"Come on, Merrick! Gimme ten more and do it properly!"
"Aw come on, Y/N, havent we done enough chin ups for today? Cant we move onto something else?"
"Zack if you wanna qualify for the state finals, you gotta work as hard as you can!" I yelled back at Zack, one of my closest friends. He groaned, then continued to finish up his chin ups.
Zack was one of our high school's top athletes. He was on the football team, the soccer team, the swim team, and did some track and field on top of everything else. I, myself, was a bit of an athlete as well. I was on the school soccer team and tennis team for 3 years in a row, and thats why Zack chose me to help him train after school 3 times a week.
He came over to me panting hard and I handed him his Gatorade. "Sheesh Y/N, you might be just as tough a trainer as Coach Da SIlva."
"Hey I'm just trying to get you more than ready for the qualifying round so it'll seem like a breeze! So you wanna run a few laps around the football field outside now?"
"Only if you'll join me on this one" he asked seriously, but gave me a playful wink at the end of it.
"Sure thing Zack."
We walked outside and stretched out our legs before running. We tried talking during our laps but that made us both lose breath easier, so we started running in silence, just listening to the nearby train run along the train tracks.
"Wow it's getting hot!" Zack stated when we were just about to take a break at the bleachers after our 5th lap.
I agreed with him, "I know, I wasnt expecting it to stay this warm after school"
We grabbed our drinks and chugged a good amount of them. I started to tie up my hair when I saw Zack starting to take off his shirt. Wow. I know I've seen him shirtless before when we've worked out and gone swimming together, but things started to look even better this time.
I covered my shock by sarcastically saying, "show off" and pretending to scoff at him. I bent down to put my bottle back down when I felt a pat on my butt and heard Zack chuckle. I turned back around to see him looking at me and shrugging his shoulders, to which I rolled my eyes at.
Zack and I ran 5 more laps and I started to get really hot. I usualy work out in my yoga pants and just a t shirt, but for some reason today I threw on a sweatshirt on top of my shirt as well. Yeah, that would explain why I'm dying from the heat...
"Stop for a drink! I wanna take off my sweatshirt." I instructed Zack and he nodded then we both stopped at the bleachers again.
I took of my sweatshirt and then adjusted my pants because they started to ride up a bit until I felt more fabric underneath. That's right! I have my shorts on underneath too! I slipped off my yoga pants and then grabbed my drink again before we would start up running again.
"Damn." I heard Zack say softly, but aloud.
I titled my head to look at him and as soon as we made eye contact, he gave me a mischevous smile for just a second before he stood up. "So, guess you're the show off now..." he said as he took his starting position and waited for me.
I joined him at the starting line and gave him a side glance, "5 more laps?"
"You sure you can handle 5 more without being distracted by all of this?" he said pointing to his chest, torso, then legs.
"Only if you dont gawk at all of this" I imitated his hand motions at my body.
"Let's go!"
Zack took off and I was just a second behind him. By the time our 2nd lap was finishing, I was pulling ahead of Zack who had noticeably slowed down abruptly. We kept running though, I had a feeling that Zack had been staring at me from behind...my shorts were going up a bit at the back and I knew that was one of his weaknesses with girls.
I decided to run off into the field in the middle of the track and coach Zack from there. After all, I was the coach right now. He gave me a weird look as to why I stopped, but I told him to keep going. He kept a good pace at running around the track and I couldnt take my eyes off him. The way the sweat glistened off his chest as he ran made me unable to look away. And let's face it, Zack was an attractive man as a whole.
"Come on Merrick! Just 2 more laps now!"
He yelled back to me, "I could use some more motivational phrases along the way!"
"Will it be easy? No. But it will be worth it, Zack!" I yelled out to him with a smile on my face as he smiled and kept going. "You dont have to be better than everyone else. You just have to be better than you have ever been!" "You can do this!" "Train like a beast!"
Zack started running faster and faster with every quote I yelled to him. "Woo! That's it, Y/N! You're making me better!"
Happy with my success at making Zack work harder, I enthusiastically yelled, "who's number one?!"
Zack replied with a loud, "I'm number one!"
"Who's number one?!"
"I'm number one!"
"Who's number one?!" I yelled not as loud this time as Zack was just about to cross the finish line of his final lap.
Zack ended at the finish line and jogged over to me, "you are."
In a split second, Zack grabbed me by my waist and gave me a beautfiul and meaningful kiss. I placed my hands on his chest enjoying the moment. I then felt his hands slide down more and then grab my butt, squeezing it as we still stood in our kiss. I smiled into the kiss and felt him smile back.
We broke apart and I wrapped my hands around his neck and he gave me a smile of adoration.
"Yeah, I think I'll do just fine in qualifying with you by my side. Just...can you wear those shorts again on that day?"
