ll see you tonight for dinner with the guys and everyone.”

“But that’s such a long ways from now.” I whined.

She started to laugh as she grabbed her things and walked out the bedroom. “You’ll survive. Haha. Love you, bye.” She said before blowing me a kiss.

I yawned. “Love you…” After I heard the door close, I got up to lock it and went back to sleep.

Emma’s POV

celskeet closing ceremonies tonight. Great job to all countries that participated in this Olympics. You should all be very proud of yourselves!
10 minutes ago via web

“Man, I wish we could’ve gone to the Closing Ceremonies.” I sighed as I read over JR’s tweet.

“Yeah, it looks like it’s pretty exciting.” Tonya said watching it on the TV. “Oh, look! It’s team USA. I wonder if we can spot any of the guys.” She said keeping an eye out for any of them.

“There. There!” I said pointing at the screen.

“Where? I don’t see anyone.”

“Right here.” I got up and pointed directly to JR. “He looks so cute in his hat.” He was, of course, smiling and taking pictures of his surroundings.

2 hours later

JR Celski February 28, 2010 7:30:45 PM: Heading over to Tojo’s. See ya in a bit =)

“Tonya you ready? They’re already heading to the restaurant.” I yelled from my bedroom.

She walked out of the restroom and grabbed her purse from my dresser. “Ready when you are.”

I was excited and sad at the same time. It would be the last time I saw the short track guys for awhile and Hope and Mariah too, but excited to spend their last night in Vancouver with them.

“Are they there already?” Tonya asked.

“Um…here text JR and ask him.” I said handing her my phone.

“He said they’re waiting to be called and if we’re almost there.” She said reading off the text.

“Well we’re here.” I said parking at the restaurant.

“I shoulda just texted Ryan. It was a little awkward getting a text from JR calling me babe.” She said handing me back my phone.

I started to laugh. “In his defense he thought I was texting him.”

As we walked into Tojo’s we quickly spotted the guys, Hope, and Mariah all waiting in a corner to be seated. They waved to us as we walked towards them.

“Hey.” Tonya and I said in unison.

JR walked up to me, giving me a kiss, and putting his arm around my shoulders. I only had two more days with him before I had to say good-bye and I was dreading every minute of it, but I was also dreading the talk I knew was coming tonight. Tonight we’d decide what our future together entailed.

“Malone. Party of eight.” The hostess called.

1 hour and 30 minutes later

JR’s POV

“Hey I’m gonna hang in Simon and Travis’ room for a bit. I know you and Emma need some privacy to talk.” Jordan said as we walked to our dorm.

“Haha thanks. Yeah, I think she knows it’s coming too.” I said looking down on the ground, placing my hands in my jacket.

I entered our dorm alone, making my way to the couch to sit and wait for Emma to get here. I wasn’t too sure how I’d go about starting off the conversation or whether or not to do something before we started talking. By the time I had time to actually gather my thoughts, I heard the knock at the door.

We both smiled at each other as I opened the door to let her in. I held out my hand for her to grab and led her in.

“So what do you wanna do? Watch a movie? Play some Wii? Talk….?” I asked as she sat on the couch.

“What?” She asked.

“What?” I asked back.

“Did you say talk? What do you wanna talk about?” I was sure she knew what we needed to talk about.

“I think you know. We need talk about us.” I said taking the seat next to her.

She nodded her head slowly. “Yeah, we do.” Then she looked at me. “You leave in a couple of days and I don’t go back home ‘til the thirteenth. Aren’t you gonna be pretty busy ‘til the summer?” She asked.

“Um…yeah. We have World’s and then I’m taking vacation in Europe for a couple of weeks, but I figured during the summer we could visit each other.” I suggested.

“That’s perfect; exactly what I was thinking. I’ve never been to Washington, my mom says it’s beautiful though.”

“It is, you’ll love it. You know you’d also love California.” I said leading into my next question.

“You think? I’ll definitely visit when you’re at Berkeley.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t have to visit…”

She raised her eyebrow at me and looked at me curiously. “What do you mean? You don’t want me to visit you?”

“No, I’m not saying that.” I said trying to build up the courage to ask the question.

“Then what are you trying to say?”

“Transfer to Berkeley. Come to California with me, then we wouldn’t have to be so far apart. What do you think?”

She looked completely taken aback. It seemed like she was having a conversation with herself in her mind.

“Wow. Transfer to Berkeley? Is there like another option in case I can’t?” She asked.

“Another option?”

“Like a long distance relationship?”

“Do you really think that’s gonna work out? I mean considering our past relationships ending because of being in long distance relationships.” I pointed out.

“Oh, yeah.” She said realizing this.

“How ‘bout you sleep on it? And let me know before I leave.”

“And what will happen if I don’t transfer?” She asked sounding a little worried.

I looked down at my hands, not answering her. I didn’t know what would happen if she couldn’t transfer to Berkeley, but I didn’t think I could handle being away from her for that long, and try to maintain a relationship from that distance.

“You’d break up with me…”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.” She said getting up. “I’m going. I’ll let you know at the airport, my decision. Good night.” She said opening the door.

“Emma wait...I love you.” I felt like a jerk.

She looked back at me and closed the door behind her without saying a word.

March 1, 2010

“So, I take it the talk didn’t go so well.” Jordan said as he finished packing.

“How do you figure that?” I asked laughing a little.

“It was strange. As I entered our dorm, the atmosphere just felt weird, kinda bad actually. That and you were slumped on the couch flippin’ pointlessly through channels.” He said laughing.

“I don’t know. She said she’d tell me tomorrow, her decision that is.” I said sitting on his bed.

“What do you think she’s gonna do?”

“I don’t think I’ll have a girlfriend with me in California.”

Emma’s POV

I sat on the hotel bed in Tonya’s room with my laptop lying in front of me. I had a huge decision to make by tomorrow morning; about school, whether or not to leave home, my relationship, but overall how I felt inside. Half of my heart was pulling me one way and the other half was settled in one spot.

“Why are you on Berkeley’s website?” Tonya asked peering over my shoulder.

“JR wants me to transfer. I’m just looking up some info.” I said clicking on different links.

“So, it seems like you’ve already made your decision.”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, I think I have.”