I ruined her life. She was singing a different tune a few years ago. Back then, I was ruining her life if I didn’t make it onto the Olympic team. “Fifteen is already cutting it close.” She never missed an opportunity to remind me of that, and it was her voice that always rang out in my head when I was the last one at the gym. When it was late at night, so late even the cleaning crew left. I used to set the alarm before leaving the building rather than make them wait for me to finish up. Even they used to shake their heads at each other like they felt sorry for me while I worked and worked until my entire body hurt, until my muscles were at the edge of their endurance and closing in on exhaustion. Fifteen is already cutting it close. This is your last chance.

Only knowing how she’d never forgive me if I didn’t make the team kept me alone at the gym. Pushing through the pain, running my routines “just one more time,” though it always turned into two or three more runs. I had to be the best. I had to be a champion, or else I’d ruin my mother’s life.

Nobody ever told me I’d end up ruining it either way.

CHAPTER 5

I knew this was a bad idea as soon as the guys offered me a ride. Nervously, I shuffle my feet around at the front door. Looking down at the watch on my wrist, my annoyance grows exponentially. My interview is supposed to start in five minutes, and we haven’t left yet.

I’m just about to start walking when I finally hear the guys coming down the stairs. Neither one of them is in a hurry, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. I guess I thought they wanted to take me to this interview to make sure I do not leech off of them.

“You do know that if I don’t get a job, I can’t get my own place, right?”

“Shut up and get in the truck,” Nix snaps.

I suppress an eye roll and follow them outside to a matte black F-150 parked in front of the garage. The sleek truck probably cost more than my entire college tuition would. Nix uses the key fob to unlock his truck before he gets into the driver’s seat. Colt walks around to the passenger side, and I get into the back.

The engine roars to life just as I buckle up. It’s good that I didn’t waste any time because Nix pulls out of the driveway like a madman, and if I wasn’t buckled up, I’d be slung through the cab like a rag doll.

“Did you fuck that chick from the party last weekend?” Nix asks his brother like I’m not even in the truck.