Matt's P.O.V.

"Final day of Nationals," Blake sings while I lay wide awake in bed. I am the only one from our school who hasn't lost yet, meaning I am the only one who has made it to finals. I finally met my match this weekend, really struggling all weekend in this higher weight class. Friday's matches went fine but I wish they were cleaner. Saturday's first match was eh but the rest of the day was me just barely making it to the next round. Today is going to be rough and I already know my odds aren't good. The guy I am wrestling is a year older, going to Ohio State next year, and won this weight class at Nationals two years in a row.

"Shut up Blake before I stab you," I groan out, sitting up and wondering if it is too late to have Sydney kidnap my opponent's parents.

"Hey, the only person allowed to stab me is Cory with his-"

"Stop! I get it you had sex last night, lucky you!" Cory and Blake kicked me out of my own room last night for a while so Cory could cheer up Blake. When I came back both of them looked like they went 5 rounds with Conor McGregor himself. The sheets were everywhere, there was a ripped shirt on the floor, and the lamp that was on the nightstand was on the floor.

Blake comes over and sits next to me smirking. "Are you jealous Matt?" Yes I scream internally, I want to have sex with my hot girlfriend! "Because don't worry, you will always be my number one, it's us against the world baby." I push Blake off the bed and walk away.

"I hate you, B."

"You love me Matty." He isn't wrong. I probably would have gone crazy last night if not for him. I have never been this stressed about wrestling before but Blake helped me calm my nerves and actually get a half-decent night of sleep.

As I walk into the bathroom to shower I text Sydney and ask her if she wants to go for a walk alone before everything starts. I just need some alone time with her and I will feel a lot better. Besides, I can't give up, I have to walk in today determined to win, otherwise it could mess up everything. Winning will pretty much secure Penn State for me and since my smart girl got a 1640 on her SAT she secured her spot too.

From outside the bathroom I hear a knock on the door. Blake opens it and I finish up showering and the rest of my morning routine. I pull on a pair of shorts, enjoying the warm Virginia Beach weather. A part of me envies the rest of my team who will be chilling on the beach all day while I am at the arena with coach waiting for my match.

"Matt fuck face, get out here!" Blake yells through the bathroom door. I open the door and am confused when some random dude is standing awkwardly in our room. I step out and walk over to him still confused.

"Blake, you know I don't share, why would you invite this stranger for a threesome, you're all mine baby." Blake literally screams and starts laughing. The guy takes a big step back while I sit down on my bed waiting for some sort of explanation.

Blake finally pulls himself together and throws a pillow at my face. "When did you switch teams and not tell me Matt?" I wink but don't answer him, still confused about the stranger's presence. "Ok so anyways, this dude wrestled the guy you're wrestling today yesterday and wanted to tell you something."

"Oh, what?" I ask the stranger who seems less awkward now that he knows we were just joking.

"He cheats but he is really good at it. He will elbow or pinch or anything to distract you and give himself the upper hand." There was a rumor last year at Nationals about it but I watched his final match, he looked clean, I am positive of it. 

"But how, the refs are strict as hell at Nationals about misconduct like that?"

"If I knew I would tell you but he does it. He pinched me yesterday so bad he literally left a bruise." The guy lifts his shirt and reveals a decent-sized bruise. It looks nasty and if it is from getting pinched, that pinch would definitely be painful enough to be distracting during a match. The guy drops his shirt again and continues, "I am not the only one, three other guys here have said the same thing. We all told the refs and our coaches but he hides it so no one sees."

I groan and drop back onto the bed. "Fuck he should be disqualified, not in finals today. God this is a mess."

"Yeah well, you are good and no one here wants to see that cheater beat someone as talented as you so I had to come and tell you."

"Wow, thanks dude," I tell him and we shake hands before he leaves.

Blake and I begin Googling every tape of this dude wrestling we can find. Logan, the cheater bitch face as Blake now refers to him, thankfully has a lot of tapes to watch. Watching them normally they seem like good clean matches, but as we begin to slow them down and watch more carefully at the places that are less obvious, it is clear he likes to hit, pinch, kick, and elbow his opponents to give himself the upper hand. "We need to tell coach now," Blake tells me as we find the 7th video of him blatantly cheating.

We both run to coach's room, pounding on the door like maniacs. "What a shock," he sighs, looking at us as we frantically push past him into his room.

"Hello boys," his wife Missy greets but we ignore her as we plug in Blake's computer to the TV.

"MATT IS WRESTLING A BIG CHEATER!" Blake screams.

"HE CHEATS!" I add while coach and Missy question why they even opened the door.

"I need actual words not just screaming." Coach rubs his face and I can tell his patience with us is already thin; taking the entire team away and attempting to keep everyone alive is a lot of work. 

I grab the computer and begin the first video. "Pay attention right there," I say pointing to a small section of the screen that you probably would never notice.

"Wait did he punch him!? Isn't that illegal?" Missy asks looking between the three of us. I nod and play the next 6 videos.

"Shit," Coach whispers as we watch the final video. "Alright Blake come with me, we are going to go talk to the judges and refs. Matt, you stay out of this go relax before the match and keep yourself out of trouble, I will handle this."

Coach quickly gets dressed and Blake and him leave for the arena with all the evidence. I don't know what effect this will have on my match today so I leave the room and head back to my own. I grab my phone and call Sydney realizing I have like 14 missed texts and 4 missed calls from her in the last 2 hours.

"Hey are you ok?" she rushes the second she picks up her phone, on the first ring of course.

"Yeah sorry, can you walk now? I will explain why I went MIA in person." I pull on my sneakers and make sure my stuff is ready for the match later.

"I will be right down babe." Before I can reply she has already hung up. I used to think no one was as stressed as my dad on competition days but Sydney quickly proved me wrong. I swear she is a little ball of stress every time I wrestle and God help whoever is standing next to her because I can hear her screaming from down on the mat like she is standing next to me.

There is frantic knocking on the door and I know instantly it is Sydney. Wow, did she run down to my room? I open the door and instantly pull her to me kissing her. "Hello baby," I mumble against her lips as I walk us backwards to the bed.

Once we are laying on the bed she sits up on my lap, looking at me laying on the bed with a relaxed smile. "Why did you disappear for two hours Matt!? I was worried sick!" she yells, slapping my chest softly.

I grab her small little wrists in one hand and hold them so she can't keep hitting me. "Shhh little one, I was exposing my opponent for today as a cheater with Blake."

She fights to get her wrists from me and gives me a confused look. "Like cheating on his significant other or cheating in wrestling?"

"Wrestling," I clarify, letting go of her wrist before flipping her onto to bed and pinning her down. She tilts her head and I fill her in on the rest of the story while she listens intently. She is so cute, I swear I could look at this girl all day.

"Oh. . . can I ruin his life?" she asks so sweetly that if I didn't know her so well I probably would have assumed I misheard her.

"No babe, we aren't getting involved. I don't want to risk anything so for now we are going to let coach and Blake handle it. If after this weekend things aren't handled correctly we will talk about whatever wild plan you have cooking in that evil brain of yours." She giggles knowing I know her so well.

"Fineee. Beach?"

"Beach." We both get up and walk down to the beach about a block from the hotel. We don't really talk much, enjoying the peace and quiet. I am shockingly calm for someone whose entire future could fall apart today but that is just the effect Sydney has on me.

During our walk Sydney decides she wants to feel the water and I watch her sprint full speed to the water, realize it is freezing, come sprinting back full speed, and crash into my arms. I spin her around while she yells, laughing happily. I set her down and kiss her before we are interrupted by literally my entire team. They all are yelling and cheering as I kiss Sydney like it isn't something they have seen before.

"Alright fuck off you guys! I need to go enjoy the beach assholes but make sure you don't miss my match. I have a feeling things are definitely going to be interesting." They all look a little confused by my comment but don't question it as they wish me luck.

When we get back to the hotel Sydney chills in bed watching some cooking show while I get ready. When I am ready I text coach and he texts me back a few minutes later saying he is ready too. We meet in the hall and the 4 of us walk over. No one really knows where Blake is but I hope he is behaving himself, hopefully just relaxing with Cory somewhere and not causing trouble with Logan.

The day drags by, match by match slowly passing. Usually there are a few matches going on at a time but finals is always one match, meaning the entire arena is watching your every move when you're on the mat. Coach informs me that the ref will try to pay close attention but if he is being honest there is still a chance he will get away with it since things are much easier to see in slow motion on a video than in real time. He promises he will try to watch extra carefully and point it out if he can, but I just have to put my all in and hope it's enough.

When it is finally my match I am freaking out a little. Logan winks at me and my face pales as I realize he knows I know he is a fucking cheater. The first round is bad just all around bad. I let him into my head and he wrestled completely clean, letting me distract myself so he didn't have to. I take a quick breather and clear my head. This dude won't win, I won't let him. My future is relying on today, but not just mine alone, my future with Sydney too. I find her in the crowd and she blows me a kiss. Like always I can hear her cheering, she is jumping around using poor Tom to get more height and jump higher. My dad has his arm in front of her incase she gets too carried away and starts to fall.

The second round is better but I am still losing. It is nearly impossible to come back from this unless I do something spectacular this third round. I look down at my tattoo, kissing my mom's words and shutting my eyes trying to drown out everything else in the world around me. As I step up for the third and final round I think about the future I want. Sydney, Malcolm, and I at Penn State. Coming home from practice and class to two of my favorite people in the entire world. Seeing her every day. Living with her. Starting out life together. I am winning. I don't care what it takes, I am winning.

As the third round starts I am wrestling way better than even I knew was possible. I have a clear advantage and less than a minute into the two minute round it is clear I am closing the point gap. This must really piss Logan off because suddenly there is a sharp pain right below my chest as he flies his elbow into my body. I gasp, the elbow jab literally knocking the wind out of me and he quickly flips me over. I can barely breath as my back hits the mat and I realize there is no way I can win but then I hear it, the whistle. It was hard to hear at first because the arena is screaming so loud but the ref blows it again and pulls Logan off of me.

Coach runs over and drops next to me, helping me sit up as I rub my chest where Logan just elbowed me. "You did it kid," Coach whispers looking proud of me. The ref quickly conferences with the judges to confirm the disqualification, but from the way Logan's coach is yelling at him I know everyone saw. He got cocky and sloppy and God am I thankful he did.

Logan ends up getting disqualified and I win the match, taking home my third national title. My mom is literally crying when I step off the mat and I quickly pull her into a tight hug. "I love you Mom," I tell her, only causing her to cry harder. I hug my dad next but we keep it short, we've never been the mushy types. Finally they both move and Sydney launches herself into my arms. I laugh, kissing her and holding her tightly. "You're one hell of a good luck charm, Barbie."

She brushes my hair out of my face and kisses my nose before saying. "We all know you do your best work from the back babe." I laugh, nearly dropping her as coach looks between us, turns bright red, and runs away. "Ops," she giggles again.

"Mmm yeah, ops," I tease, kissing her again slowly this time. Our entire future was just sealed today and I wonder if that makes her as happy as it makes me. Thankfully my question is answered pretty quickly.

"Thank God you won; I really didn't want to have to find a new roommate at Penn State, I like the one I have already. In case you didn't know he is amazing and really really hot." Everything feels right as I set Sydney down and begin talking to everyone that is surrounding us. Mostly some small groups that cover high school wrestling and want to ask some questions. After them we talk to a few scouts. Apparently word got around that Sydney is the boss and runs this show because they direct more questions to her than to me.

After all the scouts are gone, Casey appears congratulating me. We talk for a few minutes, mostly about the weekend besides the disqualification. He asks me to send him a few things and also asks Sydney to email a few things too which she does while we are still standing here. He says he will be in touch before walking away. I try to not laugh as all the other scouts watch Casey walk away in envy knowing they can't beat whatever offer he gives me. Even if Penn State gave me no money and barely promised me a spot on their team, they will always have one thing the others never will, my girl. 

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So I started my internship on Monday and am closing at work Sunday so Monday's chapter will potentially be up late or on Tuesday. Hope you all have a good week, love you all!!