Golden Girl by Velvet Vaughn

Author:Velvet Vaughn [Vaughn, Velvet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733863629
Published: 2019-06-18T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Peyton was enormously relieved Aurora would recover without any side effects of her overindulgence, but all she wanted to do was go back to the house, crawl into bed and burrow beneath the covers. Someone had filmed her without her knowledge for who knew how long. The invasion of her privacy was a violation she almost couldn’t fathom.

Peyton knocked on the frame around Aurora’s open door and entered the room that was nothing short of a little girl’s dream. Although Aurora was a freshman in high school, her bedroom still sported unicorns, stuffed animals, netting above her canopy bed and pink everywhere. It was hard to believe this was the same girl who’d drank to excess last night. She was growing up too fast.

“Hey,” Aurora said meekly.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

Aurora was propped up in her bed with a pillow behind her back. Gone was the garish makeup and revealing clothes from the night of the party. With her hair brushed back from her pale face, she looked ten years old. But the emotion in her eyes wasn’t one Peyton had ever witnessed before—humbleness.

“Are you still planning on leaving?”

“Yes.”

Aurora’s lip trembled. “Because of me?”

Yes, she almost said, but that wasn’t fair. “I need to make some decisions about my future. I’ll see you through the state finals, if you’re able.”

“You can’t quit.” Aurora burst into tears. “I’ll never become an Olympian.”

Peyton sighed and dragged a furry pink chair beside Aurora’s bed. Taking a seat, she grasped her cold hand. “Aurora, not everyone is cut out to be a competitive swimmer, and that’s fine. You can train and race and sometimes win. But in order to take your training to the next level, you need a fire in your belly, one that demands that you do whatever it takes to swim faster than everyone else in the pool. There must be a drive in you to push yourself past limits you didn’t even know existed. Swimming can be a hobby, but competitive swimming can’t, especially Olympic level. It needs to be your entire life. It’s that discipline, that desire that distinguishes champions from the rest of the pack. It’s the difference between standing on the top of the podium or standing on the sidelines. I thought I could instill that mindset in you.”

Tears dropped down her cheeks. “But you have. I have the desire. I want to win.”

Peyton smiled sadly and patted her hand. “Wanting to win isn’t enough. You have to need to win.”

“But I do,” Aurora insisted. “I need to win.”

“Do you really, or are you doing what your parents want for you?”

“Well, they want me to do well, yes, but I’m the one who needs to win.” She looked down at her hands. “It took the near-death experience for me to realize how much I wanted this. As I was lying in the hospital bed, all I could think about was that I might’ve done something stupid and jeopardized my swimming career.”

Peyton wasn’t so sure, but Aurora did sound more determined than she had before.

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