Can't Run From You

Chapter 14

I didn't tell Mol everything that happened, especially about last night. I just said we'd talk about it later since Will was waiting for me. I walked out of the bathroom with Molly in tow and headed to where she said Will was. I walked past the camp and saw Eli in one of those hammocks that you can just hang from the bars. She had her shoes off and her hair was down. Her phone was in her left hand while her right was tucked behind her head as a makeshift pillow. I was still looking at her when I heard Molly say

"Hurry up he's by the entrance." I hadn't even realized she passed me. I just nodded my head and kept walking. As we walked over to the entrance of the track I could see Will in his light gray Nike shorts and a maroon shirt. He had on his baseball cap and his baseball sunglasses, you know the ones I'm talking about. When he saw me walking up he smiled and said,

"Hey babe I've been looking for you." As he said it he wrapped me in a hug. As soon as he hugged me I felt the urge to cry. I wrapped my arms around him and just hung on for a little bit. He pulled back after a little while but kept his hands on my shoulders.

"Woah are you okay?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah no I'm good. I didn't jump as well as I usually do. I came in second." I lied. I could see Molly behind him giving me a concerned but knowing look.

"It's only the first meet. You'll do better the next time. It's like when they started me for the first time, I did terrible but I got back into my groove, and you will too." Did he just say groove? I ignored it and gave him another hug.

"Thank you. Wait what are you doing here?" I asked. Its 10 o'clock in the morning on a Thursday. He should be in school.

"Well it's your first meet of the season so I wanted to be here to watch you run. I stopped to get some food though that's why I didn't get to see you jump." He said smiling at me. His crooked smile was just so cute. I tip toed a little bit so that I could kiss his lips. His lips were not as soft as Eli's and I could feel his stubble on my cheek. I forced myself to stop thinking about Eli.

"You need to rest before the running events. Let's go back to the camp." Will said as he took my hand. When we got back to the camp Eli was still in the hammock but her headphones were on and her eyes were closed. Good, she was asleep. 

Since our camp was under the bleachers and it was just rock and dirt under there we always had our school mats to set on the ground. I grabbed my blanket out of my backpack while Will said hi to all the guys he knew. Will and I sat down on the mats and ended up laying down. Will was on his back and I was using his arm as a pillow. I told Lucy, who was three feet away reading, to wake me up when we needed to start warming up. She didn't look at me, she just gave me a thumbs up. I closed my eyes and listened to Will breathe. Despite all the noise of the meet going on around us, I could still hear him breathing. I focused in on it so much that I ended up falling asleep.

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Eli's POV

Things were going great with Thea until Molly walked in and said Will was here. What the hell am I doing? She has a boyfriend. She's straight! I walked back to the camp and laid down in the hammock that I had set up before we jumped. I got in and laid back but my pony tail was pissing me off and I kept fidgeting back and forth before I finally just took it off. I hated having my hair up anyways. I was comfortable for a total of 15 seconds before my sandals started to bug me because they would slide up when I put my feet up. I threw them off. Fuck. This is so annoying. I put my hand behind my head out of habit and pulled my phone out of the lining of my spandex. In the corner of my eye I saw Thea and Molly walk by. I pretended I didn't see her looking at me as she passed by. It pissed me off to watch her walk by me. It shouldn't though. I knew she had a boyfriend, I told myself this was just for fun, but I'm not that kind of person. I know Thea thinks I am though, I could see it in her eyes when I left yesterday. I need someone to talk to. Before I realized what I was doing, I had already texted Dakota. I looked at the message that just read 'Hey' and cringed. I set my phone on my stomach and tried not to think about it, but a few seconds later I felt my phone buzz.

Hey. This was not going to be good.

How's it going? I asked

Good. Are you okay? I hate that she always knew when I wasn't okay.

Yeah, I'm good. Just making stupid decisions.

That sounds about right. I rolled my eyes. She didn't have to be that blunt.

Okay well ill ttyl I'm at a meet.

Okayyy have fun.

I was even more annoyed now. I know we broke up but she said we could still be friends. So much for that. I reached down and pulled my headphones out of my bag and fell asleep. When I woke up a little while later I looked around the camp and saw Lucy sitting to the right of me reading a book. To the left of her I saw Will and Thea asleep on the mats. Thea was in his arms. I ran my hand through my hair, got off the hammock and started walking towards the pits.

"Hey wait up." I heard someone say behind me. I turned around to see Lucy behind me.

"Are you alright?" she asked

"Yeah I'm fine. You can go back to camp." I said bluntly. She gave me a whimpering look and I started to feel bad.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay. But what's wrong?" she put her hand on her hip and gave me a look.

"Its nothing."

"There's obviously something. Normally I wouldn't be so nosy but I don't want you to run crappy because your heads not in the game." I thought about it for a second and realized she was right. And I can't afford to run crappy.

"Its just this person I may or may not like." I said not looking directly at her.

"Thea." She said quickly. I snapped my head to look at her.

"How did you know?" I asked

"Know what? That you're gay or that you and Thea have been messing around?" And here I thought Molly was the smart one.

"All of it I guess." I said still in disbelief.

"Well I have a great gaydar. I don't know why but I do. And I know when Thea's been acting weird. And you guys have definitely been acting strange lately." She said matter-of-factly.

"And here I thought I was sneaky." I said still in shock. I started walking to the stands next to where they were pole vaulting. We sat down and I just watched as some guy tried to make a height that was obviously too high for him.

"What're you thinking?" she asked as I watched the guy hit the bar and land on the mat.

"That I need to just get over it because she has a boyfriend." I said as the guy started in on his second attempt.

"I know this is a messy situation and I don't want to say anything that might get me in trouble with Thea, but I think it will all work out you know." At this I looked at her. Is there something I don't know? No, I shouldn't get my hopes up. Even if there is something I don't know I shouldn't expect her to break up with her boyfriend for me. She's not even gay. We haven't even had a serious conversation about anything except for Will. God its 11 in the morning and I'm already stressing. Whatever. I looked at Lucy and just said

"Thank you. I promise I'll do my best not to run like shit." She just smiled and said

"Good because if we lose this tri-meet because you can't run I'm gonna be pissed." I just laughed and watched as the guy finally made the jump without hitting the bar. Good job guy. Maybe there is hope for everyone.