“You’re mistaking me. I don’t want to go anywhere for a couple of hours.” She patted her book, holding it to her chest. “That’s how long it takes me to really get into one of these suckers. If you finish in thirty minutes, I’ll be pissed.”
I relaxed as I heard that. I felt my mind tuning into the run. My earphones were plugged in. My music was programmed and ready to go. My phone was hooked to my arm, and my roommate was forgotten. Everything slipped to the background—where I was, the time of the day, and that I hadn’t heard from Mason. All of it was shoved down.
It was me and the track.
I did my stretches and started off at a light pace. I wanted to close my eyes and just run, but I couldn’t. I kept them open and focused ahead of me. I didn’t need to worry about cars or people, but I needed to worry about any loose piece from the track. I had to find all the indentations as I rounded my first lap, but it was smooth. By the fifth lap, I felt comfortable with the track. My body was loose and warm. It was ready to go, and I kicked up my speed.
The bass in my ear melded with my running. I hit the track on the beat, and soon, it was just me. I was the music. We molded into one being as I kept going.
I wasn’t running to forget something. I was just running. There was no mother. There were no enemies from the Academy. There were no enemies from Fallen Crest Public.
There was no relationship that hadn’t been mended.
My mother was getting help. David was married to Malinda. I spent time with Garrett, my biological father. The only person was Sebastian, but in that moment, as I was doing what I did best, a surge of contentment flooded me. Mason and Logan would be fine. They would handle Sebastian like they handled everyone. They wouldn’t be harmed. Everything would be fine.
I felt it in my gut, and as I kept going, now on my tenth lap, I was becoming stronger.
By my twentieth lap, I turned everything off.
I was running because that was what I did. My legs moved forward because that was their purpose. My arms pumped harder, helping as I sliced through the air, and my chest was tight, but my lungs still worked. Air was breathed in and released.
I was soaring.
I didn’t know how much time had passed. It wasn’t until Summer was waving her arms in the air that I slowed down. She waited for me to stop beside her.
Pulling my earplugs out, I felt for my pulse, and I automatically started counting as I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” A look of awe was on her face. Her eyes were a little glazed, and she was taken aback. “You weren’t lying when you said you had to run. We’ve been here for two hours.”
Two hours? I frowned. I’d stopped counting my laps. “Oh.”
“You seem disappointed.”
“I have no idea how far I went.”
“Well, it was damn far. That’s for sure. Do you need to know?”
Bending down to start my stretching, I wasn’t sure. “I haven’t met with my track coach yet.”
“Uh…okay.”
I shifted my leg, stretching the other. My head turned, so I could see her. “My last one wanted me to record everything.”
“Wait.” She held a hand up. “You’re talking like you could keep going?”
I could. I’d run longer, but two hours was my normal max now. I hadn’t gone past the two-hour mark in a long time. All I said was, “I warned you.”
She laughed. “You did, but I had a real reason to stop you.” She held up her phone. “Dex texted me a while ago. He remembered that the security guards sweep this place twice during the night. They should be coming around in thirty minutes.”
I groaned, holding the bottom of my heel and pressing my forehead to my knee. She was right. We had to go, but holy hell, as I finished with that last stretch, I hadn’t felt this alive in a long time. Mason and running—they were the only things that could achieve that feeling for me.
I grabbed my earphones and said, “I can finish stretching in the room. We can go now.”
“You sure?”
I gestured to the hallways. “It might take us a while to get out of here. We might get lost.”
“Ha.” Summer flashed a grin and held up her phone again. “He texted me directions for that, too. Okay. Hold on. I’m going to be brave and turn off the lights. Don’t leave without me.”
As if that was really a question.
After she turned off the lights, she hollered from across the gym, “Okay. You’re smart. This is going to take longer than I thought. Being in the dark was a whole lot scarier.” As she kept talking, her voice grew louder and louder. She was slowly coming back to me. “I’m about ready to piss my pants. And I’ll never watch another scary movie in my life. I don’t think I’ll even watch Supernatural. Oh my god—” Her voice started to veer off.
I interrupted, “Turn back. You sound like you’re going to the left of me.”
“Oh.” A second later, she said, “Is this better?”
“Keep talking.”
“Not a problem.” A nervous laugh was there. “If anyone had night-vision goggles, they’d be pissing their pants, laughing at me. I’m stretching out my arms and legs in front of me, so I won’t hit anything. And I’m waving my phone around, too. So far, the light hasn’t helped with shit.”
She was getting closer.
I could see the little light of her phone. “I can see you. Keep coming.”