The Senior Project

Chapter Five | Uncertainty

CHAPTER FIVE~
UNCERTAINTY

I jogged along the sidewalk, feeling the bad mood from last night's lecture diffuse a bit with each slap of my shoes against the pavement. Now that I had the time, I wanted to get some exercise. Despite my dislike towards all things athletic, I was also decently health conscious, a habit instilled by my parents at a young age which was further enforced in all my past health and biology classes.

I matched my footfalls to the upbeat tunes playing on my phone. A slight smile slipped onto my lips. I used to love running, it was fun to just run and run for as long as I could. Of course, as I contracted a case of lazyitis once I hit my teenage years, running became a cumbersome chore and I dropped my habit.

Unfortunately, ten minutes later, I was out of breath. I checked the time on my wristwatch and smiled, satisfied. Thirty minutes of running. Okay so maybe I took lots of breaks but we can pretend I didn't. It was still pretty good for my miserable standards.

I halted when I reached Soraya's house, deciding to drop her an impromptu visit. Ringing the bell once I reached the top of the steps, I waited while catching my breath.

The door opened and Soraya appeared. She was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and her hair was left down, still damp from a shower.

"Let me guess? Your mother has no clue you're here and I'm supposed to keep this a secret."

"Don't you always?" I laughed as I entered her familiar house.

"Good point. Wait, why are you exercising again?" Soraya asked, visibly shocked at my decision to put effort into something. She would not go out of her way to do something like this.

"I felt the need the run, I was getting twitchy. Besides, I haven't been on a good run in six months or so and it's a great way to get out of the house! It's a reason my mother can't refuse," I replied, flopping down on her soft couch.

"Ohhh-kayyy then." She eyed my track pants and t-shirt warily.

"You know, athletic wear won't bite you right?" I teased with a smile.

"Mmmmhmmm, just stay away from me okay?"

"Yes ma'am."

"'Kay now, hang on, let me change into something else. Maybe we can go somewhere to eat something," Soraya said, running up her stairs and cussing as she stubbed her toe against a step.

As I waited, I slid my gaze around my second home. Pictures of a happy family littered the walls, many of which included me. I chuckled gently at some of the more awkward photos.

"We were such odd children, growing up weren't we?" Soraya remarked as she slid up beside me. I examined the photo of us with bits and pieces of icing and vanilla cake painting our faces.

"We were. I'm pretty proud of us."

"You were stranger than I was," she commented as we headed out the door.

"I was stranger than you? Please!"

She locked the door and pocketed her keys. "Are you really arguing this? Allow me to remind you of the time you ate sand for the hell of it, or the time where you wrapped yourself up in bubble wrap then ran into walls on purpose, or that time where you pulled your pants down at the mall because you wanted to imitate that dude who was low-riding, or-"

"Okay, okay! So I was weird! But in my defence, that kid was low-riding really badly and I was curious about why he did that."

"So? You still did it," she said.