*Wesley's P.O.V*
My body slowly woke up, feeling each limb of mine come to life again I felt the need to stretch but my arms were tightly wrapping around, well something.
I took a deep breath, my nose filling with a familiar sent. Lavender.
Leah.
I opened my eyes slowly and looked at the girl in my arms, eyes still closed and her face still on my chest she looked still asleep.
I smiled slightly as she groaned and dug her face into my chest beginning to wake up. Her blonde hair falling in front of her face, she moved her leg in between mine making Inhale a sharp breath.
God this girl was gonna end me.
"If were gonna make it to the gym on time for morning session we have to leave soon." Leah said, her voice muffle as it was still stuffed in my chest.
I opened my phone and looked at it.
"You had practice at 7 on a Saturday?" I questioned.
"7-12 every Saturday morning then the afternoon session was 5:30- 10." Leah replied shaking her head.
Damn. Was all I could think, that seemed like a lot of training in one day.
"Alright, well then get up and get dressed sleepy head. We got a gym to get to."
Leah opened her blue eyes for the first time this morning and looked at me. Not for long, but long enough for me to see the emotion behind them. She was scared and excited.
"You need to change too, no way they'll let you into the gym wearing that."
I looked at Leah confused as she got out of bed and walked over to her dresser.
"What should I wear?"
"Shorts and a t-shirt, Leo has some extra clothes that would fit you in his room."
I got out of Leah's bed and walked to Leo's room. I was getting way to used to wearing Leo's clothes.
Quickly, I picked a bigger t-shirt and basketball short and threw them on. Grabbing my pants and sweatshirt I walked back to Leah's room.
Upon entering her room I stood in the door way and stared at Leah.
She sat on the floor in front of her mirror putting her hair up into a mushroom bun. She was dressed in a blue Leo that had the words "Michigan State team 2019" across red the chest and her legs were covered by her grey sweatpants.
Leah turned from the mirror and looked at me.
"You ready?" I asked trying to sound calm, to keep Leah calm as she was clearly nervous.
She just shook her head and stood up, grabbing her water bottle and crocs before we left the house.
****
Pulling up to the gym, Leah just stared at it. Despite the gym being lit up and clearly open their were barely any cars in the parkinglot, only enough cars to clearly be for staff and maybe a few gymnast.
Leah grabbed her bag and got out of the car with me following close behind.
We walked through the doors and I was immediately hit with the smell of sweat and chalk, a smell Leah seemed familiar with as she took a deep breath tension returning to her shoulders.
"Hey, let lose." I said pulling Leah back down to earth.
She just looked at me and shook her head before walking up to the desk.
"Leah, you need a gym membership to use the equipment." The receptionist said.
Damn did everyone here know Leah.
"I know. Can you activate mine juts for the day." Leah said calmly.
"I can but that will have a fee, are you sure you just want it active for the day?"
"Yes just for the day." Leah said looking at me before looking back at the lady, "The fee is fine, put him under my fee to for having a coach on the floor."
The lady looked at me before nodding her head.
"Alright, guest lockers are open." Was all she said before me and Leah walked away towards the lockeroom.
We walked past the gym, earning us stares from plenty of gymnast. Some whispered to one another and pointed at Leah.
I took a step back and walked behind Leah. I felt so out of place.
Leah stoped in front of the lockeroom and turned towards me.
"I'm gonna go in and put my bag away, if you could, um, wait out here to make sure no coaches come in... that would be great." Her voice was so shaky it was hard to understand what she was saying, but I caught on.
I studied her face for a moment making sure we were on the same wave length on what she was saying.
Leah just stared at me blankly awaiting an awnser.
"Yeah, sure." I finally replied nodding my head.
With that Leah went into the lockeroom leaving me alone.
I studied the my surroundings, unaware what it was like to be a gymnastics gym.
The air was thick, sounds of feet and hands colliding with the floor and the beam rang through the gym as well as the shouts from coach's and gymnast.
Girls of all ages were walking around fully awake and alert, even with it being this early. Some were laughing with a teammate, others crying as a coach yelled at them. It sicked me as I watched a coach yell at a 12 year old gym doing leg lifts on a bar in the corner of the gym.
Feeling that this was not my place I averted my eyes to the wall noticing the multiple trophies, plaques, and pictures. I saw them when I walked in, but now I took a closer look.
Leah's name or her team name was on most of the trophies. "Best gymnast, Leah Huxley, 2019." Was written on a plaque hung on the wall. Next to it a picture of Leah and a male coach, who I could only assume was Brad, holding a state champion trophy.
In the picture Leah was smiling and so was Brad, but as I looked closely I noticed tear streaks on Leah's face and that her smile was not genuine. Her eyes held a drained look as if she had been stressing about something other than the meet. I wanted to either pity Leah or punch Brad.
"Hey. You ready?" Leah said emerging from the locker room.
I nodded my head as we stepped onto the floor earning looks from almost everyone in the gym. For the first time this morning it went dead silent.
Leah slowly dropped down into her splits and I grabbed a chair from the watch area and brought it out onto the floor.
One thing I've learned about getting false power over people, is that you need to act like you own the place.
I straddle the chair and sat in front of Leah as she stretched.
"What do you want to do first?" I questioned trying to get Leah to talk.
"You." Leah said before quickly smacking her hand over her mouth with wide eyes.
Her face got beat red and I chuckled.
"I'm on the to do list honey but I'm not number one at the moment." I replied, getting a laugh from Leah.
Her whole body relaxed as she laughed, you could watch how her splits became more comfortable and her shoulders grew less tense.
"How about bars?" Leah said looking over at the uneven bars. "I brought my grip bag over and it looks like they're open."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"You're the boss." I said.
"You're technically the coach right now." Leah said with a chuckle standing up.
I replaced my chair and walked with Leah. She took out her grip bag and put on her sweatbands then grips. Spraying them with water she placed chalk on them.
"You know I used to eat chalk when I was little, and I used to spray water in my mouth." Leah said with a small smile.
"Chalk taste that good, huh?" I said walking over to the chalk bucket.
Without thinking I took a small bit and placed it on my tongue.
"No Wes!" Leah started, but stopped as she began laughing.
I coughed alittle bit and stuck out my tongue.
I was here today to get Leah back in the gym and have fun, if it meant me eating chalk for her to laugh then hell I would do it.
At this point I think I would do anything for her.
"Not very good, little you did not have good taste." I said with a smirk.
Leah just smiled and rolled her eyes. Rubbing her hands together she walked over to the bar.
"Ok, I'm going to jump and after I do I need you to pull this spring board out of the way for me, quickly. After that you can just step back and watch." Leah said standing on the spring board.
I nodded my head and stood behind her ready to pull the board.
I watched as she shook her hands slightly and took a deep breath before jumping lightly off of the board and grabbing onto the bar with her hands.
I quickly pulled the spring board back and stood up to watch Leah kip onto the low bar quickly going into a handstand. Dropping down into a hip circle and quickly releasing onto the high bar.
I watched with amazement as Leah did another kip into a handstand and began doing giants. Doing a Stalder swing Leah stayed on high bar and continued giants, before releasing to the low bar kiping and then quickly returning to the high bar. Doing more giant for momentum she dismounted a fly away and landed with a small step.
I looked at her in slight shock. I knew Leah was good, but I didn't know she was good good.
"Holy shit." I said walking over to Leah.
She just shrugged her shoulders.
"It wasn't fantastic, I forgot to point my toes and my in my kips my hips weren't clear of the bar. Plus that wasn't my normal dismount."
I looked at Leah confused.
"Wasn't fantastic? Leah were not here to critique or win any championships, were here to have fun. I think it's bloody fantastic that you haven't even touched a set of bars in almost a year and you can do all that stuff still." I said reasoning with her.
She needed to start looking in the good side and not the bad. Not everything that she did needed to be nit-picked and critiqued 24/7, and she needed to realize that.
Leah looked at me for a second, processing what I'd just said before nodding her head. She opened her mouth to say something but a man came up behind her and spoke first.
"She's right you know. That routine was no where near perfect and will need a lot of work before states." He said.
I watched as Leah froze, her blue eyes widened with fright. I stepped closer to Leah to get her by my side and looked at the man. It was the same guy in the photograph... coach Brad.
"I'm sorry I didn't hear either of us ask for your opinion." I snarkly said getting Leah as close to me as possible without it looking weird.
She was plastered at my side and that all that mattered.
Brad half laughed and looked me up and down. Everything about him rubbed me the wrong way, especially when I realized he was also the man yellying at the little girl earlier.
"I'm sorry who are you?" Brad asked his attention off of Leah and on me at the moment.
"Leah's coach." I lied. Better than saying her friend, or her boyfriend.
Although I'm technically not...
Don't think about that tight now Wes.
"Aren't you alittle young to be training Leah?" Brad asked looking as if he won our little "battle."
"Aren't you alittle old to be alive?" I replied without thinking, Brad wasn't old but it was the first thing that came out of my mouth. Better than the pervert comeback I was originally going to say.
"Good luck coaching her to states." He said with a scuff.
Maybe he thought I'd give up or ask why, but part of me had figured out his mind games. It was in a creepy way like dealing with my father.
"Who said I'm taking her to states?" I said with a shrug.
Leah whipped her head to look at me, her face practically painting the question. What the hell are you doing?
"You're not?" Brad said now even more curious.
"I'm not doing anything." I said pushing my finger in Brads direction, "Leah is doing what Leah's want to do. If she wants to go to states then we'll go to states. If she wants to quit tomorrow then she'll quit tomorrow."
I made my words crisp and clear so Brad could understand them and understand my point.
Which he did.
He just scuffed and turned around.
"This is a fucking joke." He mumbled walking away.
Hey, nothing physical and he barely talked to Leah. Win win for me.
I felt Leah relax as Brad walked away, I turned towards her ready to move onto the next 'event'
"Where to next?" I asked, returning my smile to my face.
"How about we just do floor then leave. I don't like vault and beam that much anyways." Leah said, her voice soft.
Even though Brad didn't say anything to her, he still clear shook her up.
Hell I had to remember that his messages and phone calls shook her up.
"Alright. You want to do your routine, or just flip?" I asked not sure how this whole practice thing worked.
"My music should still be on the I-pad under my name." Leah said walking over to the floor.
I watched her as she walked, I was a gentleman but damn could eyes wonder when Leah is wearing that Leo.
Words: 2368
Ugh another long one... sorry they take a day or two to get out when they are longer.