Chapter 44 - Ocean - Tournament Part 1

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Ocean

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When I woke up the next morning I could feel how stiff my legs were. They had been propped up in a very awkward position all night. It was more my knees that were sore since there was nothing under them to help support them.

I stretched a little to try and work the kinks out of my body before I even opened my eyes. I had my alarm set but I know that it was really early and long before that alarm was due to go off. The damn sun coming up and peeking through the curtains had woken me up.

While I was stretching out my aching and stiff body I noticed something that felt off. There was a blanket laying across me. I know that I didn't have a blanket when I sat in the chair last night. I had only grabbed one of the pillows and positioned myself in the chair.

I finally cracked my eyes open, squinting as I braced them against the retina piercing light of the early morning. As I did my best to protect my eyes from the bright light I looked down at my body through my thick eyelashes. Sure enough, laying across my body was the thick quilted cover from the bed.

What the hell did Makai do? Did he come out of the bathroom and cover me up? Did I sleepwalk and take it before he was out of the shower? I have been known to sleepwalk a few times in the past so I guess that isn't completely out of the question. But, I mean, I haven't actually had a sleep walking incident since I was like ten years old. I don't think that is what happened.

Did the stress of last night bring on something that I had outgrew years ago? Or did Makai really put it on me? Dammit, why the hell was this so hard to figure out? And why the hell would he put it on me if that was what happened? I just don't get it.

I couldn't stand sitting here any longer. I needed to get up and stretch my legs a little before it was time for us to go. The bad thing though, as soon as I stood up Makai sat up in the bed.

As soon as Makai sat up the sheet fell away from his body and landed on top of his thighs. I saw that he had dressed the exact same way that I usually did for bed. He was wearing nothing but a pair of dark green boxer briefs. I saw that one single article of clothing cling tightly to his hips as it molded itself around himself. I could see him clearly defined and needed to swallow hard before I was able to talk.

"G..g..good m..m..morning." I stuttered worse than ever before.

"Good morning." Makai rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked around the room. "I almost forgot where I was for a minute." I heard a laugh in his voice as he said that. I also noticed that the definition in his boxers wasn't just his normal shape. He had morning wood.

If I hadn't been woken up early by the sun and been in pain from the damn chair I probably would have woken up in a similar condition. At least this condition was easier to fix than the predicament that I was in yesterday. All he had to do was go to the bathroom and relieve himself.

Makai didn't say anything else though. He seemed to have noticed that I was staring and was immediately uncomfortable. He grabbed his bag and walked to the bathroom. He didn't rush though. If it had been me I probably would have run to the bathroom as fast as I could.

I took advantage of Makai being out of the room and got dressed as well. I folded the blanket and put it back on the bed and cleaned up the trash from dinner. I had long since been ready by the time that Makai came back out of the bathroom. I went in after him so I could do what I needed to in the morning. Relieving myself as well, washing my hands, then brushing my teeth. It was all the stuff that I needed to do.

Now that we were ready we left the room with each other, silently, so that we could go down to breakfast.

We were the first ones from our team there. A handful of other guests were there but not many. Well, it was just a little after seven in the morning so I guess that most of them were still sleeping. I had only woken up so early because of the sun coming up and waking me.

Even though Makai and I were the only ones from our team in the dining room for breakfast and there were so few other guests down there we were sitting together. This had been my chance to get away from him. I could have sat anywhere. I could have sat alone and gotten some peace. So why then, did I sit right across from him? He had sat down first and I sat right across from him.

And why was it that we had both gotten so much food that we were getting strange looks from the other people that were in the dining area? We had both eaten a lot of food the night before as well. This was weird. I never knew anyone who ate as much as me, not even my family ate like I did, but here was Makai matching me bite for bite. That was new for me. Not even the other guys on the team could eat as much as I could. It would be interesting to have a competition with Makai sometime, to see who could eat the most. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed all types of food.

Several trips to the all you can eat breakfast later our team finally started to trickle down to the dining area. At this point Makai and I were on our sixth bowl of cereal each and our fourth or fifth very large waffles with piles of bacon. 

We hadn't actually talked while we were eating. Just like last night, when we were eating and focusing on the food we were able to forget all about the awkwardness between us. All we needed to do was make sure there was either a huge pile of good food or a pool for swimming whenever we were alone with each other. That would keep us from fighting or anything like that.

"Hey Ocean. Hey Kai." Ryan came over, waving at us as he grabbed some food from the buffet.

"Hey guys." Ben grabbed his food and came over to our table as well. The table had four chairs so there was plenty of room for them and it would make it easier for there to be conversation if they were there.

What am I saying? With them there we could actually have a conversation.

"Are you two ready for the tournament?" Ryan grinned at us.

"Yeah, this one has less to do with the individual schools and more to do with individual swimmers right?" Ben was cutting a huge bite off of his food and shoving it into his mouth.

"Yeah, there are the team events as well but it focuses more on the singles events. Still, the glory goes to the school in the end. I mean, when the one winner at the end of the entire day is decided, the school will be able to boast about it all year long."

Today we weren't just going to a meet between two schools or our school and a city swim club. No, we were competing in the regional finals. The winners from this tournament would go on to compete in the nationals come spring.

This was the first time that we were taking part in this actual tournament. Our school hadn't qualified prior to this season. We only made it this time because we had made it to the state championships last year.

Hell, we didn't just make it to state, we won state. This tournament was invitation only. We competed in this area a lot against the other schools that were around here but we had never competed in this particular competition.

I wasn't nervous though. I was determined to show that I was worthy of this tournament. I was determined to show them all what I was capable of. I was going to show Makai that I was worthy of being his rival. I was going to show him that I was right there with him and that he needed to chase me and that it wasn't the other way around.

I was going to make sure that Makai watched me as I swam. He was going to keep his eyes glued to me when he wasn't in the water next to me. Actually, the ideal end to this day would be me and Makai finishing in first and second. But, why couldn't I decide which of us should be in first place?