The Girl Who Always Won
The applause was still echoing through the arena when Avery Callahan realized she was shaking.
She stood at the center of the ice with her arms raised, her chest rising and falling beneath the glittering costume she had spent months practicing in. The music had stopped several seconds ago, but the final note still seemed to hang somewhere above her.
Then the scoreboard changed.
1st Place — Avery Callahan
Gold.
Again.
She smiled for the cameras because that was what she had been trained to do.
Smile when you win.
Smile when you lose.
Smile when your legs ache so badly that you aren’t sure you can make it back to the locker room.
Smile when thousands of people are chanting your name.
Avery had been skating since she was four years old. She had learned early that the ice didn’t care how tired she was or how badly her muscles hurt. The ice demanded perfection, and Avery had spent most of her life giving it exactly that.
At eighteen, she was already being called one of the most promising young figure skaters in the country.
She had shelves full of medals.
Boxes filled with trophies.
Photographs from competitions she’d almost forgotten.
Gold had become so familiar that people sometimes acted as though it was expected.
Tonight was no different.
She had landed every jump.
Every spin.
Every difficult combination her coach had demanded.
She had finished her final routine without a single visible mistake.
And yet, as she skated toward the edge of the rink, Avery’s eyes searched the crowd for one person.
She found him almost immediately.
Cole Bennett stood near the tunnel entrance, still wearing his hockey jacket.
He wasn’t supposed to be there.
His own team had a game the following morning, and he had practice that evening.
But Cole had promised her he would come.
He always did when he could.
He was leaning against the railing with his arms crossed, his dark hair slightly messy from running his hands through it. When their eyes met, his face broke into the grin she loved more than she wanted to admit.
He held up two fingers.
Then he pointed at her.
Their little signal.
Two fingers.
Two people.
You and me.
Avery laughed.
For the first time all evening, the cameras disappeared from her mind.
There was only Cole.
The boy who had started talking to her three years ago because he had needed someone to help him with a history assignment.
The boy who had somehow turned into her best friend.
The boy who had become her boyfriend.
Her person.
Cole waited until she finished the medal ceremony before meeting her outside the locker room.
The second she saw him, she ran.
He caught her easily, lifting her off the ground as she laughed.
“You did it again.”
Avery wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I did.”
“Gold.”
“Gold.”
“You’re getting predictable.”
She pulled back and smacked his shoulder.
“Excuse me?”
Cole laughed.
“I mean it in a good way.”
“You better.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“I knew you were going to win.”
“You always say that.”
“Because you’re always winning.”
Avery smiled.
There was something about the way Cole looked at her that made her forget everyone else was watching.
He didn’t see the medals.
He didn’t see the cameras.
He didn’t see the girl everyone expected to become a professional figure skater.
He saw Avery.
Just Avery.
“Come on,” he said. “I brought something.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“What?”
“You’ll see.”
He took her hand and led her toward the parking lot.
Avery followed, still carrying her flowers and medal.
When they reached his truck, she noticed a small paper bag sitting on the passenger seat.
She looked at him suspiciously.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Cole.”
“Open it.”
She climbed into the passenger seat and pulled the bag toward her.
Inside was a small silver charm shaped like a skate.
Avery stared at it.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You like it.”
“I love it.”
Cole smiled.
“I thought you could put it on your bracelet.”
She touched the charm gently.
“Thank you.”
He reached over and squeezed her hand.
“You deserved it.”
Avery looked at him.
“You know I don’t need medals to know you love me, right?”
His smile softened.
“I know.”
“Good.”
“I love you because you make me crazy.”
She laughed.
“That sounds romantic.”
“It is.”
He kissed her.
It was soft and familiar, the kind of kiss that felt like coming home.
Neither of them knew that their lives were about to change.
Senior year had always seemed so far away.
Until it wasn’t.
Suddenly, Avery was counting down the months until graduation.
Her coach was already talking about what came next.
International competitions.
Professional skating.
Possible sponsorships.
Training camps.
Avery listened, nodded, and tried to be excited.
But lately, something felt different.
She was tired.
More tired than usual.
Her stomach had been bothering her.
She had skipped practices twice because she felt sick.
Her coach had blamed stress.
Avery had blamed the long hours.
She blamed everything except the thought that kept returning to her.
She was late.
At first, she told herself it didn’t mean anything.
Stress could do that.
Training could do that.
Her body had been pushed harder than most people’s ever would be.
But when she stood inside the bathroom of the small pharmacy near the rink, staring at the pregnancy test in her trembling hand, every excuse disappeared.
Two lines.
Avery sat down on the closed toilet lid.
She stared at the test.
Then at the floor.
Then back at the test.
“No.”
The word barely came out.
She wasn’t saying it because she didn’t want a baby.
She was saying it because she didn’t know how one fit into the life she had planned.
She was eighteen.
She was a senior.
She had a career waiting for her.
And Cole...
Cole had hockey.
Cole had dreams.
They both did.
Avery pressed a hand against her stomach.
She wasn’t even showing.
There was nothing different about her body that anyone else could see.
But suddenly everything felt different.
Her entire future had shifted.
She sat there for several minutes before pulling out her phone.
Cole’s name was at the top of her messages.
She opened their conversation.
Cole: Practice is finally over. Want me to come get you?
Avery stared at the message.
Her eyes filled with tears.
She typed.
Avery: I need to talk to you.
Three dots appeared almost immediately.
Cole: Everything okay?
Avery swallowed.
She typed again.
Avery: Yeah. I just need to tell you something important.
His response came quickly.
Cole: I’ll be there.
Avery stared at those three words.
I’ll be there.
Cole always said that.
He always showed up.
That was what made what happened next hurt so much.
Because Avery had no idea that by the time she reached him, he would have news of his own.
And that news would make her question whether telling him about the baby was an act of love...
or the cruelest thing she could do to him.
