The Pale Boy

Chapter 16

Dedicated to her because her birthdays today and she’s my bestie! *cough, cough, also trying to guilt her into reading my story and make her be a reb by reading an ONGOING story instead of a completed one, cough, cough*

Yay for quick updates!

Chapter 16

After school, Hale and I had fallen into the routine of running together. I would eat a quick snack when I got home and just as I was lacing my shoes up on the porch steps, Hale would come jogging by. He had considerably slowed his pace for me, enough that I wasn’t entirely dying after our rendezvous. He ran me to the edge though, right to the brink of pushing myself.

He regarded me cautiously during our breaks at the field or pond; it was barely noticeable beyond his usual, casual look though. I deduced he was watching how far to push me. Calling him out on this crossed my mind many times, my muscles were sore every day during class; however, I had never felt so in shape. And there was also the portion of my mind that knew he would come back with a witty reply while I would be left stumbling for any reply. I was becoming better at that though. So much that it almost made me smile.

We near our spot and we both still to a stop in the field. The grass was dying down, stiff and forsaken along the amber colored trees.

I spread out gasping on the ground, staring up at the clouded sky.

“I-I think it’s…going to rain,” I pant out. This running routine was taking a toll on me.

“Late tonight,” Hale says, no wind taken out of him at all. I imagine him looking down at me.

It had been several days since Hale asked me to the dance and I agreed. We resumed to our normal chitchat like nothing had ever happened. I didn’t know how healthy that was, but I was okay with it. Sort of like how we never talked about the night of the bonfire. All I knew was that I had a dance to attend to in a couple of weeks. Which I was excited about.

“We need to have someone else in our video project,” Hale says into the field.

I twist my head to look  up at him, my neck craning in an uneven way. I could feel my hair fan out beneath me with the movement.

“Why?” I ask, honestly curious. I thought it would be just us two.

“It adds to the plot if there are two people,” he looks down at me, so I put my head back into normal position, going back to my clouded view.

Hale went back to his normal demeanor as quick as a snap. Sunday he had been flirty with me, teasing me with his breathe and comments. The next day at school he was back to normal-quiet. I thought maybe it was because we were at school with the whole student body’s eyes on us. When we went for our run after school though, which we decided to begin on Sunday, he was only slightly less quiet. Hale always had a way of saying the least amount possible. Very rarely did he ever stutter or user fillers in sentences-unlike me. I was taking what I could get with him though.