Thoughts…

Title: I’m Here To Help
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sacramone/ OC
Fandom: USWGT
Notes: I do not own ANYONE, except for the OC, Lindsay and Riley (of whom you will encounter later).
Summary: She’s there to help, but she doesn’t know what to do with it.

She wasn’t supposed to fall like that. She wasn’t supposed to fall period. It was a Floor Exercise, she was supposed to be pro at it, but she fell. She fell at the Olympics and now she fell once again at the NCAA. She was nervous and it wasn’t fair because this wasn’t the Olympics, it was another college competition… against other colleges in the country. Now, here she was, sitting at the bleachers waiting for her next event as she saw her name drop on the scoreboard.

“Bears are supposed to be fierce, not clumsy.” She looked to the side and found two women approach her in their sweats; one of them with an evident smug smirk on her face, while the other had an exasperated look. She clenched her fists and fought the urge to punch this know-it-all for insulting her indirectly.

“And what are you supposed to be, a blueberry?” Alicia retorted back as she looked at the full blue and white leotards and sweats the other young women had on. She unintentionally pulled on a glare and watched as the one with the smug smirk glare back at her.

“Blue bears with a punch,” The woman who had an exasperated look quietly said as she looked to the floor, not noticing the blank look on Alicia’s face.

“At least we weren’t the ones who cost America gold at the Olympics.” Alicia flinched at the words and was ready to stand up when the quiet gymnast quickly spoke.

“Okay, let’s go because I have a Floor Routine to get to,” The gymnast quickly interjected as she wrapped an arm around her verbal teammate and dragged her off to the other end of the bleachers. Alicia blankly watched as they walked away, but she saw that young woman look back towards her mouthing a word of apology.

***

The NCAA Championships preliminaries ended with a heavy blow to Alicia. She deeply sighed and found herself fifth beneath a Stanford gymnast and that UCLA gymnast whose friend offended her. The loss and the words spoken to her hurt her deeply despite hearing it before and it unfortunately led her to the bar of the hotel most of the teams stayed at for the NCAA Championships. She sat at the bar and hadn’t bought a drink… yet. The bartender approached her once again, the third time that evening, and asked her if she wanted some kind of refreshment. Her mind juggled between yes and no; it wouldn’t be a great idea if someone from the other teams or judging panel saw her drinking.

“No, she was waiting for me.” Alicia turned around on her stool to figure out where the voice came from and who discouraged her drink. She saw a tall female wearing a baby blue loose top with a denim skirt and white shoes while her dark hair flowed down her shoulders. She furrowed her brow and wondered who this woman was when she recognized the worry lines on the woman’s forehead. She watched as the woman approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her. “Come on; let’s go, sorry about the wait.”

“Oh, weren’t you the one in the top three from today’s competition in gymnastics?” The bartender’s question caught both Alicia and the woman by surprise; a bartender knew about gymnastics? Alicia looked over at the other woman and forced herself from smirking.

“Me? Nah, you probably have me confused with someone else. Anyways, let’s go,” The woman brightly smiled as she grabbed Alicia’s hand and practically dragged her off of the stool and off to the main lobby.

“You lied,” Alicia flatly stated as she looked up at the taller woman. Her eyes gazed from their clasped hands back up to the woman’s face.

“So sue me,” The woman jokingly said as she finally let go of Alicia’s hand as they entered the main lobby. She collapsed onto a chair and looked over at the other woman whose look of disapproval made her laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Alicia asked; her brow knitted together as she spoke.

“Do you ever notice that you’re giving off some kind of look?” The next look that came about was a confused one.

“What?”

“Right before you asked me what was funny; you gave me this really annoyed look or something. Like earlier, when you gave us a comeback about being blueberries, you glared at us,” The woman answered back, only to be receive a blank look from Alicia.

“I glared at you?” The woman nodded which made Alicia frown. “Hey, you guys insulted me.”

“Yeah, that was Lindsay’s doing, not mine. The only reason I said anything was to try and lighten the mood and to keep you two from killing each other on the spot. With Lindsay, agreeing with her takes less effort because what she said was obscure-mentioning the Olympics was low, yes I know-but everything else could’ve been taken by stride. I, eventually, talk to her and get her to understand what our perspectives are.”

“You sound like a sheep,” Alicia scoffed at the explanation.

“Okay, if I disagreed on the spot, then there would be a heck of a lot of more pointless bickering between all three of us. Which would you choose? Bickering on and on about nothing or agreeing and just moving on, letting me talk to her after and get her to apologize?” The woman asked back as she backed up her thought. She saw the conflict in Alicia’s eyes and knew she delivered her point across.

“Okay, I’ll give you that, but why did you have to drag me from getting a drink?”

“You know what, come with me.” Alicia watched as the woman stood up and extended her hand towards her. She raised an eyebrow and questioningly looked at the practical stranger.

“And I’m going to trust a stranger, why?”

“Because this stranger saved you from being possibly attacked by the other teams and your coach if they found out you were about to get drunk because you lost today.” Alicia glared at the woman for assuming such a thing, but that rationalization was relatively dead on.

“What makes you think I was gonna get drunk because of losing?”

“Come with me and I’ll tell you. If I’m wrong, you can tell me why I was wrong.” Alicia looked between the woman’s face and the hand extended towards her. She knew that saying yes would be completely unorthodox because the woman was a stranger and saying yes could lead her to her demise. Without full thought, she placed her hand in the other woman’s and allowed herself to be taken away.

***

The two drove up to a barren lot that overlooked Nebraska and exited the rental car, approaching the guard railing. Alicia smiled at the skyline; the city lights brightened her mood. She looked up at the sky and saw the many stars and the bright moon; her negativity disappeared. She leaned against the hood of the car and turned to her companion who, too, sat on the hood beside her.

“How did you know about this place?” Alicia watched as her companion crossed her arms over her chest and smiled.

“My brother stayed in Nebraska, went to university here and he showed me a few places where it’s pretty quiet so he can get away.”

“Your brother went to Nebraska? Then why are you in UCLA?” A quiet laugh was all Alicia heard. She watched as the other woman nodded and looked at her.

“Yeah, my brother went to Nebraska because he was a big writer and wanted to get some exposure with the U of Nebraska Press. As for me, I went to UCLA because L.A. has something there I like and between UCLA and Stanford… UCLA’s mascot seemed more appealing than Stanford’s.” The explanation about the choice of mascots made Alicia chuckle, even if she had to choose between UCLA and Stanford by mascot, she would’ve picked UCLA any day.

“A tree doesn’t seem that appealing unlike a bruin,” Alicia smiled as she turned her gaze back to the skyline in front of her.

“And drinking during a competition doesn’t seem appealing either.” Alicia froze. She really didn’t want to talk about the incident at the hotel’s bar… at all.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Don’t even think of closing up on me now!” Alicia deeply sighed and moved from the hood and re-entered the car. She leaned the seat back as far as it could and stared at the ceiling of the car, hearing and seeing her companion enter the driver’s side. She remained silent and clasped her hands over her abdomen, trying to think of a decent explanation for being at the bar.

“You were right.” She looked over at the other woman and saw her seat tilted back all the way, lying on her side towards her with her elbow propped against the seat and her head resting against her hand.

“Go on…” Alicia sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“I was at the bar… because I lost today,” She reluctantly answered. She turned back to the other woman and saw an expression that spoke words to her; she knew her companion wanted to hear more.

“I’m not judging you.”

“Well… okay, it was Beijing… when I fell… twice. It sucked, man, feeling like you cost your team gold. I know that mathematically we wouldn’t have won, but still, my falls just happened to be icing on the cake-makes me instant scapegoat. Ugh, when that… teammate of yours decided to bring that up, I wanted to punch her out because she didn’t know what I felt that moment, what we were going through! I just wanted to momentarily forget about it, you know?”

“Alicia, this is alcohol we’re talking about. If you keep turning for a bottle of booze every time you feel like crap, you will be like crap. I mean, if you wanted to momentarily forget, talk to you friends or something. Look here, I took you up here and you looked down at the rest of the city and you forgot about Beijing and about losing.” Alicia looked back up at the ceiling and smiled because that was true, she did forget about the negativity when she looked down at the city.

“Are you always this right?” The other woman laughed and sighed. Alicia turned back to her companion when she felt a hand clasp with her own.

“Seriously, though, don’t turn to alcohol because it isn’t worth it. Talk to your friends, talk to your family, hell, talk to me for all I care, just don’t drink.”

“What happens if I want to talk to you and we’re not in the same competition-hypothetically speaking, of course?” Alicia watched as the woman released her hand, sat up, pulled out a pen from the visor and grabbed her hand, writing numbers against her palm. “You’re writing your phone number?”

“Cellphone, feel free to call whenever you like-or text, I don’t think it’s possible to answer calls in the middle of class.”

“Are you serious?” Alicia asked incredulously.

“My words might not sound serious, but I am. If you need to talk, want to talk, just call me if you have no one else around or if you just want to talk to me period. Keep the drinking at parties or none at all, okay?” The woman stated firmly as she made sure her phone number was inked into Alicia’s hand before she clasped that hand once again.

“You’re really serious?” The incredulous look never left Alicia’s face.

“I already wrote my number, so of course I’m serious. Come on; please set your seat in an upright position because we are heading back to the hotel.”

“Already?” Alicia watched as their hands disconnected and her companion replaced her seat back to its original position. She eventually complied and moved her seat back, but her gaze never left the other woman.

“It’s getting late and we have another competition tomorrow.”

“Oh great…” Alicia groaned as she pulled her seat belt on.

***

Alicia headed back to her hotel room with the other woman beside her. They remained relatively silent with the occasional small talk in the mix. When Alicia arrived to the door of her room, she looked up at her companion and smiled, quietly thanking her for the reality check.

“It’s okay, I’m glad to have distracted you somehow.”

“Still, thank you.” Alicia felt a small kiss pressed against her forehead and then it dawned upon her. “Wait, I never got your name.”

“Nathanial, but I go by Nathan or Nate. I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym okay, Sacramone?” Alicia raised her eyebrow at the odd choice of name for a female, but nodded nonetheless as she watched the other woman walked down the hallway.