golden girl (b.t.c.)

chapter forty-four

tuesday, august 18
eliana rubbed her eyes and rolled out of bed, then got dressed for practice and headed downstairs. sam was sitting at the counter, drinking his coffee. "morning."
she nodded.
"interesting kid." he said without looking up from his computer.
"ben?" eliana said. "don't you like him?"
"he's fine, i guess."
"what don't you like?"
"he seems too good to be true." sam shrugged. eliana furrowed her eyebrows. "i don't know what you mean."
"i'm waiting for the catch." he said. "like, does he have a foot fetish, or something? what's the bad thing about your relationship?"
"we don't see each other very often. that's the bad thing." she said. "he's traveling the country."
sam nodded. "mm."
"why were you such an asshole to him?"
"eliana." he put on an obviously fake smile. "i'm just protecting my little sister."
she cracked her knuckles and rolled her eyes. "i'll see you later."
he raised a hand as she walked out the door to the train station.
she was working on her floor routine when ben came into the gym. peter carlisle was standing off to the side with a huge grin as she ran into her tumbling pass.
"yes!" he clapped his hands together. "get those knees together, el!"
she snapped her knees together as she piked, and peter's smile got even wider. she dropped into her last pose, and peter pumped his fist, then bounded over to help her up. "amazing! it's already so much better!"
she laughed and gave him a hug. ben whistled and waved to her.
"ben!" she ran over to him and he lifted her up, then kissed the side of her head.
"peter, this is my boyfriend, ben." she smiled as they shook hands.
"this one just doesn't stop talking about you." peter smiled.
"i'm glad she finally has a coach who's as supportive as you." ben said. peter nodded in understanding. "we have fun."
eliana smiled. "i'm gonna go change, and then we'll head to lunch." she patted ben's shoulder. he waited for her to walk out of sight, then turned to peter. "you try anything even close to what that easton asshole did to her, you're done."
peter nodded. "you don't have to worry about that, ben. i know you care about her. i would never hurt any of my athletes."
ben relaxed a little bit. "i like how you talk to her. she seems a lot happier."
"eliana is one of the best gymnasts i've ever seen in my life. it would be a crime to make her think she's anything less than that."
eliana walked back out of the locker room and took ben's hand. "i'll see you later, peter!" she called as they left the gym.
"so, i was thinking about some stuff."
"that's never a good thing." eliana teased.
"funny." ben rolled his eyes. "but, i was thinking about how you're done with your competitions for a little bit after worlds in a couple weeks."
"yeah." she took a sip of her juice. "what about it?"
"i was gonna ask if you wanted to come on tour for a while."
eliana looked up at him, her face unreadable.
"obviously, it doesn't have to be for like, a long time, maybe just a month or two, but i've missed you, and-"
"ben."
"-tour was so much more fun with you, and i know sky and the boys miss you a lot, too-"
"ben!" she put her hand on top of his. "i'd love to come on tour with you."
he relaxed and smiled. "oh. nice."
"make sure you ask your director, though."
"i already did. he said that he could even get you a job with the show."
"a job? doing what?" she laughed.
"our stunt coordinator, greg, is leaving, so i put in a good word with jeff." he said. "you'd basically just make sure our tumbling always looks good."
she nodded with a little smile. "that could be fun."
"it wouldn't pay much, but your travel costs would be taken care of." he licked his lips. "so, um, what do you say?"
"i guess i'm the newsies' stunt coordinator." she smiled. "i would still be able to train, right?"
"of course." ben said. "we can probably get you passes to local gyms."
"peter! guess what!" eliana yelled as she came back into the gym. "i'm going on tour with ben!"
peter looked shocked. "you're what?"
"after worlds!" she said. "i'm gonna go on tour with him for a month or two."
"and you're just going to...not train?"
she gave him a look. "of course i'm gonna train. i'll go to other gyms around the country. nobody's gonna turn down a world champion."
"alright." he laughed. "promise me one thing, el."
"anything." she said.
"don't let your shaposhnikova go." he said. "relearning that would be a bitch."
eliana started to laugh. "of course not."
peter smiled. "speaking of, let's run that routine. you've got world championships to prepare for."