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she sucked your
penis a little bit? Or maybe you guys played just the tip?"
    "Alina, stop. I love you. I would never cheat on
you." He reached for my hand, but I pulled away.
    When I moved my hand, I realized I had been clinching my
fists so hard that my nails had dug into my palms. I took a deep breath and
tried to regain control. "Maybe so. But I need some time."
    "What does that mean? Are you breaking up with me?"
    "No. I don't know. I just need some time away from all
this."
    "Time? How much time?"
    "I need to focus on the tournament, Chris. You already
have your gold medal, but I don't. I still have three games to play, and I'm
not going to let our relationship ruin another game."
    "So you just want me to disappear for the next
week?"
    "Yes. I think that's for the best."
    "Come on. This is ridiculous."
    "No, it's not. It's ridiculous that you made out with
Gabriela and that I had to find out by seeing pictures of it in the middle of
my match." Saying it made me want to cry again.
    "We didn't make out..."
    "I don't know what to believe anymore. Please just stay
away from me until the tournament is finished. And if you care at all about me,
try not to take anymore selfies with topless whores." I turned around to
go into my room.
    He grabbed my wrist. "Don't throw all the blame on me,
Alina."
    "Excuse me?"
    "I won gold. I wanted to celebrate and you ran off on
me. What was I supposed to do?"
    Seriously? I bit the inside of my cheek. "So it's
my fault that you cheated on me?"
    "You knew what I wanted."
    "And I told you that I couldn't." I had lowered my
voice slightly. "I'm still competing..."
    "And if you were a good girlfriend, you'd put me
first."
    I pulled my wrist out of his grip. "That's not fair,
Chris. You were on a sex ban too. You didn't try to pressure me until you won
your event. You're the one that wouldn't put me first. This is such a double
standard."
    "You don't even care if you win. You're retiring after
this."
    "I don't care? Of course I care! I want to go out on
top. And you know that I need the money to..."
    "Right. So money is more important than me?"
    "Chris! That's not what I was saying."
    "Do you have any idea what I've given up for you? All
the girls I turned away in college because we were together?"
    It felt like he had slapped me. "It shouldn't have felt
like you were giving up anything if you loved me."
    "Well it did. Talk to me when you let this go. Oh, wait,
you can't. Because you never let anything go. You can't even beat Gabriela in a
game because she bullied you..."
    "Stop." My voice was barely a whisper.
    "That's what I thought. This isn't even about me. You're
just jealous that Gabriela..."
    "Stop."
    "For the record, she had a game the next day too. Yet
she stayed to help celebrate my victory. Maybe you could learn a thing or two
from your arch nemesis."
    "It's not a break, Chris. We're done." I opened the
door and escaped into my dorm room, slamming the door behind me.

Chapter 7
    Sunday
    Alina
    "How'd it go?" asked Kristen as she scrolled
through a list of movies on the TV. Her hair was wet and she had a towel
wrapped around her, which reminded me that I was still sporting my snot covered
jersey.
    "It went okay," I said in as steady a voice as I
could muster. It felt like my whole world had just crashed down around me. The
fact that Chris said he felt like he had given up a lot for me was even worse
than him giving into temptation with Gabriela. I thought he was happy. I
thought I was enough for him.
    "Please tell me you didn't let him off the hook."
    "I think we're going to take a break." Usually I
would have told her all about it and cried on her shoulder, but I decided it
was better not to tell her about Chris kissing Gabriela. Kristen would never
forgive him for it, and that would cause problems if Chris and I worked it out.
I couldn't have my boyfriend and my best friend hating each other even more
than they already did. Do I even want to work it out?
    "A permanent break?"
    "Maybe.