Stay By Me

Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, Diana, I'm afraid we can't keep you in this program anymore, you've been making choices that hold you back as an athlete, and as you've been keeping up with this kind of behavior, we just don't think you'll be able to stay on to your full potential."

"What?" She demanded. She hadn't expected to hear this, not in a million years. "But, sir, I've been training here since I was four. I grew up here, and I still come here five days a week! Every day I'm here I'm working to be a better athlete! Just last week, I was able to stick my new bars dismount! I still want to do this, I'm still working to better myself every day!"

Her now ex-coach looked at her disapprovingly. "Diana, I know you're a very prolific gymnast, but these past few months I just don't think you've been working to your full potential. You should have been able to stick that dismount over a month ago, I know it's within your capability. But since you've been making choices that will hold you back from the sport and you haven't been pushing to better yourself, I'm afraid we're gonna have to let you go."

"But-" she protested. "I'm still here, aren't I? I'm still bouncing back from my sprained ankle, I don't want to train it too hard and hurt myself again."

"Diana, we both know that's not what's been going on with you. We've given you many chances to get your act together, and you haven't taken any of them. You're going to have to move on."

She let out an incredulous laugh.

"Really? That's it? Thirteen years of training, working, figuring, and that's it? You're letting me go?"

"You made that choice yourself, Diana."

"What choice? I didn't choose to quit my training, if I had I wouldn't be here right now! Look, I know I let a lot of people down last year when I didn't make the Olympic team. But it's not exactly my fault I twisted my ankle, vault was never my favorite event. But it's still my dream, I'm still working towards the '68 games!"

Her ex-coach sighed and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Look Diana, I really don't want to do this, I've simply loved training you all these years. But I've been thinking about this for several months, and I just feel like you've lost a lot of love for the sport. I think in a way you feel like it's time to move on, too."

She laughed a cruel laugh. "Even though you've trained me all these years, I don't think you actually know how I feel, if you did you'd know that I need this. I need this. If I can't train, I'm nothing."

He patted her shoulder. "You're a bright girl, I hope you can put that passion you used to have into something you love."

She resisted the urge to flip him off as she left the gym. She wanted to leave in some dramatic way, but at that moment she was struggling to hold back tears. She wanted nothing more than to bawl her eyes out, but her ego wouldn't let her.

She walked until she found an empty alleyway. She knew very well that there could be dangerous people in alleyways, but at that moment she didn't give a damn.

She sat down on the dirty ground and opened her bag. She dug through the pockets, until she found an old altoids tin. She opened it and pulled out a blunt and a lighter. Still forcing back tears, she held the blunt between her lips with a shaky hand and took a breath.

What to do next? She had no clue. Her father wasn't expecting her back for another five hours. There was no way she was going to go back early, she had to come up with a way she was going to tell him the news.

To him, gymnastics was her everything. When she wasn't pushing herself beyond the max to be the best, she wasn't being the daughter he wanted. So to hear that she was kicked out of training, he was going to be beyond furious. Part of her wondered if he would kick her out. It wasn't that unrealistic for him. Her father was a very proud man, he wouldn't stand having a failure as part of his family. It had been bad enough when she hadn't made the Olympic team, even if it wasn't her fault. She had payed the price.

Eventually, she reached the end of the blunt. Being high really put a new twist on the world, didn't it? At this moment, she liked this perspective better, she was much more relaxed given the critical things at hand.

She had already gotten her car privileges taken away when her father had found out her grades were slipping along with her training progress, so her choices were to walk or to take the bus.

Well, none of that mattered at the moment, she had four and a half hours to burn. She could spend it stressing about how her life was very quickly spiraling downhill and off a cliff, or she could do whatever the hell she wanted to.

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I can't force you to do anything but if you voted it would make me happy lol