Attachment

chapter six | engagement

Hearing the ring on my phone go through and then connect to Daniel. I don't say anything for a minute so he asks "hello?"

"Hey," I say, unsurely. "Alexis?" He asks me. "Yeah, it's me. I just- I wanted to say sorry but I was having panic attacks and it was just a lot for me" I try to get him to understand why I left. "Look, I'm not saying I think that you should have done that, but you were hurting so I get it. I'll tell the other three that you called and explain your situation. I'm will Emma right now so I'll call you later okay?" He asks me.

"Of course, thank you by the way," I tell him. "No problem love you," he says and I reply "love you too" and then I hang up.

"Put your phone away. Theresa is coming in." A girl next to me says. Theresa is the professor for my jazz class, most people hate her because of how strict she is, but in dance, teachers need to be strict.

"Okay, now that attendance is taken please find a partner for warm-up conditioning." She says.

I pair up with the girl that was sitting next to me who warned me about Theresa. Her name is Christiana and I found out that she is an international student from Poland.

"So, you and your partner are going to be doing 2 miles and a 7-minute plank, after that do all of your stretches and meet back here," Theresa says, opening the door so that we could head outside to the track.

On the way there, we saw the basketball team who was also heading to the track. "ALEXIS" Andrew yells loudly across the parking lot from us. I blush and keep walking, not liking the unwanted attention.

"ALEXIS MAXWELL!" I hear his voice yell again. "Who is that?" Christiana asks me. "He's a friend, holy shit this is so embarrassing," I reply to her.

"That's Andrew, right? My boyfriend's name is Jack he's also on the team." She asks me. "Yeah, it is," I reply to her.

"Hey, why didn't you answer me?" Andrew's voice whispers into my ear. "Dude? What the fuck that was so embarrassing" I tell him, and push him back away from me. "I'm sorry," he says, still wearing a grin on his face. "No your not." I deadpan.

"That's true. It was too funny seeing you blush to be sorry for" he says with a chuckle. "Fuck off" I groan with the backs of my hands against my cheeks trying to cool them down. "Want to run with me and Jack?" He asks me and Christiana.

"Sure" I shrug at him. "Yeah, that works with me too," Christiana replies to him. He nods his head towards us, I assume to signal Jack because another guy who I haven't ever met jogged over to us.

"So, why do you guys have to run right now?" Andrew asked me. "Just a two-mile warm-up," I tell him with a scowl. "Man, that sucks. We only have to do a mile and it's because everyone was a mess during practice today." He says, with a scowl matching mine.

"You poor thing" I fake pout at him. "Also, you're going to regret running with me because I take forever to run," I warn him with a sweet smile.

"What's your mile time?" He asks curiously. As we're walking out onto the track I answer him with a simple "last time I knew of it was 8:58."

"That's not too bad. Mine is 6:30, I mean I'm better which we already knew." He says, teasing me. "You are not funny." I deadpan looking at him.

The horn goes off telling us to start running and we start with a slower jog. After our fourth lap, Andrew and Jack leave the track, although not before telling me and Christiana "have fun running losers."

"So is anything going on between you and Andrew?" Christiana asked me, looking curious. "No, two of my best friends are dating his two best friends and we just had a project together, so mutual acquaintances at most," I tell her with a chuckle at the end.