Return To Sender (Letters to Nowhere #2)

Chapter 70

                                                                                 ~Tj~

This uniform is squeezing my balls. Maybe it's too small. I've probably grown since last summer. I glance sideways at the dude in line with me. His shorts are creeping up even more than mine. He seems to run just fine when he does his warmup pass, but I stand there confused as hell, watching him do this easy-ass tumbling. That guy had two doubles and ended with a triple in the open workout the other night. Today, he threw a shit ton of whip backs and then ended with a simple double layout. What the hell? He's got something against winning?

"It's called strategy," a voice says from behind me.

I spin around and glare at Stevie. What the fuck is she doing on the competition floor? My competition floor.

"You're required to have a coach," she says before I get a word in.

I'm not a fan of this mind reading ability of hers. "I have a coach."

"Yeah?" She lifts an eyebrow. "Where?"

She's got fancy warm-ups on like most of the other coaches. I open my mouth to chew her out but someone taps me on the shoulder. I spin around to face the guy who's supposed to go after me. "What?"

His eyes widen. "Uh...you're up, Man."

I glance around and realize everyone is staring at me. Including the judges at the table. My face is so fucking hot it might ignite any second.

"Sorry," I say to whoever is listening. Then I turn to Stevie and shove my routine card at her. "My coach forgot to give this to the judges."

Stevie takes the card and looks at it. She shakes her head. "Don't do it, TJ."

"You want to be my coach, go turn in the damn card," I mutter.

She stomps off toward the table. I take my place at the end of the ramp leading to the floor and try to calm the shit storm that's just erupted inside my stomach. Come on, TJ, you fucking got this.

But as I'm running, about to jump into my first skill, I can't hear myself anymore. All I can hear is my mom's voice...Thomas, you're just like your father. All flash but where's the hard the work? You never think! Why can't you think?

Before I can even curse my mom out inside my head, I know I'm screwed. 

[SORRY FOR THE DELAY, SUMMER HAS BEEN BUSY. ALSO I WASN'T SURE ANYONE WAS READING, THANKS FOR BEING HERE, LOVE ALL OF YOU! MOVING TO WEDNESDAYS ONLY DUE TO JUGGLING MULTIPLE PROJECTS]