Oh good, show him this
Caleb sent back a picture of the top of the course where the athlete starting area was. The view was awe-inspiring; it was so beautiful from up there.
“Check it out.” He blew the picture up on his phone, so all Liam could see was the photo, rest of the texts hidden away.
“Dude, that’s awesome.” Liam nudged shoulders with them. “That’s wild. You got somebody up there texting you.”
“I know, right?” He grinned, thinking about that someone because Caleb always made him smile.
Liam gave him a sideways look. “You got it bad, bro. You got a really sappy look on your face.”
“He’s kind of amazing.”
“Good for you, buddy.”
“Yeah, I hope so. It’s funny because we met years ago and we hooked up, and then we just texted but never caught up. I’ve always wondered what it would have been like if we hadn’t been lazy, you know?” Hawk felt his cheeks heat even in the freezing fucking wind that blew through the little cafe area.
Liam knew he was queer and out, so it wasn’t that that made Hawk flush. It was the thought of Caleb and what the possibilities were there, and how much he wanted those possibilities.
The announcer called out the name of a young German kid who was really up and coming but was still in the lower ranks, and he started the first of his two runs. Hawk chatted with Liam about his wife and kids and how they were doing,and he couldn’t believe Liam’s oldest was like thirteen now. It was nuts.
After Liam left, he made a trip to the bathroom, he checked the standings and realized they were getting on up to the guys who were higher-ranked and thus went later in the rotation. Caleb would be right toward the end. Hawk hunkered down in front of one of the heaters and just guarded his spot.
He had to admit, watching the guys do these super tight aerial tricks where they spun and flipped and landed and never broke form amazed him. It was stunning what kind of body they had to have to do this, which he knew about, because he had touched plenty of Caleb’s muscles.
He had no idea how many hot drinks he went through, switching to decaf midway, and how many times he’d ran to the restroom by the time Caleb came up, but Hawk was ready for it. Caleb had told him what tricks he was doing, but sometimes he shuffled the order of them depending on the wind, the condition of the course, his body, all those factors.
Heart in his throat, he stared at the course when Caleb’s name was called, hands gripping his legs as if that would keep Caleb solid, keep him upright, doing what he was supposed to do.
Hawk watched as Caleb rocked his board back and forth at the top of the course, getting ready to drop in, as they called it. He held his breath when Caleb swooped down into the halfpipe because it was a bit sickening and dizzying.
Cale’s routine was all elite tricks with no fillers. 1440s, triple corks. His amplitude was good, his crisp landings well-accomplished. He didn’t do any ass passes either, meaning he didn’t land and fall back on his butt as he slid. His last trick landed a little low, Hawk thought, and that was reflected in the score. It came up as an eighty-seven.
Still, that was good enough to put Caleb in the top ten,and there were only two more boarders to go after him. And he had another run coming up.
It still kind of made Hawk sick to his stomach. As beautiful as it was to watch Caleb shred it out, and it was, it was also terrifying. Hockey was rough, but this? Watching it from here, live, and seeing Caleb throw himself into the air over the top of a pit of ice and snow just made him want to barf.
Hawk wiped his hands on his outer layer of snowpants because he’d had to take his gloves off because his hands were sweating so much.
At least the crowd loved Caleb and had cheered for him so loudly Hawk could barely hear his own thoughts. It was a nice distraction.
When Caleb was up for a second run, though, Hawk could hardly breathe. He just stared at Caleb, willing him to do well and to be safe. When his vision swam a little bit, he took in a deep breath, then let it out, then took in another one.
Caleb dropped in. He did one trick, and it was perfect, flowing right into the second. His amplitude was really great, and his execution was super clean. It was as if the first score had pissed him off, and now he was going to seriously go for it.
By the time Caleb was on his last trick, Hawk was on his feet cheering and roaring and urging him on, along with everyone else. Caleb flew up above the pipe doing this wild 360 catch board route trick that Hawk could barely even follow, and then he was landing, seemingly so gently that he just glided down to the end of the pipe.
Caleb rode the momentum to the hot seat area, and Hawk found himself jumping up and down and shouting because that had been one hell of a fucking run. He frowned watching Caleb at the hot seat though because he was bending to clutch at his lower leg, which was not a good sign.
Hawk moved before he put any real thought into it, andhe didn’t know where he was going to go or what he could do to help. But if Caleb was hurt, he wanted to help if he could.
Intellectually, he knew Caleb had trainers and medics and a whole team of people who would be right there to care for him. Didn’t matter. He needed to be there.
It took what seemed like forever to get to the athlete’s entrance and, of course, security stopped him, and even his press pass did no good. So he pulled out his phone and texted Caleb on the off chance he was back with his gear.
Are you ok?
Three dots swam on the phone for an agonizing long moment, then Caleb answered.