Life Lines

14: Something Happy

Chapter Fourteen

At 7:59, the doorbell rang.

I wasn't surprised, in fact I was a little nervous. In P.E., I was jogging my ten laps around the gym when Union joined me.

"Hey."

"I thought the boys were playing outside today."

"We are." He kept pace next to me easily, not that I was going that fast. "But I wanted to make sure we were ok."

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"Well, after the conversation this morning..." He paused when he saw the brief smile on my face. "What?"

"It's so fun messing with you. It's a thing, Union. You'll get used to it. No one stays mad around here unless it's important."

"I assume you're referring to the hot/cold thing." I nodded and he smiled bigger. "So we're still on for tonight?"

"As long as you're not afraid of my nonexistent stalker."

We were making one of the four turns and I spotted Keenan and a couple other Elite guys standing just outside the boy's locker room. I didn't know what the whole issue was between Union and the Elites but it was getting on my nerves. I was almost looking forward to becoming Elite so all of this could be done and over with already.

Corey jogged up on my other side, bumping me a little so I crashed into Union. He chuckled a little and continued to jog while Union was left putting me back to rights.

"I'm starting to think all the guys I know are a bunch of Neanderthals."

"You ok?"

I stood up straight and corrected my shirt even though there was nothing wrong with it.

"Yeah. That was his subtle hint which means he talked to Schylar. And they say girls like to gossip."

"Does this mean we're not going to dinner?"

"Abernathy! Davidson! I know I don't see you two standing around. Get to running or do ten more!"

Speaking of Neanderthals, I was sure the boys' coach was just an off shoot of one. His family tree obviously hadn't evolved much. He was a good five foot nine with a stocky build. His hair was thin and dark brown. And when he turned a certain way in the light it looked like he had a unibrow.

We started running again and the coach returned to his conversation with one of his underlings. He pulled double duty with the school, coaching the football team as well. I guess it fit since he acted like a meat head most of the time.  

"To answer your question, yes. We are going to dinner, if you still want to."

"Are we talking date or a platonic evening between friends?"

I chuckled on the inside, a short smile gracing my face before I tucked it away again. At least I wasn't coughing too bad but it did make this whole running around the gym thing hard. I was on my seventh lap but I was having a hard time catching my breath.

"I don't think you'll know until the end of the night."

We were about to make our eighth lap but I couldn't take it anymore. I stopped running, bending over at the waist and used my knees for support. I pulled in air and blew it out but it felt like my airway was closing up. It matched the feeling I used to get when I had an asthma attack.

The gym floor began to blur and I squeezed my eyes closed.

"Natalie, are you ok?"

Union crouched down in front of me, or at least I thought he did. I could barely understand what he said since the whoosh-whoosh of my heartbeat was drowning out a lot of the other noise in the gym.