Once in a lifetime

Chapter 2: The PairingAsherCoach Reyes liked his announcements dramatic. He made us sit for it, whole team cross-legged on the deck like we were eight years old, clipboard held against his chest like it contained state secrets.“Nationals push starts now,” he said. “New format this year. Everybody gets a training partner for the semester. Locked pairs, no swapping.”Around me, guys were already muttering guesses, elbowing each other, placing bets on who’d get stuck with who. I already knew. I’d known since the second he said Elias’s name yesterday.“Kann and Hale,” Reyes confirmed anyway, like it needed saying twice.A couple of low whistles went around. Everybody knew what Elias and I were to each other on paper—two years of trading records back and forth since the day we both stepped into this program as freshmen. Two years of me beating him more often than not, and him hating every second of it. He’d always trained harder than anyone on the team. Early mornings, extra sets, perfe

Chapter 4: The HouseElias “His name is Marcus,” my mother said. “Marcus Hale.” I already knew where this was going before she finished the sentence. I’d known the second she asked me to sit down at the kitchen table instead of talking to me from across the room like she usually did. “Hale,” I repeated. “You know him. Well, you know his son.” She was watching my face carefully. The way she did when she already suspected an answer wouldn’t be simple. “Asher. You two swim together.” “We’re on the same team.” My voice came out flat, even exactly the way I wanted it to. “I know this is a lot.” She reached across the table like she might take my hand, then didn’t. “Marcus and I have been seeing each other for months. It’s serious. We’re getting married in the spring, and there’s a logistics piece — his house is bigger, better location for your training, and it makes sense for you to move in with us once the wedding date is set. Sooner, actually. He wants us settled before then.” Mo

Chapter 6: Cracks POV: Elias By Thursday I'd stopped sleeping properly. It wasn't one thing. It was the sum of everything — his toothbrush next to mine in the cup, his voice through the wall at night, the way Reyes had started saying "you two" like it was one word, the fact that I could no longer walk into a room in my own house without first checking whether he was in it. Four days of a system I used to control had turned into something I couldn't get a grip on no matter how hard I tried. Training didn't help. If anything it made it worse — an hour and a half of him next to me in the water, matching me, occasionally surfacing just to say something that meant nothing to anyone but us, and by the time we hit the wall on the last set my jaw ached from clenching it. "You're off today," he said, shaking water out of his hair. "I'm fine." "Didn't say you weren't fine. Said you're off." He said it lightly, the way he said everything, but I was in no mood for light. "Maybe I'm off be