The Olympian Couple (A Ryan Lochte Fan Fic)

8. Opening Ceremony

wow, 5k reads already, I'm shook! honestly I didn't think anyone would read this story. thank you all for the support. here's to many more chapters and plot twists to come!

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   Nathan and I had become very close in the past few days. He basically knew my feelings towards Ryan. Yes, I admitted that I had feelings for Ryan to Nathan. I had told him why I basically stormed out of the club not even an hour when we arrived for Ryan's birthday. Was it selfish of me to do that? Nathan said it wasn't selfish, but I wasn't so sure about that. I haven't talked to Ryan for days.

"You know you could at least answer his messages." Nathan said as he picked up his fork and ate some eggs. We were down in the lobby eating breakfast. Today was the opening ceremony, finally, and of course I had practice.

"You know, you could at least chew your food first before you talk." I shot back at him.

"Dang, sorry. I see you're in a bad mood today." Nathan said as he picked up his orange juice to drink.

"No I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sa-"

"Hey." Ryan said as he dropped his plate on the table and sat down in the chair. Nathan turned to me, shocked. "Hey buddy." He nervously smiled.

I sighed. It was now or never.

"Hey."

"Are you okay? I mean, are we okay? We haven't talked in a while and I wanted to know why." He looked at me with confusion. Nathan glanced at me too waiting for what I was going to say.

"N-Nothing. Practice has been killing me and taking much of my time." I said. I panicked inside. I wasn't gonna tell Ryan that him hooking up with that girl made me jealous. We're supposed to be friends.

Out the corner of my eye I can see Nathan frown at me. He shook his head and continued his food with his head down.

"Oh that's understandable. Practice has been killing us too. We have practice in twenty minutes actually, so Nathan hurry up."

After an awkward silence, we all finished our food and put our plates up. Ryan said he was going back in his room to get his bag. When he left, Nathan turned to me.

"You need to stop denying your feels for him. Just tell him that you like him. It's obvious that he likes you back, so don't worry about rejection." He said before following Ryan to their shared room.

Sighing, I took my phone out and went to twitter. I searched the latest Olympic news and nothing about Ryan and that girl showed up. I knew this was wrong and I should just confront him about it, but honestly I think it was just a hookup and nothing more. Besides, stuff like this happens in Olympic Village all the time.

Exiting out the twitter app, I got a text from Nathan.

n. adrian: you should come to our practice

me: can't. I have practice in an hour with the us volleyball team

n. adrian: damn. well that's ok

I put my phone back in my pocket and headed back to my room before practice.

Hours later, it was almost time for the opening ceremony to start. All of the athletes had to line up with their country and walk out with their flag. Of course Michael would be holding Team USA's flag.

I was starting to get anxious. Our first beach volleyball game was tomorrow. Physically, I was ready but mentally I was not. The whole situation with Ryan kept replaying in my head. C'mon Melanie, that girl doesn't mean anything to him! She was just one of his many quickies.

The whole time we were waiting for USA to be called at the Opening Ceremony, I tried to focus on something else like getting to know some of Team USA. I met Simone Biles, Allyson Felix, Steele Johnson and David Boudia. They were all very supportive and we promised each other we would come see each other's games whenever we had the time.

Hours later, it was finally time for us to walk out in the Opening Ceremony. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan walking toward me.

"Hey Mel, wanna walk out in the front of the crowd with me and Michael?"

I smiled. "Sure." I thought about what Nathan said earlier. He was right. I need to tell Ryan how I feel about him. USA was about to be called next, so I needed to do this quick.

I took a deep breath and turned back to him. "Hey Ryan-"

"Ryan!" Someone exclaimed loudly. A girl with long, jet black hair ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck. "Where have you been? What have you been up to since the last time I saw you?!"

"Natalia, I told you I've been training and practicing. What are you doing here? How did you get down here?"

She laughed and poked him in the arm. "You're too silly, baby. You know I'm here as an athlete for my home country!" She did a quick spin, showing off her outfit. Her shirt clearly had the flag of Italy above her heart.

"I'm a diver!" She giggled, "I told you that at your birthday celebration, silly!"

I frowned. So this was the girl he was making out at the club. She contributed to talk to him as the announcer called out USA. I quickly made my way to the front of the crowd where Michael was.

I knew it. Deep down I freaking knew it. I couldn't be with Ryan, he clearly has someone else all over him. It seemed that those too had a bit of history going on. How could I ever compete with someone like that? She was absolutely beautiful.

As I made my way up to the front with Michael, he smiled at me.

"Glad you could make it up here. Where's your boyfriend?"

Clearly he was talking about Ryan. "He's not my boyfriend." Was all I could say.

The whole time walking down the middle of the arena, my mind drifted back to what just happened moments ago. I was confused. Days ago he said he liked me, but now he was with another girl? I honestly didn't know what to think of the whole situation. I put those thoughts in the back of my mind as I put on a smile and waved to the crowd and the camera. Ryan wasn't worth my time. I came here to win.