Sometimes

Broken

Brayden

Today is the day.

With a deep breath, I pull my tight-fitting track uniform on over my head, noticing a few judgemental glances from the other members of the team. I try to ignore them as I pull my jeans off my body and replace them with the uncomfortably short shorts I wear with my uniform before grabbing my water bottle and clutching it a little too tightly. This is it. The very first track meet of the season. I breathe deeply again before making my way outside to the track.

The sun is blinding, and I squint as I try to find my way to the track complex, wishing that I had brought sunglasses. When my vision finally adjusts, I can finally look at the bleachers in order to search for Linus. Sure enough, he's there, sitting with Liam. For the past few years, the rest of the guys and I have tried to convince him to do track, but he just couldn't give up baseball. I guess it's understandable, but I still think he would excel more here than on the diamond.

I run up to them and pull Linus into a tight embrace. I plant a quick kiss on his lips and say, "I'm glad you could make it." I can't hide the smile that has spread across my lips, especially when I look at his earring, or maybe it's the smile that I see on his face. Either way, I'm full of a warm feeling that I just can't seem to shake, and I know it's all because of him.

"Are you just gonna ignore me, man?" Liam asks, and I laugh and shake my head before giving him a fistbump and a hug.

"I'm glad you could make it too, Lee."

The three of us stand there, chatting a little bit about life until it's time for me to go to warm up. I run down to the track and run a few laps with the team before we break off into doing stretches on the track. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Linus blow a kiss at me and I grin, blowing one back, ignoring the people who are giving me judgemental looks, and I notice Thomas and Kadyn glaring back at them, and I feel overwhelming gratitude for them. I really don't know what I did in order to deserve friends that care about me as those guys do, but here I am, with them defending me, even without uttering a word.

Finally, they begin to call the events. "First call for boys' pole vault, girls high jump, boys' long jump, girl's triple jump, boys' shot put, girl's discus, girls' 100m hurdles, girls' 3200m relay, and boys' 3200m relay," the voice of a girl in the student council calls out, and I go back up to the bleachers to cheer on my teammates with Lee and Linus. The relay teams get on the start line, and I point Kadyn out to Linus. He's the anchor, and we wait around for around seven minutes until he takes off, and we begin to yell our heads off. It's a lot of fun, and when he comes in first, the volume of our cheering grows exponentially. Then, I have to go down to get ready to run the hurdles. I give Linus another kiss and run down to the track.

I cheer for the girls on our team, who very obviously swept the event, and congratulate each one as they come back toward the start line to stretch or get a drink of water.

Finally, it's my time to get on the track. I slide my feet back into the blocks and take a deep breath. I look straight down at the number painted on the track in front of me and close my eyes. I feel the slight breeze blowing, and my shorts are waving around a little in the wind. I can hear the anxious shifting of people as they slide into their blocks, and finally, the noise ceases. After what feels like forever, the official says, "Set," and I know he's raising the starting pistol into the air. I take yet another deep breath, raising my hips to the sky. My eyes are still sealed shut, just waiting, waiting, waiting. After yet another eternity, I hear the gun go off, and without thinking, I take off.

I count my steps, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, before throwing my right leg over the hurdle and letting my other bend behind me. I take another three steps and throw myself over the next hurdle. I do this over and over, nothing changing until I notice the guy who was ahead of me had fallen over the hurdle. I try not to pay it any mind and continue the race, taking the first spot. I hear the crowd in the bleachers begin to scream louder and louder, and I pass over the last hurdle before making a mad dash for the finish. I look at my time and see a 15.3 on the board and nod. It isn't bad.