PART ELEVEN
“Sixth isn’t bad,” Joe said to me as we sat in the hotel after my race.
“Yeah but it isn’t good,” I sighed.
“You haven’t raced any of these girls in years. Some of them you’ve never raced,” Joe said, “How were you to know how it would go?”
“I should have trained harder,” I said, mentally defeated.
“Your training is perfect,” Joe replied, “How many times have I told you that you don’t want to peak too early?”
“About a million,” I replied with small frown.
“Exactly, now one of these times I say it, will you please just listen to me and trust me?”
“Fine,” I told him, standing up from my seat on the floor where I’d been stretching and rummaging around in my things for a hoodie.
*Ring Ring*
“Please tell me it isn’t who I think it is…” I frowned as I held my hand out for Joe to pass me my mobile.
“Sorry, no luck,” he replied as I stared down at the screen.
“Hi Dad,” I said evenly as I clicked accept on the call.
“Sixth Jessica? Sixth?!?” he shouted into the receiver.
“I thought it was pretty good,” I said quietly, my eyes locked on Joe's. He knew exactly what this call was going to be like for me, and as such he sat and waited patiently for it to end.
“Good is getting on the podium. Pretty good is winning. Sixth is nothing, it's losing," my Dad said.
“It was my first race this year, and you know the one’s I did last year didn’t count for much of anything!” I protested.
“Jessica you are throwing everything away all over again,” my Dad said, “When will you get it through your head that you have to work harder and be on top if you ever want to win gold at the Olympics.”
“You’re right,” I sighed, defeated by my own father, “I’ll up my training as soon as I get back to London.”
“No, you’ll up it starting today,” my Dad said as he hung up the phone.
“Love you too father dearest,” I sighed as the tears welled in my eyes.
“We aren’t doing anything of the sort,” Joe said, pulling me into a tight hug.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my head pressed against his jumper and my voice muffled.
“Upping your training,” Joe said, “I’m not having you do something stupid so you land in hospital again.”
“Joe let’s just talk about this tomorrow,” I said pulling away from him, “I really just want to go to sleep.”
“Fine, but just know that I’m looking out for you,” Joe said, getting up from his seat on the edge of my bed and leaving my room.
I sat there in silence for a while, going over the events of the last few days in my head. I’d gone to Japan hopeful that I’d make a splash. I thought a top ten would be just what I needed to boost my morale. I ran decently in my qualifier, taking second and moving on to the final. In the final I was up against a handful of girls that I knew well… girls that I’d beaten in the past, but who’d also beaten me. It was a tough race, and the fact that I got sixth I thought meant something good. Apparently it wasn’t good enough though, my father had done a great job of pointing that out. He was always so demanding of me, it was hard to be optimistic about anything. Even a victory.
I managed to drag my mind away from my father’s harsh words and get ready for bed. Once settled I put my phone on the side and grabbed the remote to the TV in my room, flipping channels and trying to find something that I could understand. Failing I landed on a flashy Japanese game show, trying to improve my spirits by the ridiculousness unfolding before me.
*Ring Ring*
“Noooo,” I sighed, snatching my phone up again. It was an unknown number.
“Hello?” I said, answering it cautiously.
“Hey Jess,” said the voice on the other end.
“Who’s this?”
“Aston,” he said.
“How did you get this number?” I questioned.
“How did you do today?” he asked back, ignoring my question.
“Tell me how you got my number,” I enunciated slowly, trying to get him to listen to me.
“Dirk gave it to me. Now how did the race go?”
“Why would Dirk give you my number?” I asked, muting the TV. This boy was too bold for his own good.
“I asked him for it,” Aston said simply, “How did the race go?”
“You’re just going to keep asking aren’t you?”
“Yup!” he said brightly, “Now tell me.”
“Sixth,” I said.
“Aww that’s great Jess!” Aston said happily, “How did it feel to be back out there?”
“Honestly, a bit scary,” I said.
“Scary? How so?” he asked.
“I forgot how much pressure it is,” I replied, “There were thousands of people in the stadium watching me, and all of the girls I was racing had their eye on me for sure.”
“As they should,” Aston replied with a laugh.
We spoke for a few more minutes about the race. I gave him a quick play-by-play of how it had gone down, and then I realized what I was doing. “Why did you call me?” I asked him suddenly.
“Honestly?”
“Please.”
“Because I wanted to talk to you,” he said nonchalantly, “We did Loose Women this morning and it was weird not having you there. Thought I’d call and check in on how things were going out there in Japan.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to,” he replied.
“Ugh I don’t understand you…” I sighed. Why did this boy insist on doing things like this?
“Haha you love the attention,” he flirted.
“No!” I said quickly. “You’re annoying and you drive me actually crazy.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” he said cheekily, “Now if only I could get you to go out with me.”
“Oh there he goes!” I said incredulously. “Why am I even talking to you?”
“Good question,” he said, “Anyways you’ve got to admit that you’ve enjoyed this chat.”
“I haven’t,” I said.
“Then why didn’t you hang up ten minutes ago?” he asked triumphantly.
I looked down at my phone to see that almost eleven minutes had elapsed since he’d called me. How had this conversation sustained itself for that long? How had I not even realized what I was doing?
“Thanks for reminding me,” I said into the receiver before ending the call and switching off my phone.
Aston’s persistence had definitely gone to a new level, and I was certainly beginning to fall for his tricks.
PART TWELVE
I ran into the Mayfair Hotel about a half hour late for my day of press with the JLS boys and all of the local papers and magazines. My training had run longer than intended and then I'd accidentally taken too long getting showered and ready. The fact that I was only 30 minutes late was an actual miracle.
“Sorry sorry sorry!” I said as I arrived in the room I was meant to meet everyone in for some quick hair and makeup.
“Not to worry,” Dirk replied calmly from his seat by the window, “You beat the boys.”
“What?” I asked, breathless.
“The boys are stuck in traffic,” Dirk said, not really bothered.
“But the interviews?”
“Scheduled an hour late on purpose,” Dirk said proudly.
“Oh,” I sighed, slipping into the makeup chair as the stylist got to work. I chatted lightly with Dirk about how Japan had gone, regaling him with a story about trying to go out for sushi with Joe on our last night and getting incredibly lost in Tokyo.
“We’re here!” a voice announced after another fifteen minutes.
“Bout bloody time,” I mumbled to myself. I just wanted to get on with the interviews. Get on with it and over it!
I sat in the makeup chair as the stylist finished up my look and then stood up to see the boys. They were always so sweet to me, and made sure to give me individual hugs and congratulations on my race as they greeted me. I wasn’t sure if it was all contrived or not, but it seemed real.
“Jess,” Aston said sweetly as he approached me, “These are for you!”
My eyebrows raised as I took the flowers he was holding in my hands. “Ast…” I sighed, exasperated by his continued attempts to get my attention, “What are these?”
“Read the card babe!” he laughed, going off to get rid of his coat.
My brow furrowed I plucked the card from the flowers and flicked it open, scanning the words.
--Congrats on a great race in Japan! XOX The JLS Boys--
Letting out a deep sigh when I realized I’d been caught out for assuming that this was just another of his attempts to catch me off guard I wandered over to my things and laid the flowers with them, hoping they wouldn’t die over the course of the day.
“Thanks for the flowers boys,” I said as we were ushered from the room and into our interview room.
“No worries!” Marvin laughed. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think I caught him catching Aston’s eye quickly. What was that about?
We were led down the hall into a modestly decorated room with a big Sport Relief banner. In front of the banner were five chairs lined up for us, and as we entered the room I was asked to sit in the middle chair with the boys around me. One guess who was sitting to my left…
“So I’ll be brining in the different journalists over the course of the day. Most interviews will only be about ten minutes or so and we’ll stop for breaks and meals. Hopefully if we stay on track we’ll be done by seven.”
“Seven?” I asked, surprised. This was stacking up to be at least an eight hour endeavor. What had I signed myself up for?
“Don’t worry, we’ve done longer days,” JB said from my right, “This should be cake.”
“Oh god, longer?” I sighed. How on earth could I manage through that many interviews, all asking the same question, “We should have just done a press conference. Answer each question once! That’s what I do!”
“Lazy arse,” Aston laughed.
“Don’t make fun of me,” I frowned, looking over at him. He gave me a cheeky look as Dirk left the room and the first interviewer came in.
It was lucky I was with the boys or I’d have lost all interest in what was going on by the third interview. We were literally asked the same questions about Sport Relief, over and over and over. The boys were so good at this though, it seemed like every answer they gave was relevant, but different. I struggled through answering my own questions, having to answer some relatively sensitive ones much to my chagrin.
“You doing ok?” Aston asked me as we took a break around 2pm for lunch.
“Yeah why?” I asked him.
“Just making sure,” he shrugged, “Don’t want to repeat what happened after that late night TV show.”
“I’ve already forgotten about that,” I told him matter-of-factly, “Why won’t you?”
“Sorry…” he sighed, wandering off.
I sat alone as I munched on my sandwich, playing around with my phone idly.
“Mind if I sit here?” a voice asked. I looked up to see Marvin with a plate of food looking down at me.
“Sure,” I said.
“He’s trying really hard…” Marvin said.
“Who is?”
“Who do you think?” Marvin asked.
“Aston,” I answered, “Your right, he is doing better than before. I thought those flowers were just from him and I was going to smack him for using them to try it on again earlier.”
“Haha, those flowers are just from Ast,” Marvin told me, “He just put all of us on there so you wouldn’t get mad at him.”
“Course he did,” I said with an eye roll. The cheeky bugger!
“He really likes you Jess,” Marvin said.
“Why though?” I asked, “I truly don’t understand where this is coming from. It was like, we just met and he’s head over heels for me. We don’t even know each other!”
“I can’t answer that question,” Marvin said carefully, “You should just talk to Ast about it.”
“Yeah that sounds like a great idea,” I sighed, looking across the room at Aston who was trying to keep a small ball off the floor with his feet, a sandwich in his hand. What was this boy’s deal? I seriously did not understand him one bit.
“He really does mean well,” Marvin said.
“Why are you doing the matchmaking for him then?” I asked.
“Because,” Marvin said carefully as he looked across the room at his friend, “I’ve known him for a while now and I can honestly say I’ve never seen him act this way about a girl. Not even his exes.”
“He certainly is a mystery…” I mused as I continued to watch him.
I must have been sitting there staring for a good minute when he caught my glance, a cheeky smile on his face as he kicked the ball up and caught it in his hand, sending a wink in my direction.
“Show off!” I shouted at him.
“You love it!” he laughed back, turning to grab his plate and drink.
“Just talk to him,” Marvin told me again with a knowing look, getting up from his seat.
“Marv don’t leave me alone with him!” I laughed.
“Ahh stop,” Marvin laughed, “You’ll be fine.”
“Will I though?” I asked myself as Aston came and sat in Marvin's vacated chair next to me, a broad grin spread across his face.
“What?” I asked him sardonically, a massive scowl on my face.
Marvin could bloody talk to him! I was happy to just pretend he didn’t exist!