Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

TY CURLED HIS FINGERS more tightly around the thin crimp hold, bracing before launching at the next hold on the wall. His whole body left the holds for a moment as he flew upward. He smacked the hold above him, gritting and grunting, clinging to a rounded, sloped surface thanks to sheer force of will and lots of hand friction. His legs flew out from under him, but he already knew he had this. Ty slapped his other hand onto the hold and let his legs dangle before he found foot holds and made a surge for the top of the climbing wall.

He dropped back to the mats and flopped onto his backside. His forearms were hard as rocks, his veins prominent as they desperately tried to deliver blood to his exhausted muscles .

Most of his teammates had already left, but when Ty checked his phone, he still had a little time to kill. He nearly groaned. This had to be the slowest training day of his entire life, and he didn't have the energy to keep climbing just to make the time pass. But what else was he supposed to do while waiting for Elijah's plane to get in?

After Vail, Ty had returned to Salt Lake City to train. The next comp came and went before Ty and Elijah managed to finalize any sort of plan to see each other again. The whole time, Ty braced against the fear that Elijah would bail on his promise as soon as they were apart. Some spicy video messaging helped patch that over, at least Ty liked to think so, and now Elijah was actually on his way here, partially to train and partially just to see Ty.

It was honestly hard to believe. That first night with Elijah was amazing, but Ty had instantly wanted more. Going climbing with him was great and all, but the physical spark Elijah had ignited within Ty needed tending, and soon.

Ty's phone buzzed while he day dreamed.

Landed a bit early , the text said.

Ty's heart fluttered in his chest. No worries. I can be there soon!

He rushed through a shower in the gym locker room, stuffing his things haphazardly into his gym bag and then into the trunk of his car. When he got in the driver's seat, he paused to throw old magazines and smelly gym T-shirts into the back seat, then tore open a brand new air freshener and hung it from the rearview mirror. Shit, he probably should have cleaned up before Elijah came to town. Elijah's car had been so tidy, so nice, almost like it was new. Ty's beat up used car his dad had sold him at a steep bargain was … none of those things.

Too late. He had to get to the airport now. He could drive with the windows down and hope that and the air freshener did their thing between the gym and Salt Lake City International Airport.

The USA Climbing facility was super close to the airport, leaving Ty only a few minutes away. He arrived before Elijah even managed to get off his plane and waited anxiously in the cell phone lot, scrolling through social media to calm the butterflies in his stomach. Elijah was here, really here. And soon Ty would have him all to himself for a few short, wonderful days.

Finally, a text interrupted him. I'm at arrivals.

Ty fell back into the flow of traffic, inching his way around the terminal until he finally spotted Elijah standing at the curbside with a single bag on his shoulder. Ty didn't even let him get his bag into the trunk before he kissed Elijah right there in the busy pick-up lane.

"I'm so glad you're here," Ty said.

Elijah's mouth twisted. He glanced aside like some bashful teenager. Then a car honked at them for blocking the road and they scrambled back into the car .

Ty scooped up Elijah's hand in his while he drove. One hand was plenty on the steering wheel, and the feel of those calloused fingertips against his was too good to miss out on, especially when Ty would only have them for a short time.

"So, I called ahead to order a pizza," Ty said. "Plain cheese. I didn't know what toppings you like."

"Plain is fine," Elijah said, "but is that really what I should be eating if I'm going to compete?"

Ty snorted a laugh. "You really think we stick to our diets? We climb and train all day. I've seen Jude take down a whole pizza by himself."

"At least that hasn't changed," Elijah said.

Ty gave his hand a squeeze. "A lot hasn't changed. Climbing is still climbing. You'll see."

Elijah didn't respond, which left a lingering doubt hanging between them. Ty wasn't about to give up that easily. He knew Elijah still had a lot of reservations about getting back into competition climbing, but Ty planned to use their brief time together to show him that he was still plenty capable of measuring up.

They stopped briefly at the pizza place to grab Ty's order before heading to his apartment. His place sat nestled within a tall, blocky building with a nondescript tan facade. Varying shades of tan climbed the structure, but didn't actually make it any more interesting to look at. All that really mattered to Ty was that it was close to the gym and affordable with sponsorship money.

Ty led Elijah through the lobby, carrying the pizza as he hit the button for the elevator. Elijah's eyes flickered around nervously, like he thought someone was going to stop them or something. Ty had to nudge him when the elevator binged and the doors slid open.

At least Elijah seemed less tense by the time they reached Ty's apartment on the fifth floor. It wasn't much, just a simple studio with a low wall to block off a narrow galley kitchen, but it was all Ty's, and that counted for a lot right about now. The only doors led to a closet and a bathroom. Besides that, the whole apartment lay open.

An entertainment center sat across from Ty's bed. And by "entertainment center," Ty meant an old table his mom gave him and a TV he got through one of those "buy nothing" groups. Aside from that, he didn't have much that wasn't climbing magazines and kitchen equipment. His clothes sat shoved into various IKEA bins, but he'd never actually gotten a shelf or anything to stack them inside.

Ty had never been embarrassed by his apartment — until the moment Elijah stepped inside. The place probably looked juvenile to Elijah. Ty didn't even have a kitchen table. He just ate in bed most of the time.

"Sorry," Ty said. "I don't spend that much time here so it's pretty bare bones."

Elijah shocked him by laughing. "This hasn't changed either, huh? When I was competing, I lived in way worse places than this. An apartment like this would have been a huge upgrade. You don't have to explain it to me. Your sponsors pay for this?"

"Indirectly, but yeah," Ty said. "It's a pretty sweet deal."

"I'll say."

Elijah set his bag on the floor near the bed. They kicked off their shoes and climbed on the mattress together, sitting with their backs propped up against the wall and the pizza between them.

"Have you seen this ‘Reel Rock' yet?" Ty said as he turned on the television.

"We're seriously going to watch climbing?" Elijah said.

"It's that or the list of horrible B movies I have saved on my phone."

"Let's start with the climbing."

They settled into the latest volume of "Reel Rock," a documentary film series that followed high-profile climbers doing interesting things. Sometimes it was someone working on a super hard project. Sometimes it was just someone doing something unusual. They'd featured Jane in the past for being a trailblazing woman in the sport.

The first mini-documentary ended and the second began, a story about a speed climber, a discipline neither of them were especially interested in. Speed was wildly different from either bouldering on the shorter walls or lead climbing on a rope. The route was always the same in speed, for one thing. And the whole thing only lasted a few seconds. The best speed climbers could do it in something like five or six seconds.

But none of that had ever really caught Ty's eye. The first time climbing ever appeared in the Olympics, every climber had had to do all three disciplines: speed, lead and bouldering. Ty was incredibly grateful that had only lasted one Olympics before speed got sectioned off from the other two. He shuddered at the idea of training for speed on top of everything else he already did.

Elijah seemed just as disinterested. He went for another slice of pizza and ignored the documentary.

"Hey," Ty said, "how come you were never on this thing?"

"On this?" Elijah said, gesturing at the documentary.

"Yeah. They must have asked you at some point. You were kind of a big deal."

Elijah snorted. "I wasn't, but they actually did ask."

"What?" Ty sat up straighter, gaping at Elijah. "Did I miss it? I swear I've seen every one of these things."

"Nah, you didn't miss it. I … I said no."

That answer only left Ty more dumbfounded. "Why?"

Elijah grimaced, his pizza flopping over in his hand as he ignored it in favor of staring off into a memory Ty couldn't access. "I just … didn't want to be the token gay athlete."

Ty dared not speak, and slowly more words seeped out.

"It wasn't long after I came out," Elijah said. "I was working on a big project, but I just felt like there was no way the whole thing wouldn't be about that . And I just wasn't ready for my entire identity to be reduced to who I slept with."

"I understand."

Elijah shot Ty a hopeful glance. "You do?"

"Yeah, totally. I can see why you'd say no in a situation like that."

"I guess, but there weren't that many of us in those days," Elijah said. "It felt selfish. I still sometimes wonder if I should have just done it for, like, the community or whatever."

"Hey, it's not your job to carry the whole community on your back."

"But I could have, you know? So maybe I should have."

"Maybe it wasn't the right time yet for you to shoulder that responsibility."

Elijah fell silent, seeming to weigh those words. "Maybe," he said. "Hey, do you want to switch to one of those B movies you were threatening to put on before? I think I need a little change of pace if I'm going to spend the rest of this weekend doing nothing but climbing."

"Not nothing but climbing," Ty said with a smirk, but he dutifully switched from the documentary to some movie about what appeared to be a very fashionable roller skate-based mafia. As a shootout erupted in a roller rink, Ty moved the pizza box to the floor so he could scoot closer to Elijah.

They didn't end up paying much attention to the movie after that.