The Favorites

by Layne Fargo

I’d stopped searching, but I’d never stopped looking.

His love for me hadn’t been motivation enough to reach his full potential. His hatred, though? That made him capable of anything.

Happiness couldn’t be won. It couldn’t be hung around our necks while a crowd of thousands cheered. It wasn’t a prize, something we had to suffer and toil to earn. If we wanted happiness, we had to create it ourselves. Not in one shining moment on a medal stand, but every single day, over and over again.

That free dance was the story of us: Heath and me,

I hadn’t told him how much I loved him, even when I hated him.

So say what you want about me. Call me a bitch, a cheater, a loser, a whore. I may not have an Olympic gold medal, but I have something better: a life where I spend every day with my favorite people in the world, doing exactly what I love. If that’s not winning, I don’t know what is.