Chapter 1
“So, Bobby, Marie, how do you two feel about the Olympics with the opening ceremony just days away?” Alison Blaire asks him and Bobby tries to recall what team USA’s media rep told him to say.
“The only other thing I’ve been this excited about was my bar mitzvah,” Bobby says, and he’s pretty sure that’s not what the media rep told him to say, but maybe he’d get more slack for seeming down to earth and endearing. “But I’m pretty sure the Olympics has to be like at least ten times cooler than my bar mitzvah.”
“I don’t know, your bar mitzvah was the party of the century,” Rogue says, teasing him. The media team will love that, it’s just solidifying their attempts to brand Bobby and Rogue as an Olympic power couple, even though Bobby and Rogue had made it very clear to them that they had broken up and were simply just friends. Their media rep insisted that they meant power couple in a purely platonic way.
“Man, it really was, wasn’t it?”
Beside them Alison Blaire laughs but it’s clear that she wants them to actually answer the question instead of making inside jokes about his coming of age.
“But, in all seriousness,” Bobby begins and he channels his inner team USA media rep, “I’ve been excited for this since the day I got the call. I’ve even refrained from backcountry snowboarding, because I don’t think anyone needs a repeat of what happened last time. But, old injuries aside, I couldn’t be anything but overjoyed to be here and overjoyed that I can go into the Olympics knowing that a brand like Burton has my back.”
“And refraining from backcountry snowboarding has been extremely taxing on Bobby’s soul, so that means he’s really serious about it,” Rogue says, and he can see their media rep practically drooling over the subtle implication that they’re a part of each other’s daily lives. And well, it’d be unfair to say that Rogue isn’t a part of his day-to-day but certainly not in the Olympic power couple way their media rep wants them to be. They should’ve just announced their breakup and maybe they could’ve not gotten branded as an Olympic power couple. They probably should’ve announced their breakup. But what would’ve been too complicated in the media and Bobby really didn’t know how’d he deal with random people online telling him, no begging him, to get back together with Rogue. And they’d want a reason. They’d need a reason why the perfect high school sweethearts had broken up. And Bobby couldn’t give them that reason, not yet. It was too much to deal with during the Olympics.
“So, Bobby, what do you have to say to that?” Alison Blaire asked him, and Bobby had been so lost in his meandering train of thought about public breakups he had no clue what he was supposed to be reacting to.
“Uh-“ Bobby said, and Alison Blaire laughed at him. Rogue rolled her eyes.
“You can’t even focus for a second can you?” Rogue said, looking at him. On the outside Bobby knew it looked like she was teasing him but Bobby knew she was really asking if he was okay.
He sent her a sheepish smile and silently told her not worry.
“Well, looks like we know what Bobby Drake won’t be getting the gold medal in,” Alison Blaire said with a smile plastered on her face. “But, you’re bringing us home two for slopestyle and Halfpipe aren’t you?”
“That is indeed the goal, Alison,” Bobby replies.
“So how is it competing in two different categories? You don’t think it’s too taxing or too stressful?”
“I love snowboarding so much, I don’t think I could ever consider it too taxing or too stressful. Yeah, not a lot of people compete in both, but I love both, so why should I pick one or the other?”
“That’s a very reasonable approach. Marie, what would you have to say about that?”
“Well,” she begins and glances over at Bobby. “It’s just like he said. He loves snowboarding. I’ve never seen Bobby more passionate about snowboarding than he is about anything else. And if he loves it that much I don’t think it’s a problem for him to want to do it as much as possible. And Bobby’s smart, he knows his limitations and if one day it does get too taxing or too stressful, he’ll know what to do.”
“Eloquently put, Marie. And with that, it looks like our time is up. Thank you both for joining us, and I know all of our country is rooting for you two.”
Alison Blaire’s slightly plastered on smile dims a little once she gets the single that the cameras have stopped recording. Bobby wonders how she manages to keep up the facade, but remembers that he also has a facade of his own to keep up with. It had only been a month since he and John had started dating, or as close to dating as they could with them living in two states and having very busy lives, but Bobby wished he didn’t have to hold up this facade around him. And he knew that the facade was his fault, he knew John would hold his hand in public in a second, kiss him in a heartbeat, but Bobby was just trying to erase the pit in his stomach that opened up when John so much as threw his arm around his shoulder, he didn’t think he could handle getting his hand held or getting kissed. He hadn’t even come out to his family yet, well not officially. Maybe he’d be better off never coming out to them, he knew how’d they’d react. His dad would probably try to pick a fight. Bobby could easily win this time around.
“Earth to Robert,” Rogue says to him, as a crew member is trying to take off his mic without disturbing him. “You’ve got a visitor.”
The crew member walks away with his mic and Rogue tilts her head to the side, pointing out the one brunette Australian that Bobby had just been thinking about. Bobby tried to contain his excitement.
“Tell him I think the brown looks good,” Rogue says, clearly dismissing him. “Way better than blonde that comes out of a box.”
Bobby nods and ignores the subtle jab. Instead he makes his way over to John, weaving through the crew and cameras. John hadn’t noticed him yet, he was engrossed in conversation with a crew member.
“See, that’s what I’m saying! People only like your actual hair color once they’ve gotten used to never seeing it,” John is saying to the crew member. Bobby stops next to him and decides it would be better not to interrupt their conversation.
“It’s like, oh, now you like the black? You didn’t like it earlier, but suddenly it’s so good to see?” The crew member says and John is nodding intently.
“Exactly! It was all, oh the brown is so boring, John, or, wow how do you even live with brown hair, talk about a snooze fest. That last one was mostly Lorna though, and I guess she doesn’t count because she’s seven and her hair is green.”
“I wish my parents would have let me dye my hair green when I was seven, then maybe I wouldn’t have had to do it when I was seventeen!”
John laughs and turns his head to the side slightly. Bobby could pinpoint the exact moment John saw him, because his blue eyes light up with excitement and Bobby finds himself wrapped in a hug.
“Bobby!” He says, his conversation with the crew member forgotten.
“John!” Bobby replies, hugging John back. “I didn’t know you were even in Aspen.”
John pulls out of the hug and grins out of him.
“I’m not. Well, I mean I am, but only for about as long as you’re in Aspen, which is, how many hours now?”
“Like five? Oh, Rogue says she likes the brown.”
John rolls his eyes and turns to the crew member.
“See what I mean,” he says to her. “Now Rogue likes the brown. Ridiculous.”
She giggles and bids John farewell, running off to do whatever thing she was supposed to be doing before John pulled her into a conversation about hair color. Bobby didn’t even want to know how that began.
“So,” John says, turning his attention back to Bobby, “we’ve got five hours and then you’re off to Russia and I’m off to California. What’s more exciting, AMA Supercross or the Olympics?”
“I don’t know, supercross is pretty riveting.”
“You are 100% right.”
“I usually am.”
John rolls his eyes. “Sure you are, Bobby. So, five hours? How do you wanna spend it?”