Unfold

Chapter Six (6)

Shawn hugged his knee in front of him as he tried to balance on one foot. Tyler was pulling his elbow behind his head, Zeiler was fixing her ponytail in the mirror, and Scottie was messing around on his phone from the couch.

"What are we doing today? Five? Six miles?" Shawn asked, bending down to tighten the laces on his shoe.

"In your dreams," Zeiler called, not taking her eyes off the mirror.

"You'll most likely make it farther than Scottie, considering he doesn't believe in stretching," Tyler said matter-o-factly.

Scottie looked appalled when he looked up from his phone and narrowed his eyes at Tyler. "It's a myth that you need to stretch before, it only matters if you stretch after. All you guys are doing is wasting my time."

Shawn sighed and looked at Scottie, exasperated. "It's incredible how confident you can be when you're so unbelievably wrong."

Scottie slammed his phone down next to him on the couch and stood up. "Alright, let's go. I'm about to embarrass all you clowns."

"Why are we doing this?" Zeiler cried, throwing her head back as she slowly meandered out the front door.

"This was literally your idea," Shawn said. "Remember? 'We should start running together like we did in high school because we're getting old and I want to fit into my wedding dress.'"

"So I get to sit this out because I didn't know you guys then?" Tyler retorted. "Also, as the oldest one here at the young fragile age of 26, I'm offended."

Zeiler put her hands on his chest and started pushing him out the door.

The sun was casting an orange glow over the neighborhood as it began to rise. They started jogging side by side down the street. Scottie shoved Shawn out of the way so he could be up front and Shawn laughed. He was literally an oversized child. He had been described by Shawn as that kid in high school who had a C average, but got a perfect score on the ACT. He had so much potential as a person, but was always looking for the easy route.

Watching Scottie run ahead reminded Shawn of when they met in 7th grade gym class. The first time they ran the mile, Scottie sprinted the first lap so he was hundreds of meters ahead of everyone. By the time Shawn was on his third lap, he fell in step beside him as Scottie panted for air.

"So like....there's this story about this rabbit, and this tortoise,"  Shawn had said mockingly. Scottie told him to shut up and then they both laughed. They had been friends ever since.

Zeiler, Shawn had always been close with. Being only children, they spent a lot of their time together. They only lived a few minutes apart, and Shawn still remembered jumping some old lady's fence and cutting through her backyard to get to the trail in the woods that led to Zeiler's neighborhood.

Tyler had come later. After years of hearing Zeiler explain to people that her name was pronounced "Like Tyler with a Z," he always told her it'd be hilarious if she ended up with a Tyler. When Shawn became a teacher, he met Tyler at orientation and found out as the year progressed that he did not have a girlfriend. It became a running joke between Scottie, Shawn, and Zeiler until Shawn had to invite him to one of their outings. Their plan surprisingly worked, as Tyler fell in love with Zeiler's boisterous personality and she fell for his quick wit. They bonded the second she told him her name and they laughed over the resemblance. They didn't break it to Tyler that they had plotted the whole thing until he was so invested in their friend group that he wouldn't be scared away.

"You mind if we run by Megan's apartment? She told me she would give me all of Shawn's stuff." Scottie said. Shawn reached out to grab him by the back of the neck but Scottie narrowly avoided his grasp.