The Favorites

by Layne Fargo

We used to joke they were going to die in each other’s arms or kill each other with their bare hands. Nothing in between.

“It’s my house.” Lee jabbed a finger in Heath’s direction. “And he’s not welcome.”

Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn’t. My first love was figure skating.

I became a skater because I wanted to feel like that. Fierce. Confident. A warrior goddess covered in glitter. So sure of myself, I could make my dreams come true through sheer force of will.

Imagine being down so bad you’d master a whole Olympic sport to spend time with someone.

She’d convinced her father to become the boy’s legal guardian.

The thing is, when pushing your limits is all you know, when it seems normal to you…it’s hard to remember you even have limits. Until you run right into them.

“You can always be better. But don’t let that stop you from carrying yourself like a champion. If you don’t believe you’re the best, no one else will either. You understand?”

didn’t want to believe him. I thought my talent and hard work would be enough. That’s how young and foolish I was.

“Yes, really.” She lifted her chin. “I’m the one who asked my mother to invite you.”

Garrett Lin: Katarina Shaw was the best friend my sister ever had.

“Katarina.” I fell silent. Heath sat up and pulled me against him, so close I couldn’t tell his heartbeat from my own. “You’re my home,” he said.

No, it was all about Lin and Lin versus Shaw and Rocha. And that competition did turn into quite a showdown. Just not in the way any of us anticipated.

Lockwood: The Lins didn’t skate up to their usual standard that day either.

During the Lins’ free dance at the 2002 World Championships, Garrett momentarily loses his balance coming out of a stationary lift, nearly dropping Bella. He manages to save it at the last second, but Bella shoots him a glare before regaining her composure.

“My mother’s finally going to let me and Garrett switch partners next season.”

“That’s the best part.” Bella reached across the table and took my hands in hers. “You can skate with Garrett.”

That’s when I knew I’d lost him.

This guy was good. Really good.

Heath hadn’t come back for me. He’d come back for her.

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

Heath kissed her to hurt me. To twist the knife. That was the only explanation.

Well enough too that I could no longer miss the two figures intertwined in the cove. Garrett. And Ellis Dean.

The year I would make Heath Rocha regret everything.

A diamond ring.

“It was you,” I said.

She was the one who had sent Heath to Russia in the first place.

needn’t have worried. Heath didn’t notice me, and he sat in the front. Right beside Bella.

Garrett Lin: I think they felt like, why not take the risk? Because we were all well aware, no matter what happened at the Games…this was the last time.

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.

Heath spits out a mouthful of blood, right onto the Olympic rings. Tears slip down Katarina’s cheeks, and she clings tighter to him. He falls still, staring into her eyes. Ellis Dean: There was nothing anyone could have done.

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.