Afternoon Run

one; ❝unspoken rules❞

It's an unspoken rule that at 4:30 pm on the dot every single day, I have to wait in front of Jesenia's house for her to come out. So, when I catch sight of the familiar brick house, I pause my running and savor the small break.

Her house is in the neighborhood next to mine, and I don't mind the long run to get here. It only takes two minutes, according to my watch, for her front door to open. She simply runs over to me, without a single word or acknowledgement of my existence.

Her long brunette hair cascades down her back and she ties it into a bun, turning away as she does. I try not to take in her appearance fully as I fear that I might begin to awkwardly stare, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I find my running buddy attractive — I'm ashamed by how much I find her attractive.

We run at the same pace, although sometimes I run ahead of her or she runs ahead of me. I think of the first day she ran with me; it had been May 16th, the ending of my junior year. I was relieved that school was over, so I went out for a run later that day to break off some stress. She had wordlessly joined me, and I recall how later that day, I had scoured over all of the school yearbooks I owned just so I could find her. I remember the profound joy I experienced when, finally, I had found her smiling picture in on the crumpled pages of my book.

Her name is Jesenia Carter, she's in the same year as me and she's even in band. I've constantly been going through my past memories of school that I can trace back to her, but there are none present. In my mind, she's appeared out of thin air, which only adds to my increasing frustration of the fact that I don't know anything about her. Even now, I still find myself often staring at her picture, attempting to add a personality to this mysterious person.

Now, four weeks later we still run together but I haven't been able to find out anything else about her.

I've been desperately holding onto the hope that she might talk to me, but as each day passes, my dreams shrink. Sometimes, I have the urge to speak up first instead, but I don't have it in me to go through with it.

What would I even say?

I'll leave the talking. . . Or, rather, the non-talking to her. I focus on my jog instead, sparing a few glances here and there at her.

Our long run ends when we arrive at her house, and she silently enters her house, not even bothering to look back at me.

Three more days pass like this until the fourth day when she runs all the way home with me.

I have no idea what's in store for the fifth day.

A/N: This is one of my first stories! At times, I feel it wasn't very well written. My more recent stories such as Illicit Affairs and Answer to my Life are better quality writing if you're interested! I will work on editing this story when I can.