Ice Cold

01

Wren Ridley

I was following the cracks in the sidewalk, somewhere in Providence between Brown and my favorite coffee shop, when I bumped into him. The cracks zig zagged across the pavement, forming a sort of natural map in the earth with greenery growing through them. They were my mile markers, how I knew how far I had gone and how far I had left to go.

I never used to run, hating the feeling of my chest getting heavy and my breath picking up as I went on. As I started doing it more, I grew to love it.

It was part of an escape from my life. My headphones in my ears blocked out the world around me and left me to my own thoughts. And that did nothing to stop my constant overthinking. But I loved the solitude. Being able to overthink without anyone else noticing. It was like I had tunnel vision, only staring straight ahead.

It would make sense if I physically ran into people more often, but it had never happened until now. I collided with a body, sending us both backward and knocking the other guy on the ground.

"Watch where you're going asshole," the guy spat, glaring up at me as he shoved himself off the ground.

I took one earbud out and held my hand up to my ear as if I was having trouble hearing him.

"What was that?" I asked, though I had heard him perfectly.

"I said watch where the fuck you're going," he replied in a sharp tone, his eyes looking as if they were trying to pierce my skin.

I couldn't help but notice the guy looked incredibly familiar and it only took me about two more seconds to figure out why. The guy standing in front of me was Landon, at least I thought that was his name. Or was it Lance? No, Landon.

I never forgot faces, but names were a different story.

I never really knew Landon personally, only from the times he had tried beating up my brother in some homophobic rage back when they were in high school. And for that, I wasn't very fond of the kid.

"Well, you'll just have to get out of my way next time," I told him with a shrug. This only seemed to anger him more.

"Or you could not run people over in the middle of the park," he answered through gritted teeth.

I just shrugged again. "Don't wanna get run over, then move out of the way."

Landon tightly set his jaw, but his expression softened as he stared at me. A look of realization settled on his face.

"I know you from somewhere," he said in a slow voice, pointing at me like he was trying to place where he knew me from. "I just don't know where."

"Can't help you with that," I told him, putting my earbud back in and jogging away before the boy said anything else.

I finished my route and headed back to my dorm just as James was waking up. My roommate was never one to wake up early, and he always complained about me being too loud when I got back from my morning runs.

James and I didn't exchange any words as I began stripping from my running clothes. He watched me from where he sat on his bed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Hey, Wren," he started, causing me to turn and face him after throwing my shirt into my hamper. "Do you wanna fuck?"

I snorted out a laugh and shook my head, continuing to take off my clothes.

"It's, like, nine in the morning," I told him, grabbing my things for a shower. "It's a little early for that."

James shrugged. "I can't help when I wanna do it."