On a Rooftop in Beijing by Maggie Paredes

Author:Maggie Paredes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Muse Literary
Published: 2022-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Sloane

Splash! My head hit the water, and I immediately started working my arms like the machine that I was. No worries about who was in the lead, no thoughts about what was going on in the stands or elsewhere, no inquisitions about whether or not the other girls I was swimming against were better than me. My body did what I had designed it for long to do – it swam. And it swam well.

My thoughts were laser focused, and I didn’t have a single stray speculation deter me from my one purpose at this very moment: Win a medal. Jae Sung’s image held strong in the back of my mind, but at this moment, it was on the back burner. I would have to worry about him later…

At that moment, though, my mind immediately drifted to him. Look at all of the pain I had caused, just by wanting to meet him. God knew what was going to happen to him now. Should I continue to meet him? Would I even be able to?

For a brief second, I lifted my head to see where I was. My heart seized in my chest when I realized that I was at least a good three feet in front of Chloe and as for the other swimmers – I was definitely further than them. All that mattered was that my hand touched the wall first.

Pumping my arms like I had never done before, I reached the first turn around, and I gracefully did a flip in the water, using my feet to propel myself forward toward the opposite direction. My lungs burned in my chest, but I ignored their plight as I used every ounce of determination left in me to keep. On. Going.

Surprisingly, I could hear cheers from the stands as I came up for air each time. That spurred me on a little bit more, my desire to gain an Olympic badge of honor pushing me further and further. All of my training came down to this one moment.

So, I did care if I won, after all. In fact, I did care about it, despite having feelings for Jae Sung.

For some reason, I was shocked to discover that the two desires could coincide with each other. My parents couldn’t come to the Olympics to watch me swim because my dad (who is a heart surgeon) had a huge surgery scheduled that couldn’t be put off, for fear of the patient’s life, and my mom…she didn’t have a full-time job (except for taking care of and running our home), but she had neighborhood luncheons to attend as the HOA president. Yeah, that was it.

I had Jae Sung. And Susan. That was enough. They were rooting for me. I wondered if Jae Sung was able to cheer me on out loud from the stands or if that would get him in trouble. Was he even back in the stands or was he talking to his minder? Was he allowed to come

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