Fraternizing with the Enemy

7 // Of Exercise and Early Deaths

"Powers... if you do not get on with your big reveal, I will probably gouge out your eyes and stuff them so far up your ass you'll be able to see your own heart beating."

Apparently this barely fazed him as he managed to compose himself with the free pass I'd throw at him, that megawatt grin once again plastered across his face. "Well first," he began, "I just wanted to mention that Savannah was really wearing those jeans today."

I supressed a gag and forced a tight, polite smile. "How would you feel about wearing two black eyes?" I batted my eyelashes at him.

Reese shrugged nonchalant. "I'm just saying that with a view like that, I still didn't give myself away or anything. Shows how serious I am about this whole thing."

I snorted, pinching at the fabric of his tight, black t-shirt. "She would've lost herself at this ensemble, I know. Where'd you get it, Baby Gap?" I quipped, but couldn't deny that it really didn't look absolutely terrible the way that it very slightly accentuated what some may call abs.

He smirked. "Hey, control yourself, Sandavol, I'm here for your friend, not you."

"Wow," I stretched out the vowel and drowned it in all the cynicism I could gather, retracting my hand back at lightening speeds. "Wow."

Reese's smirk continued to dig into his cheek, creating that signature Reese dimple, and my words were quickly ignored. "More importantly, I found out a way for you and Tyler to get some quality alone time."

I couldn't deny that my interest had been piqued, and the glint in Reese's eye told me that he'd realized as well. There was a constant struggle for my long time crush and my new found hatred, but as soon as Tyler's beautiful face crossed my vision, well, rationality was a thing of dinosaurs and floppy disks.

Although, I still tried to remain somewhat composed. I didn't drool, at least.

Which couldn't really be said for Geography class.

"Okay, what are you doing this Saturday morning?" he asked, still looking smug.

I hummed in thought. "Well, I have a pretty tight schedule, to be honest. First some sleeping, and then some more sleeping, and I hoping to squeeze a quick nap in between."

He blatantly ignored me, as usual. "You know how Tyler's on the track team, right?"

I couldn't suppress the smile at the image of Tyler in minimal, loose clothing, sweat dripping down the nape of his tanned neck, jogging around the school. I sighed, "Oh yeah."

"Well, he asked me if I could go running with him Saturday morning..."

I gripped onto his words, impatiently anticipating the part when I got to make out with Tyler. "And...?" 

"And," he stretched it out agonizingly, "I thought that I could invite you, and then half way through just screw off somewhere and you guys could hang out!"

As he announced his proposal, Reese's face undeniably lit up, those amber eyes sparkling and his dark brows jumping to his hairline. The grin on his face appeared to reach Cheshire of sizes as he eagerly awaited what I assumed he thought was going to be a standing ovation.

All he received was the most deadpan of looks. "Bruh?"

He blinked, face frozen in excitement. "Bruh what?"

"Bruh... did you say... exercise? As in, you want me to purposely run, without the threat of imminent death behind me?" The words felt strange in my mouth, and the thought was just too much for my mind to process. These new age hippies with their kale and their running- I was part of the lazy generation where cardio was for zombie apocalypses exclusively.

He gave me a look of confusion. "Yeah, running...?"

We locked eyes, and I couldn't swallow the laughter that followed. "Ha! You want me to what? Running! Powers, that was a good one. That's rich, seriously, talk to me when the sky is falling, and then maybe we'll see."

***

The sky was falling and we were all going to die.

"Oh hey Stella, I didn't know that you went running?" Tyler shot me a smile, an undeniable vigour in his voice that was probably the result of angels and bacon colliding in the universe. His dark brown hair was touchable-y soft as usual, and I was almost lulled into a false sense of security until I saw the water bottle in his hand.

Reese was next to him, wearing that too broad grin and sadistically loving every second of this, I knew it. I was donned in a pair of spandex shorts that hadn't seen the light of day since freshman year and a white t-shirt that I was pretty sure belonged to my brother, my hair pulled back into a ponytail. I'd read that these were exercise appropriate clothes, if the myths on the internet were true.

I plastered on a ridiculously forced and broad smile on my face as I met Tyler's eye. "Oh yeah," I mused, quite pathetically. "I, uh, love exercise. Running, jogging, walking, all that jazz. Really gets me going." I swung my arm for enthusiastic effect.

I internally apologized to my mouth for saying such terrible things.

Tyler nodded his head, the angelic smile never falling. "Awesome, well, the more the merrier! How about we start off with 5K for now, and then we'll see where it goes from there, yeah?"

Reese beamed. "Sounds great!"

I pitifully tried to reflect their enthusiasm. "Yeah, awesome!"

Tyler grinned. "Well, let's go!"

I hope they said nice things about me in my obituary.

***

Well then, we're finally getting places, aha. WELCOME TO THE SLOW BURN THAT IS THIS STORY.

Also a thank you to SocialDeath for that ah-maaaazing banner!

Let me know, who's your favourite character so far? c: