Unanswered Dreams

Chapter 9

When I woke up, I smelled the irresistible smell of bacon and eggs. I rushed downstairs, Nero in tow. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I ignored it.

Breakfast was amazing. I walked back upstairs, and turned on the PS4, ready to play with Ben.

"Oh shi-" I stopped mid sentence, rushed outside and sped off to school. I forgot that school had started again.

PE was a living hell, or as close as you could get. I only remember running. We were told to run as far as we could in twenty minutes for a benchmark test. The course was the perimeter of the school grounds. When the teacher blew the whistle, I sprinted. My legs hurt, my lungs hurt, my heart hurt. I couldn't stop. Not here, especially not here. I pushed and pushed. The wet grass sliding under my feet. I looked back, and saw the person in second place was at least two-hundred yards behind. I ran faster, stepped farther, breathed slower. Each time I passed Danielle, I ran faster. I ran as fast as I could, I couldn't be near her right now.

Before I knew it, I heard the teacher's whistle. We trotted back in, the teacher recording our distances.

"Tim?" He called

"Two laps sir" a voice called from the crowd of kids.

"Morgan?" The same raspy voice

"Three and almost four" she said

"I'll put three and three quarters" Morgan nodded.

"Jake?"

"Seven laps" I said almost too quickly. The coach went to write, but hesitated.

"Seven?" He was baffled. "You've got to be lying."

I felt everyone staring at me.

He wrote down seven. Teen Living was boring. The rest of school was normal.

Ben, Kayla, Abby, Mike, Victoria, Malary, and Jacob all had questions. Me and Victoria talked for over three hours on Skype.

"Where the hell did you go?" She asked ass soon as I hit the answer button.

"Tennessee" I said.

"Jesus Christ, Jake. That's a little far" She said mid sigh

"I know" She asked more and more questions.

On Friday, I told my parents I was going out for a drive and that I would be home in the morning. They were reluctant, but eventually let me go. I pulled out of the neighborhood, the back wheels of the car swinging out far from the curb. The car screeched forward and I was off.

The car ran better than ever, roaring down the cold asphalt. My phone rang and I put through the car's stereo.

"Hello?" I said looking at the many taillights in front of me.

"Is this Jake?" A unfamiliar voice came through the speakers.

"Yeah, who's this?" I asked, unaware of the person speaking to me.

"Umm, I'm Allison. I'm in your English class" Her voice was timid and shy. Like a turtle just coming out of its shell.

"Oh hey, what's up?" I said casually. She was really pretty, not that I liked her or anything.

She had large blue eyes, with curly brown hair the came down to her mid-back. Allison was tall, about five-foot six.

"I just wanted to say hi" Her voice was warming up.

"Hey, do you want to do something tomorrow?" I spoke with out thinking, I thought I ruined a friendship.

There was no response. She came back to the line a few seconds later, out of breath.