Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

TY GOT THE NEWS via text. The ping of his phone woke him from a half-doze. Sweat dried sticky on his body. He was still wearing the remains of his climbing clothes from the previous day. He smelled like a guy who'd puked a bunch and then passed out asleep.

But that text had him bolting upright in bed.

Ty regretted the motion instantly. His stomach clutched at him, a stern warning not to move that swiftly again any time soon. Ty hunched over, but didn't set aside his phone. It contained a single text from Jude:

He's in.

He was in. Elijah was in the finals. He'd done it, far exceeding his own expectations.

Guilt twisted Ty's stomach all over again. Elijah had made finals and Ty hadn't even been there to see it. Not that Elijah would blame him, of course, but Ty still wished he'd witnessed the performance. Elijah Reed, back in peak condition, making it into finals. It was something Ty had dreamed of seeing for himself for years, and the one time he got a chance, he was too busy sweating off a fever in bed.

He checked the time. Still hours to go before finals started, but that arena would fill up once the news spread. Elijah didn't think of himself as hot shit anymore, but the rest of the climbing world sure as hell did.

Ty dragged himself out of bed, setting his phone aside. He stood still for a moment, letting his stomach settle, testing out whether or not it would revolt.

So far, so good. He hobbled into the bathroom and dug out his toothbrush, which he'd brought over shortly after Elijah arrived. (No point in pretending he wouldn't need it. Besides, it felt like boyfriend stuff and Ty still got a little fluttery thrill from that.)

That small task went tolerably well. Even just cleaning his teeth seemed to remove an entire layer of grime from the previous day. He went for the shower next. He wasn't going anywhere still smelling like puke and sweat.

The hot water helped. Or, at least, it felt good. It seemed to remove more than just the muck, too. By the time Ty padded out of the bathroom warm and clean and wrapped up in a towel, he felt a little more confident that he could make this work.

Of course, he couldn't tell Elijah. Not until it was too late. Not only would Elijah try to march him back to bed, but it would distract him from the finals, and that absolutely could not happen. Just getting into the finals was far more than Elijah had hoped to achieve at this competition, but he couldn't stop there. Now he needed to be on that awards podium.

Elijah would scoff if he heard Ty say that. If he could just believe in himself as much as Ty believed in him, he'd be leaving here with a gold medal. Maybe seeing Ty in the crowd could imbue him with a little faith.

Ty held that hope tight in his chest as he rooted around for clean clothes. It was amusing to imagine that Elijah still thought they were a secret at all. Ty had moved just about all of his stuff from the team's housing to Elijah's hotel room, and no one from his teammates to the coaches had said a word. But if Elijah still wanted to think they were being "quiet" about this, Ty would simply smile to himself and let him hold onto his delusions.

Now wasn't the time for bursting bubbles. Now was the time for finding his shoes somewhere under the discarded clothing littering the floor and getting out of this damn hotel room. He grabbed a surgical mask before he left. He might still have some sort of bug, after all. He could at least try to make sure he didn't get the whole crowd sick.

The hallway felt empty and echo-y. Everyone was down at that arena, damn it. It would be tough getting close to the stage, but Ty would figure something out.

His stomach lurched as hard as the elevator as he descended to the lobby. When he stumbled his way outside, he squinted at the sunlight bathing the streets. He could sure do with a little less of that at the moment, but things would cool off as they got closer to the start of finals.

Ty took his time winding through the streets and back toward the arena. He knew the way well enough by now, but the walk had never been quite this hard. He paused more than once in the shade of a building's awning to let his stomach settle.

He was searching for one such reprieve when he spotted something colorful in a shop window. The idea struck Ty immediately. If the arena was already full of spectators, Ty would get swallowed up by the crowd. Trying to shout loud enough for Elijah to hear him likely would only make him feel sicker, too. But this … this could work.

He still had a ways to go to reach the arena, but Ty ducked into the shop along the road, a smile already spreading across his mouth.