Page 67 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10
"Alina?" Kristen's voice sounded miles away. I saw her crouch down next to me and before I knew it, she had grabbed all the photos. "Alina?"
I sat down on the locker room floor. It shouldn't hurt like this. Chris and I had broken up. I liked Bryce. Why did it hurt so much?
"Alina?" Kristen put her hands on my shoulders. "Gabriela's just trying to get in your head. Don't let her win."
That's why it hurt. It wasn't that Chris had cheated on me. I knew he was a dick. It was the fact that Gabriela had won him over. She always beat me. She always took everything away from me.
"Alina, say something."
Instead I burst into tears.
"Shit," Kristen mumbled. She wrapped her arms around me. "Alina, you can beat her today in the one thing that matters the most to her. In front of the whole world."
But I didn't feel like facing her. I felt like admitting defeat. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and pull the sheets over my head.
"It's time to kick her ass once and for all."
***
I knew my eyes were still puffy as I made my way out of the locker room. The pep talks from Kristen helped.
The pregame warm-ups went by in a blur. All I knew was that way too many of my practice serves hit the net.Focus!
When it was time to shake the other teams' hands, I knew exactly what I was going to say to her. I was going to look her in the eyes and say, "Nice try." And then I was going to annihilate her in the game. When I got to Gabriela, she locked eyes with me and smiled, just like always.
She grabbed my hand under the net. Before I could say what I wanted, she said, "I'll make sure to tell Chris you said hi." She winked at me and released my hand.
I was going to kill her.
Kristen put her hand on my back and pushed me forward to shake the next player's hand. "I hope you're enjoying Alina's sloppy seconds," she said to Gabriela.
Gabriela scoffed.
Why didn't I say something clever like that? Why didn't I say anything at all?
I took my place on the court. I scanned the crowd looking for Bryce. That's what I needed. To see him cheering me on. To know that one person was on my side. I saw him smiling, holding his sign. Tim and Alex were on either side of him. Alex had a sign of his own: "I heard gold wasn't even the best thingyou ladies are getting tonight." There was a winky face at the end.
Oh my God.I laughed out loud. I shook my head and looked across the court. There was no way Gabriela fucking Santos was beating me again.
And she didn't. We won the first game by three points, despite the fact that the refs were making awful calls. Coach Hammond's face was bright red from yelling so much.
As we switched sides, Gabriela walked by me. "Looks like your boyfriend's here," she said with a huge smile on her face.
Again, I couldn't think of anything witty to say to her. We had just beat her in the first game, and she was still the one crawling under my skin. Was she trying to have sex with Bryce too or something? I looked up at the stands to see what Bryce was doing. Instead, I saw Chris taking a seat a few rows in front of Bryce. He was wearing a Team Brazil T-shirt. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand, like he already knew Gabriela was going to win.
Are you fucking kidding me?Traitor!
My first serve of the game went right into the net. The rest of the game wasn't much better. None of my bumps seemed to hit the mark. And every single one of Kristen's spikes went right at Gabriela's face. The only problem was that Gabriela was good, and all she had to do was take one step back and bump it perfectly to their setter.
"That was in!" Coach Hammond yelled at one of the refs. "Do you need fucking glasses?!"
We lost by 10 points.
"What the hell was that?" Coach Hammond said as we made our way off the court. "I knew practicing for that stupid tiebreaker would throw you two off your game," she said, directly at me and Kristen. "And if you two would get your heads in the game, you wouldn't even need the tiebreaker. Focus on the game. All of you!"
I had never seen her this upset before. I ran back onto the court. Coach Hammond's wrath was enough to make me focus. It was exactly what I needed. Gabriela and Chris were both awful people. Who cared what they did together? I liked Bryce. I really liked Bryce. I took a deep breath. And I needed this money. I needed to win gold. Coach Hammond was right. Now my head was officially in the game.
But even with me playing better, it didn't seem to matter. It was almost like the game was rigged. The line judges were blowing easy calls, all in Brazil's favor.
