Obliterated Beginnings

• 27 •

I'm here again. Scream if you're excited.
Don't fall my hand abeg.

EVA

I was not a big fan of sports.

By that, I meant that I was not a fan of actively partaking in anything related to sports—well, except walking, if it was considered a sport—but I would not object to watching people partake in these sports.

Proof of this statement appeared in my line of vision.

My eyes followed Axel as he passed. As if glued to his long, lithe form, I was unable to pull them away. I was positive that I could watch him run all day without getting tired—as long as I was not running.

Saying that I was a terrible runner would be a huge understatement. It was supposed to be my third lap, but I was still running my first one. My only consolation was that I was not running alone.

As it turned out, Abi was an equally terrible runner—I believed she might even be worse than I was but was just trying to suck it up, because she looked like she was about to pass out—so we'd decided to pair. It had not been a conscious decision, but one made when other people had been on their third and second laps and we were still on our first. We'd automatically gravitated towards each other and that had been it.

"I've seen snails move faster."

Abi and I simultaneously turned towards the owner of the voice who, in three long strides, caught up to us then slowed down to match our—as she'd said—snails pace.

"Haha." I glared at Laura, the newly added member of our team, while Abi rolled her eyes at her, before facing forward.

"For real, though. I think I've passed you guys like twice." She stopped to throw back her head on an outrageously loud laugh that drew eyes towards us. "It's like you're moving, but you're not actually moving."

"Shut up, Laura."

Those words gave me pause, because they'd not come out of my mouth. With wide eyes, I turned to Abi and when she saw the look on my face, she rolled her eyes again. I could hardly be blamed though; it was the first sign of frustration Abi had shown since I'd met her. Well, except for that day at the cafeteria when she'd seemed almost pissed about Zoe's nonchalant attitude towards her.

"Jeez, okay." Laura laughed. She was a surprisingly good runner. She'd run two laps and was not even out of breath a little, seeing as she still found the strength to mock them.

It was sports day at school and the sports mistress had dragged them all out into the sports centre and she'd told them to run as much as they could round the track.

Now, I might be wrong, but 'as much they could' could mean a half lap. It could even mean two. And that was exactly why I was not going to kill myself over the task. I planned on running just once around the track and dragging it out as much as I could.

"Destiny looks like he's about to die." Laura forced out in-between laughs.

I searched for Destiny with my eyes and found him a few feet in front of us, his face contorted in a grimace and his steps short and halting. I couldn't tell very well from where I was, but he looked like he was sweating.

I didn't know whether it was the fact that I was only a few minutes away from getting to the state he was in myself, his facial expression, or whether it was the way Laura said it, but all of a sudden, I staggered, doubling over to brace my hands on my knees as I laughed. I laughed so hard that tears trickled out the side of my eyes.

Abi took the opportunity to rest herself, bracing her hands on her knees as she gulped in deep breaths. She didn't find what Laura said funny at all—she had not even looked. It would be hard for her to find anything funny at all right now. The expression on her face told me that she was finally going to give up. Only for her to say, "Okay. Let's go." After a while.