this fire

 

chapter six

 

“Oh my God, Laney, that was so great!” Brooke exclaimed when Laney and Ian arrived at Brooke’s room (which was, oddly, bigger and nicer than any of the athletes’).  Laney was greeted with pats on the back and hugs, and she couldn’t seem to wipe the grin off her face.  Not that she wanted to.

 

Brooke couldn’t stop grinning either, and it looked like Ian’s face was going to freeze in that particular ear-to-ear grin position.  Laney elbowed him.  “Hey, Goofy, you really think I could beat any of the guys?”

 

“I really think so.  You could probably even beat me at the backstroke.”

 

“You don’t swim the backstroke, thanks very much.”

 

“My point.”

 

“Well, I’ve already beaten one.”

Ian raised an eyebrow.  “You have?”

 

“Yeah.  I raced Peirsol when I first met him.  And I beat him.  But he won’t admit it.”

 

Ian chuckled.  Maybe you should race him again.  And this time swim your world record pace; you’d have his ass on a platter.”

 

“You do realize that the men’s world record is almost ten seconds under the one I just broke, right?”

 

“Whatever,” Ian said, waving his hand in dismissal.  Laney laughed and grabbed a beer from the cooler by the door, heading further into the room.  It was crowded with swimmers – Michael Phelps, Grant Hackett, the list went on.  It was mostly Americans and Australians – friends of Laney and Ian – but with the group that was there, the party could get quite exciting.

 

“You get around, don’t you, Brooke?” Laney asked with a laugh when she saw all the people.

 

“Actually, you can blame your cousin for this – he’s the one who told everyone my room is nicer than all the others.  Why we’re not all hanging out at a club is beyond me.  I had to shove all my stuff into drawers and lock them.”

 

“That’s Ian for you.  Anyway, it’s a lovely party.”

 

Brooke grinned.  “Phelpsy brought his PlayStation if you’re interested.  I think they’ve changed from sports games to some stupid shooting game, but I know you enjoy them.”

 

“Ooooh.  Nothing sounds better to me right now than getting pissed and playing video games,” Laney said with a grin, going the few feet to where Michael and Aaron were engaged in a fight to the death.

 

“I’ll play winner,” she offered, casually taking a sip of her beer.  Aaron jumped and turned to look at her, his character promptly getting blown to little bits by Michael’s.  Laney sniggered.

 

“Dammit!” Aaron cried.  He grudgingly handed his controller to Laney, who picked some girl character and set out to find Michael and blow him to tiny bits.  “Why do you always distract me?”

 

“Why do you always let yourself be distracted?” she replied, not taking her eyes off the screen.  “And you can try it all you want, but you’re not going to succeed.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Aaron asked innocently.  Laney grinned.  “You’re very clever.  But frankly, I’m about ten times more clever.  Good try though.  Also, and I don’t know if you knew this, but there’s such a thing as pause.  Observe.”  She hit the button and the game froze.

 

“Hey!” Michael exclaimed as Laney looked pointedly at Aaron, who laughed.

 

“Sorry,” Laney said, turning back to the game.  “Did you and Brooke have a good time last night?” she asked Aaron.

 

“It was ok.  We just kind of wandered around with a huge group of other people.  You should have come.”

 

“I was sleeping.”

 

“That’s not what I hear...”

 

“Aah!” Laney exclaimed as Michael shot at her before she could duck behind a wall.  “What did you hear?” she asked, shooting back at Michael and causing considerably more damage to him than he’d caused to her.

 

“That you and Amanda stayed up all night and talked.”

 

“Yeah?  And?”

 

“I thought you didn’t like Amanda Beard.”

 

“I didn’t.  Views change, Aaron.  I used to think you were a pain in the ass.”

 

“And now?”

 

She didn’t answer for a second; instead she yelled at the TV screen.  “You’re still a pain in the ass.  There’s always an exception to the rule,” she added with a grin.  Aaron laughed.  “Ha!” she said, leaning back and letting it rip at Michael’s character, who died a few seconds later.

 

“Damn,” Michael said.  You beat me every time we play.”

 

“What can I say?  But you are a worthy opponent.  I’m glad I’m not playing Aaron.  It’d be too easy.  All I’d have to do would be to say his name and he’d leave himself wide open to attack.”

 

Aaron pouted.  Laney downed the rest of her beer and patted the side of his face gingerly.  “Didn’t shave?”  He grinned after that, and she laughed.  “I guess you’re not so bad after all,” she said to him, standing up and walking off to mingle.

 

About two hours later, people had started to leave.  Aaron walked up behind Laney.  “Hey,” he said.

 

“Hi,” she grinned, turning around.  “Having fun?”

 

“Yeah.  But I’m really tired.  I just wanted to say congratulations, because I haven’t, and ask you what you’re doing after tomorrow...well, I guess it’s today now, isn’t it?...the last day of swimming?”

 

“Probably hanging out.  I was thinking about going to some of the other events.  I’ll be there for the relay tomorrow.”

 

Aaron smiled.  “Great.  Then I’ll see you around?”

 

“Sure,” Laney replied, shrugging.

 

He grinned at her one more time before walking off.  She stared after him, trying to figure out just what was going on.