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Before I could answer, she ran off and began to stretch. Keeping my relationship with Tanner a secret from Liz hadn’t been intentional, but it wasn’t information I’d offered up either. She was right. Even when I was a student at St. Brigid’s, the rumors about Coach Gordon had been rife, but none of the rumors had been remotely true.
What Miranda had said hit too close to the bone, though. Having sex beneath the bleachers was a dumb mistake. I didn’t want him to lose his job over me. He loved being the athletic director and helping his students realize their full potential.****
Time had come for the four-hundred-meter dash. This was the last race of what had been a successful day for St. Brigid’s.
Liz and Miranda made their way to the starting blocks. A whoosh of relief left my lungs. They were two lanes apart, but Liz was in lane one, which had a tighter bend than the others. Miranda was in lane four, which had a much gentler bend. The advantage was minimal, but it was still there.
Tanner came up to me and pressed his arm against mine. “Relax. She’s going to be fine.”
“I know. I so want her to win. I know exactly how she’s feeling right now. All the words going through her head. The butterflies in her stomach. It’s almost like I’m there.”
“She’s trained hard and deserves to win.”
The runners got into position at the starting blocks. The starter’s pistol went off, the crack echoing in my ears.
Part of me wanted to close my eyes because I didn’t want to watch, but I kept them opened and trained on Liz the entire time.
By the second bend, she’d fallen behind, but from everything Tanner and I had taught her, she was conserving her energy to push hard near the end. The real work would start once she had two-hundred meters left.
Once she reached the two-hundred-meter mark, she accelerated. She was probably telling herself she couldn’t keep up the pace, that it was too hard, but from experience, I knew she would dig into her head. She wouldn’t surrender. She wouldn’t give up on herself. Liz had to choose to face the pain and not break. If she did, she would lose.
Tanner yelled at her to keep going. “Come on, Liz, attack the turn. Go for it.”
I could see Miranda laboring, her head rolled, and her arms flailed.
Liz started to pull away from the other girls. She ran like she was running uphill and was exaggerating her arm movements, really working the three-hundred-meter mark.
There was no coasting now. No conserving her energy. In her eyes, the last one-hundred meters would look like a mile. She needed to be mentally tough.
“Make it happen, Liz,” Tanner yelled. “You have this. Keep your strides up. Step over and drive down. No baby steps. Show me you want it.”
This was the stage of the race where she would mentally break the other runners because they didn’t want to deal with the pain of the homestretch. Her arms were big, and her legs were turning over and over and over.
She would do it. She would win.
Everyone erupted when she crossed the line.
Tanner and I ran to her side.
When we reached her, she had her hands on her knees, and she was still trying to catch her breath.
“You did it,” I cried, tears filling my eyes and thickening my voice. “You won.”
She grinned. “What was my time?”
“51.63. That’s almost two seconds faster than me.” Pride filled my chest.
Tanner high-fived her. “And it’s a state record. I knew you could do it.”
Miranda shouldered her way in. “The only reason she won is because you give her special treatment.” Her lips twisted. “When I’m done with you, you won’t have a job. I’m surprised Principal Santino hasn’t fired you yet. You shouldn’t be allowed to work with kids. I can’t believe you tossed your career away for a piece of white trash. I saw you sneak beneath the bleachers last week. I was coming to train, but I couldn’t get on the field. I saw you through the fence.”
The excited chatter and celebrating around us stopped.
“What exactly do you think you saw, and what exactly are you saying?” The warning tone in Tanner’s voice shook me to my toes.
“You going beneath the bleachers with her.” She jerked her head in my direction. “Like I told Principal Santino, I have a video.”
“A video of what?” he questioned.
“You two running hand and hand beneath the bleachers.”
“There was a torrential downpour that morning,” he explained. “We ran beneath the bleachers to keep dry, that’s all.”
She huffed and puffed. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”
“If you have anything you’d like to discuss, my office is always open.”
“As if I’d go anywhere near your office. You’re probably screwing Liz as well as her slutty sister. Gross.”
