Page 157 of The Forever Vault

“Okay, photos of any gymnast look terrible. Our mouths, faces and muscles are doing who knows what to get us where we need to be. I meant the movement, watching you in person. It’s like Apollo has come down from Olympus to shower his gift upon you for every vault.”

“Okay, I like where that is going. I definitely want Apollo showering me or showering with me. Let’s make that a reality.”

Luke dropped my hands. “You’re impossible.”

I gave him a quick kiss. “I know what you’re doing, and thank you.”

With the last score posted, João Paulo Matos was now in the lead, pushing Ezra and Etienne down a position. Somehow, Ezra was in contention for a medal.

“It’s time,” Luke said, standing up.

I followed suit and dropped my jacket on the seat. I checked my phone quickly, flicking through messages from my mom, Ty, Orion, Miles, Noah, and the twins, though I hadn’t seen either in a year or two.

“We all believe in you, Cam.”

My shoes and pants came off next. “Love you.”

“Love you more, handsome.” Luke gave me one last kiss and I headed for the podium.

My mind was racing with thoughts. This was my second-to-last Olympics event, likely ever. I had one more event final tomorrow, the high bar with Miles. Miles was doing great for someone his age, though Ezra was younger. Miles and Orion were the same age, actually. Was I wearing my lucky jockstrap? It’d be kind of hard to check now.

Focus!

I heard my name announced, so I only had a thirty-second window to vault. A helpful monitor nearby provided the countdown. I ran down the approach to loosen up, then came back to chalk my hands. I was doing my no-fault vault - the theoretical sure-thing - a Li Xiaopeng, named after the titan of Chinese gymnastics. Instead of launching straight off the springboard, I did a front handspring first, using that to gain extra height instead of distance.

After saluting the judges, I was off and running. I pumped my arms, hit the spot before the springboard with my hands and in less than two seconds, I had landed with no hop. I just needed to slide my ankles together.

Luke congratulated me after my salute with a half bear hug. “It was that good?” I asked.

“It was that good. The original Kane for the next one?”

“You know it.”

I took a sip of water from the bottle he offered and trotted back down to the start to await the score.

16.233.

I did some quick math. I’d need higher than that to surpass João’s score. I re-chalked my feet and hands, clapped off the extra, cracked my neck on each side and had fifteen seconds to go.

You’ve done this a hundred times. Just do it once more. Nothin’ to it.

A few cheers echoed through the arena, but it was mostly silent. As soon as I took off sprinting, I couldn’t hear anything but my heart pumping. My sole focus was the springboard and all the muscles of my body. One more breath.

Springboard.

Table.

Air.

Mat.

The roar of the crowd came back to me. Instinctively, I saluted the judges and smiled. I had stuck the second landing as well.

“You fucking did it! I know you did!” Luke said, running over to me before I got off the podium. He followed me down and over to my stuff. “You need a 16.14 or better, by the way.”

“For the gold?” I asked, hopping on one leg, attempting to pull my pants up and over my wispy shorts.

“Yeah.”