Just follow me (Tom Daley Fanfic)

Chapter 25 - Olympics Part 1

I'm back in Plymouth. We organise a special party for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. We invited a bunch of people at Debbie's house to watch it on TV. Debbie and I are both scrutinising the TV screen and we can spot Tom in 1/4 of second, even if we can barely see him in the background. 

The entire Daley clan is going to London the day before the synchro competition and we are all staying at the same hotel. It's my first public appearance since the pregnancy announcement. The journalists keep a watch on my belly to check if we can see a baby bump. I am always wearing some loose fitting clothes because I don't want to steal the spotlight if we can say. It's important for me that journalists are focusing on Tom's competition which he has been training for 10 years rather than on a pregnancy that we could still observe the following months. But journalists being journalists, and knowing how well the sensational press sells, it's not a surprise to find a picture in the tabloids were we can see a picture of me holding high a flag and flashing my midriff where we clearly have a glimpse of my bump. 

The synchro competition starts pretty well for Tom and Pete. They are ranked first until their 4th dive that they completely fail. Eventually, they end up 4th. I can see how gutted Tom is, that makes me so sad and I can't keep myself from crying. During this year that I spent with Tom, I have seen how hard he trained for those Olympics. I knew that winning a medal, especially in the individual event, was his ultimate dream and just the idea of him not succeeding petrified me. In synchro they are only 8 teams competition, so that means 3 chances out of 8 to end up with a medal. For the individuals it's 3 chances out of 32! By the time he finishes his interviews and press conferences, he can finally come see us. It's already 3 hours after the end of his competition, so thankfully, he had time to calm down and he meets us in a pretty nice mood. 

The following day, Tom is off (except for all the interviews he still has to do). Of course, we go cheer on the girls who are competing in the 10m synchro. Tonia and Sarah finish 5th. On Twitter, there is that stupid guy who posted horrible comments regarding Tom's competition. He wrote that Tom let his country and his dad down, that he wish he could come and find Tom to drown him. Quite strangely, Tom is the one who seems the less affected by this troll. Me, on the other end, I'm extremely furious. 

"How can someone write something that mean? And what for?" I ask

"Don’t get upset like that for him, he’s not worth it", says Tom

"But how can you be so calm about it? How can stuff like this go over your head?"

"I don’t know. I have to, that’s it. I can’t think about those knobs, I have bigger things in my mind and I have to stay focus. Haters are gonna hate. There will always be people who don’t like me!"

"I’m sorry, you have the right reaction to all that, I know, but I can’t have that same attitude. It physically hurts me reading this because it’s plain mean and he wrote that to deliberately hurt you. He doesn’t know you; he doesn’t know how hard you work every single day. You let nobody down, especially not your dad. How does he dare saying that?! You are 4th Olympic diver it’s still awesome! It just breaks my heart to read a mean guy writes horrible stuff about the people I love, and it guts me that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it! They’re not only mean comments, they are threats! He says he wants to hunt you down and drown you? Who say those things?"

"I’m telling you, you have to be stronger than that. We have to ignore him. He won’t be the last person bullying me you know?"

I know, and I’m sorry I am not reacting the right way."

"You’re more like Will. I know that if that cunt is coming for me, to give me shit as he says, you’ll both be there waiting for him!"

"Oh yeah we will!" Says Will giving me a hug. "We'll beat the shit out of him together, ahah".

I go see see every TeamGB divers' competition. I am thrilled to see that Chris finishes 9th  on his first Olympic final for example.