Free Dominate (University of Gatica #5) by Lexy Timms Page B

to see each other at meets. Aileen sat with her own group of friends, listening to them talk without really joining in aside from an occasional comment thrown into the mix to let them know that she was, in fact, hearing what they were saying and that she wasn't completely incapable of joining them in their enjoyment of the evening.
    Tomorrow, she was going to be focused. She was going to put this whole thing with Tyler behind her, and start thinking like a success before the distractions got the best of her, no matter how much easier said than done that might be.
    Aileen held onto that conviction exactly until she ran into Tyler in the hall on her way back to the room she was sharing with Chrissy.
    Almost literally ran into him, actually. It was only their mutual quick reflexes that saved them from a collision. Even so, Tyler reached out to steady her, and Aileen took a step back before his hand could make contact with her skin.
    He dropped it back to his side with a sigh. “Still not really interested in talking to me, I see.”
    There was so much that she could have said to that, but if she said one thing she might say it all and she was a little afraid of what might come out of her mouth. She shook her head.
    “Aileen, things don't have to be like this. We—”
    “Please,” she said, cutting him off. “I'm here for Conference, and I need to focus on the races. Let me do that.”
    Tyler shut his mouth. For a long minute he stood just looking at her, his expression shuttered, and then he turned and walked away.
    Aileen watching him go until he turned a corner and was out of sight.
    In bed that night, she found sleep as elusive as she had found it since she had dumped him, and when she finally slipped into dreams in the late hours of the night, it was images of his eyes that she saw in them.
     
     

Chapter 10
     
    The next morning, Aileen woke early, and although she wasn't exactly feeling as refreshed as she might have hoped, she wasn't as tired as she had been afraid she would be. Maybe she had slept more deeply or something.
    Semi-finals were more of a challenge than the two races she had run the day before, and Aileen took a longer time to warm up before her heat. She watched Jani compete in the finals of the high jump competition, easily beating out the competition, and hoped that her own event would go that smoothly.
    When she lined up at the blocks, she wasn't thinking about Tyler. Her thoughts were resolutely on the track ahead, the cheering of the crowd. She listened to the beat of her own heart in her ears.
    Despite it all, her mind kept trying to go back to him. She shook her head, like the physical motion would clear it of unwanted ideas. It didn't matter how he had looked in the hallway the night before; she had other things that were more important.
    On either side of her, the girls looked cool and relaxed, and Aileen turned her attention back to the front, focusing with laser attention on the red of the mondo track.
    The starter gun went off, and she pushed off the block. But something went wrong. Her foot turned under her, and she stumbled. It was only a momentary lapse. An instant later she was off with the rest, throwing her all into making up the lost distance.
    At least there was one positive thing that had come out of her breakup with Tyler: all that practice running as hard as she could had paid off, and she passed two of the girls before the first hurdle.
    Up and then down the other side, and Aileen tried to keep her breath even and steady, although like her legs it threatened to have a will of its own. She took the second hurdle, passing another girl over it, and there were only two ahead of her.
    She strained for it, pushing her body, feeling the burn in the muscles, but it wasn't enough. They swept over the finish line with Aileen ahead of the girl who had just been second place, and just behind the one who took first.
    She slowed, panting, and pushed escaped strands of hair back from her