An Impeccable Catastrophe

AIC ch. 1

The smell of sweat covered my nose while the sound of hard work filled my ears. This was my favorite place in the entire world. Mirrors lined one side of the wall, punching bags hung from the ceiling, rows of weights stood off to the side, and my personal favorite, a couple of rubber mannequins were placed in one corner of the room. This is where I feel the most at ease and it’s the best place to relieve stress, even escape reality for a little while. And best of all this is where you get your body to look its best. 

Dropping my gym bag on the floor and taking a seat in an empty chair, I bent down to tighten my shoelaces, when my best friend Sage plopped down next to me. She looked at me with a smile, her beautiful blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. “Hey Girl! Ready to get started? My legs are itching to get some kicks on the p-bag.”

Sitting back up straight, “Ready whenever you are,” I replied with a wink and a small smile. Sage and I have been best friends since anyone could remember. In kindergarden one day we brought the same lunch box to school, since then we were inseparable. We walked home from school together everyday and we always stopped by each other’s houses over the weekends. The fact that we lived on the same street made sleepovers more common, we could talk for hours and often we would stay up way past midnight babbling about who knows what. At school, every student understands that we’re the best of friends and knowing that both of us are practically the best martial artists in the state, no one would dare get on our bad side. If need be, we could take down the biggest and baddest kid at our school in 5 seconds. It was that easy.

“I say a round on the p-bags and then we move on to the mannies. How ‘bout it?” Sage lifted one of her brows at me and offered me her hand. I grabbed it, using her hand to pull me up and off the chair. 

Giving her a smug grin, “Fire drill!” I yelled out before running out the door. Behind me I heard Sage let out a big gasp as she ran after me. Here at the studio, whenever someone says fire drill, everyone has to sprint out and take a lap around the block before you can enter the studio again. Its what keeps us alert and on our feet. As Sage and I made our way around the first corner, we heard a few others make their way out of the studio also. 

“You’re a jerk,” Sage shouted when she caught up to me, her face pink from using the extra effort to make up for the head start I had. I just laughed in response. It was always entertaining to pick on her, she had the funniest reactions. 

As we reached the second corner, the sky was almost pitch black, the stars starting to come out. A small shiver made its way down my spine. The town here, never had the best reputation. There was always something every few years here that reached national headlines. One year there was a freak accident that caused seven houses to burn down. Another time there was a shootout killing nine people and injuring about thirty others. I’ve always been slightly scared of this town. After I graduate, I swear I will take a one way trip to the farthest city from here. I elbowed Sage’s side, “Hey, wanna take a shortcut? I don’t like being out so late,” I said in between heavy breaths. It was exhausting to run and talk simultaneously. 

“You should have thought about that before yelling out that horrible word,” Sage chuckled glancing at me from the side. “Okay, okay. We’ll go through the ally before the third turn,” she said after I glared at her for a few seconds. Taking a peek behind me, I saw that the others weren’t behind us. “Sometimes I think you forget how fast of runners we are.”

“Well, we are some pretty awesome runners,” I replied wiggling my brows. Sage scrunched her nose up at my gesture. “It’s so creepy how you can do that with your eyebrows. I’m gonna have nightmares about them one day.”

“Hey!” I lightly used my side to push her. Sage laughed trying to wiggle her brows like I did, but failed tremendously. It looked like there were two caterpillars on her forehead that were dying. I couldn’t help but crack up. “You suck at it.”