Can't Run From You

Chapter 22

Thea's POV

As soon as I got out of the ice bath I called Molly. I didn't know what else to do. I felt like I couldn't breathe. She told me to just calm down and drive to her house. When I got there, I sat in my car and tried to calm down, but I couldn't. The tears just kept coming. I saw Molly knock on my window.

"Hey come on get inside." She said when I opened the door. I walked straight to her room, I didn't say anything, I just got under the covers and let the tears fall.

"Thea what happened?" she was sitting on the side of the bed with her hand on my shoulder.

"I ended it with her." I breathed out between the tears.

"She just walked away. I never thought anything could hurt this much." I said

"I'm sorry Thea. I'm going to call Lucy. Maybe she can help."

"She doesn't know though." I said.

"Maybe she should." I just nodded my head and sunk farther into blankets.

"Hey so I need to talk to you about something... Not really. Thea's here and she's having a breakdown...you know about what's been going on?... How?... oh shit she's there?...I'll text you."

"What just happened?" I asked sitting up.

"Eli's at Lucy's."

"What why?!" I screamed.

"I don't know. Lucy just said that she was upset so she called her." She was looking at her phone texting with Lucy.

"Fine." I turned my back to Molly and faced the wall. I finally stopped crying.

"Thea what the hell is that on your neck?" I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had been covering it up with makeup but the water must have washed it off.

"It was from our date. Eli has one too. But I think we both covered them with makeup." I said thinking about the night. It really was a great night. Molly just patted my head and kept texting Lucy. Eli wouldn't do anything with Lucy. Right?

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I stayed at Molly's for a good two hours because that's how long it took for me to get my head together. When I got home I didn't talk to my parents. They said hi to me and asked if I was hungry. I just said no and walked to my room. I hadn't talked to Will since we were in the library but I didn't feel like talking to anyone, especially him. I showered, changed into my pajamas and got into bed.

When I got to school the next morning, Will met me at my car with tacos and a sweet tea. I just thanked him and we walked into the school. When he walked me to my first class we were talking outside of the door when Eli walked up.

"Hey Eli." Will said completely unaware of the current situation.

"Hey guys." Eli ran her hand through her hair and that's when I saw it on neck. I felt my ears burning. She didn't cover it today.

"Woah you look like you had some fun." Will said to Eli. She just smiled a devilish sort of smile and said

"Yeah, just this girl I was messing around with." She winked at me and then walked into the class room. As soon as she left Will looked at me confused.

"She uh goes that way?" he had a really weird look on his face.

"Yeah she does." I said flatly.

"You better get to class." I said. I didn't want to deal with this conversation right now. Will just gave me a concerned look and started walking back to class. I don't even want to know what he's thinking. When I got in class I was going to sit in a desk that was far away from Eli but there weren't any empty ones, so I was stuck sitting behind her. It was going to be like this all day, me sitting behind her, her ignoring me completely and it silently killing me. Will walked me to all my classes and he kept asking questions about Eli. Like how long I knew, and what her parents said, if everyone knew, blah blah blah. Will's not a homophobe, he's just a good Christian boy. Although there's not much of a difference if you ask me. At one point I got really annoyed and just said "If you want to know so bad ask her." And kept walking. He didn't ask me anything else after that. When I walked into the locker room I didn't see Eli anywhere. I didn't want to end up seeing her so I got dressed really fast and went to the track. I drove my car over there then got off to walk to the track. Molly and Lucy were already there when I walked up. I swear I'll never understand how they get there so fast. They both just gave me a pity look and waved. I just waved and ran to do my warm up lap. When I finished I saw Clark walking up to the field. Eli still wasn't here.

Since today's Tuesday and we have a meet tomorrow Clark only made us do a mile and a half. We always do them the day before a meet. When I came around the curve to finish my run I saw Eli walking onto the track. She walked over to Clark and started talking to her. She gave her a note or something and it seemed to satisfy Clarks irritation at the fact that Eli was showing up late. When everyone finished their run, Clark said that everyone who wasn't in a relay or doing field events could leave. Since Eli and I had to work on hand offs she said we didn't need to work on long jump today. My hand offs with Molly went smoothly. We finished them in no time, but now I have to work on my hand off with Eli.

"Alright one more time." Clark yelled at me and Eli. The hand off wasn't bad, but we weren't in sync. Either she would take off too fast or I would run up on her. We still made it but it wasn't smooth. I walked back to my take off position and held the baton in my hand and waited to take off. In the corner of my eye I could see Molly and Lucy watching us do our hand off. I looked ahead and watched as Eli kept moving her left ankle. I know it's been hurting her because she kept bouncing trying to stretch it and stay off of it at the same time. Clark blew the whistle and I took off as fast as I could. When I passed the mark Eli took off, she threw her hand back and I put the baton in it. Right as Eli was rounding the corner some soccer guy walked right in front of her trying to chase a ball that went onto the field. Instead of running into him she tried to jump out of the way but her spike dragged on the track and the next thing I heard was a scream and Eli was on the ground now. I didn't hesitate. I ran to her with Molly and Lucy close in tow.

"Eli are you okay?" I asked when I got closer to her. I kneeled down next to her and put my hand on her leg. She wouldn't look up at me, she just held her ankle.

"Eli?" I asked again.

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone Thea." she was trying not to cry, I could hear it in her voice. I just stood up and took a step back as Molly and Lucy went to see if they could help. When Clark walked up Eli was already having Lucy help her up. As she stood she tried to put some weight on it but flinched.

"Eli you alright?" Clark asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine. Just need to ice it for tomorrow."

"Girls get her to the trainer so she can get it checked out." Clark replied.

"I'm fine. I can go myself." Eli said as she took a small step proving she could walk. Clark just looked at her.

"Lucy go with her and make sure she doesn't eat turf on the way there." Eli just smiled, rolled her eyes and walked off. Molly just looked at me when Clark walked off.

"She didn't mean it like that Thea." She said

"Yeah she did."

"She's just hurting. She liked you."

"Yeah, well, she's not the only one."