Glimpse

Part Five

Part Five

Today is Tuesday and I've been dreading it. The entire day seems to be ticking away so fast, four o'clock coming almost out of nowhere suddenly. I've been up and down all day wondering if I should even show my face there. I haven't faced Bryce since our interaction outside of the coffee hut. I'm impressed he's kept to himself this whole time and hasn't sought me out. He hasn't even messaged.

I've debated showing up so much I end up late, Nicola beats me to the trail. She's stretching at the entrance, waving when she sees me pulling up in my car. I easily could've used the excuse of the scraps healing on my leg and arm. It's the perfect reason to not go running today but I'll be honestly and say it never occurred to me until now. As I'm getting out of my car and walking towards Nicola.

Bryce's car is here which means he's already running on the trail somewhere. I wish I could say the embarrassment from him knowing my little secret has put a stop to my bean flicking session but it hasn't. They've slowed a little, but the obsession is still there.

"Hey, so I know this is counter intuitive to what we're about to do but we're having drinks at the boy's house tonight. You coming?" Nicola asks as I approach her.

I raise a brow. Tia mentioned something about this earlier but didn't hang around to explain, she was running late to class because of Nora. "Ah yeah maybe."

I might need a few drinks to get across the road, but I'd like to go. I have no assignment coming up soon and it would be fun to hang out with everyone. The only thing keeping me from going is the fact Bryce will probably be there. And we haven't spoken since I took off last week.

"Oh you are so coming, this is going to be so much fun."

I start stretching my arms and legs, trying to focus on anything but Bryce. It's hard though because I know any minute now he'll be rounding the trail and crossing paths with us. I wonder what the interaction will be like. Will it be the same as every other one or different? Different because he knows now.

Oh my god, I wonder if he knows what I do during these runs? Maybe I'm not as good as I thought hiding my reaction to him when he's all sweaty and out of breath from running. I blush deeply wondering how upset Nicola would be if I bailed right this second.

"Hey guys."

Too late.

I look over to watch Bryce slow his run until he stops near us. He smiles at Nicola before moving his gaze to mine. The corner of his mouth twitches but otherwise I can't read his expression. He's got his poker face out.

"We're good, right?" Nicola asks, gesturing between the two of them.

Bryce laughs. "It was for a good cause." Bryce glances at me before looking at the ground. "Heard it was a good night."

I frown, unsure what they are talking about. "It was the best." Nicola sighs, staring off into the far distance.

"Did I miss something?" I ask.

Nicola shakes her head, blinking. "Saturday night, dude." She nudges my arm.

"Oh, right. Yeah, it was a good night."

We had a lot of fun. We got half way through one movie before Nicola whipped out the joints stolen from Bryce by Jason. So much giggling proceeded after that, my jaw ached a lot the next day.

"Anyway, we'll see you tonight." Nicola starts jogging off down the trail.

I blink unprepared to go now. I gulp, stretching my arms once more quickly before I catch up with her. Bryce matches our stride. "You coming?" he asks me.