Page 20 (1/2)
Chapter 1
Winter/Spring
2016
By the tiured it was time to call it quits
At least for the day
My butt cheeks could handle another two hours’ worth of falls toure out what I was doing wrong, damn it This was the second day in a row I hadn’t been able to land a damn jump
Rolling over onto the cheek I’d fallen on the least aed to keep the “son of a bitch” I really wanted to scream inside my mouth, and tilted uring out alof the do I’d been seeing for the last thirteen years
Banners
Banners hanging from the rafters
Banners with the same jackass’s name on all of them
IVAN LUKOV IVAN LUKOV IVAN LUKOV
And more IVAN LUKOV
There were other naside his—the other miserable souls he’d partnered up with over the years—but it was his that stood out Not because his last name was the same last name as one of my favorite people in the world, but because his first name reminded me of Satan I was pretty sure his parents had adopted hiht out of Hell
But at thattapestries
Five different blue banners proclai each of the national championships he’d won Two red banners for every world chaold le silverin the trophy case at the entrance to the facility
Ugh Overachiever Ass Jerk
And thank fuck there weren’t banners for every Cup or other co the years too, otherwise the entire ceiling would have been covered in colors, and I would have been throwing up daily
All these banners… and none of thele one NoBecause no one ever remembers second place, unless you’re Ivan Lukov And I was no Ivan
Jealousy I had no right to feel, but couldn’t exactly ignore, pierced right throughabout what other people were doing was a waste of tiirls had nicer costu jealous and bitter hat people who didn’t have anything better to do, did I knew that No one did anything with their lives if they spent it co themselves to other people I knew that too
And I never wanted to be that person Especially not over that jackass I’d take rave with me before I ever told anyone what those banners did to me
It ith that re at those stupid-ass pieces of cloth