CHAPTER THREE

Before long, my routine slips a little bit. After a week or so, I'm getting up at seven instead of like four thirty. It's still pretty early, but it lets me sleep in a little, even if by that time the sun is up and it's getting hot.

Melissa goes camping for a long weekend and I spend most of my time at the gym – the real gym, that is, not that closed down one where I found Tanya. It's not as crowded as it usually is and at least it's air conditioned and I can watch T.V. Some days, Rock comes with me. Mostly to check out the girls, but that doesn't really go anywhere. They look a lot more at me than at him.

"It's just not fair." He peels off his sweaty t-shirt in the locker room and stuffs it in his bag.

I'm not sure whether he's talking about the college chick who was trying to flirt with me or the fact that I just did eighty pushups after he conked out at fifteen, but I don't want to make him feel worse by asking. "You've trained me too well."

He sighs. "Apparently."

I tense, in case there's more, but thankfully there isn't. Sometimes, he brings up Melissa and then it takes a lot to not punch him.

Compared to the air conditioning, the air outside is practically suffocating. I squint in the sunlight, only half listening to Rock telling me about some party he went to and how he almost scored, but didn't. At least, I think that's what he's saying. All his stories kind of run together at this point.

Suddenly, it's there again, out of the corner of my eye. My head snaps up and I see it clearly right before it's gone. I get a chill, despite the heat.

Rock trails off. "You okay?"

I let out my breath, which I didn't realized I'd been holding. "Um. Yeah." I feel weird and shaky, like an adrenaline rush without the thrill. "Can I…um… tell you something?"

He holds up his hands. "Hey, whoa, I love you too, Dash, but we're just friends."

I laugh unsteadily. "No…it's…did you see that guy who just ran by?"

"The jogger going at Mach 5? Yeah."

I lean against a car, waiting for my legs to regain control of themselves. "I remember him from juvie. He…didn't exactly bully me, but he was pretty annoying and he was fast. I mean, I barely ever beat him," I run my fingers through my hair. "If he's out and jogging..."

Rock squints after him. "Are you sure? Maybe it's not him. He went by pretty fast…"

I shake my head. "That's him. I remember that stupid hair. If he's in the marathon…" I swallow.

Rock hits me with his gym bag. "Hey. First of all, you know you're not in that to win. You're in that to finish. Second, you are gonna win because you're a lean mean running machine and you've been trained by one of the greatest coaches of all time."

I smile and stand up, the hot car finally getting to me. "Well fine, coach, I hope I finish before he does."

"Much better."

(-o-)

It is true that before I even signed up for the marathon, Wood made me and Rock promise that we wouldn't treat it like a competition. And he was right; it's not a race, it's a demonstration of running skill. Twenty-six miles is too far to always be in the front.

But he knows that I want to win and that Rock wants to help me win and deep down, he wants me to win too. Running is my life – it's in my blood, it's even in my name – and I'm good at it too, so I can't help wanting to be the best.

Jared's the only one who's ever beaten me in a race. I've beaten him a couple of times too, but he's the only person I've ever met who even comes close to being my equal. I know he might not even be in this marathon, but if he is…

I wish Melissa was here.

When I get home, I take Tanya and Red for a walk in the woods, keeping a close eye on them…it's been dry lately and I don't want to start a forest fire. We run into a couple of animals in the long grass, things that look like a cross between a flying squirrel and a raccoon, but I tell my two to leave them alone for now. I don't feel like fighting.

The heat finally gets to me, even though it's shady, and we head home, Tanya carrying Red's ball in her mouth. Amelia's sitting at the table with her suit jacket hung over the back of her chair, working on her laptop. When we come in, she looks up and smiles. "Hiya."

I smile back and Tanya wags her tails before padding off to my room. I wipe my forehead and get a glass of water, leaning against the sink to face her. "Where's Wood?"

Her smile becomes a little fixed and she turns back to her work. "Out. Getting dinner."

Something's wrong, but I don't want to pry. They've had little spats in the past, but they usually make up pretty quickly. I down the rest of the water and fill up the glass again.

"What's up with you?" Her fingers never stop moving.

I shrug. "There's some guy who's been jogging around…I recognize him from juvie. He's really, really fast and if he's in the marathon…" I know I won't win. He'll prove that he's better than me and I'll never be the best. "…that would suck."

She types a few more words before giving me a sympathetic look. "You don't know he's in the marathon just because he's a good runner and he's been jogging."

I sigh, putting the glass in the sink. "I know."

"I just think this whole marathon thing is stressing you out. It's incredible to me that you trained the way you did and still managed to get schoolwork done!" Back to typing. "Don't worry about it. Remember, you're finishing, not finishing first."

"But…I want to…" I say this quietly, under my breath, aware of how stupid it sounds.

I'm not usually competitive. I'm the guy who shakes hands with a big smile after a track meet and means it when he congratulates the other team. But…maybe that's because I always win. I didn't really have anything to be competitive against until this marathon. Now I'll be running with serious people, adults instead of kids my age. And maybe Jared.

I mentally tell myself to shut up and then go to comfort myself by appreciating the little things that are coming out of this marathon.

I go look in the mirror.

There's a point where modesty is just hiding the truth. I am a gorgeous man. When I flex, I have the kind of muscles most people only imagine and because I'm out jogging so often, I also have an awesome tan going. Plus, now that it's summer, it's easy to find excuses to take my shirt off.

I admire myself for a while and I feel better. Even if I break my leg the day of the marathon, I look amazing.

I also might be in love with myself, but with this body, who could blame me?

(-o-)

Melissa gets back the next day and I practically sprint to her house as soon as she texts me. Her family's all a little grumpy after being together for a longer period of time, but they like me and I help unpack the car, so I get to stay.

I'm sitting on Melissa's bed, watching her empty her suitcase alone despite my many offers to help. "I missed you." There was no cell service where she was camping, so we haven't talked for days.

She kisses my forehead. "Me too."

I fold my legs underneath me. "You look beautiful."

She raises an eyebrow and looks at me skeptically, but smiles when she sees the sincerity on my face.

Because I am telling the truth. Her hair is messed up and greasy and there's dirt caked under her fingernails and she kind of smells like smoke, but she's always beautiful, especially after days of not seeing her.

I ask her how the trip was and she lights up and starts telling me all about her campsite and how pretty it was and how annoying her brother was and all the funny things that happened. I listen intently, taking her hand and curling my fingers around hers.

"…and I'm really sorry, but is it okay if I take a shower? I feel disgusting."

I smile and kiss her on the cheek. "Of course."

She goes and I flip through one of the books from her bookshelf. She didn't ask me how my weekend was, but that's okay…she just got back, I'm sure she'll ask when she gets back. Meanwhile, I try to concentrate on the book, not on the sound of the shower and the attractive contents thereof.

In about twenty minutes, she's back, wearing clean clothes and smelling of flowers and fruit instead of fire. "Sorry," She sits down next to me, toweling off her hair. "For me, that was quick."

I run a thumb over her cheek and kiss her, hard. I have no idea what they put in girls' shampoo, but it must have some powerful pheromones.

She finally pulls away, breathless. "So…how have you been?"

There, I knew she'd ask. I tell her about Jared, sharing a little more than I did with the others because…well, after all, she's Melissa. I tell her how annoying and relentless he was when we were in juvie and how freaked out I am that he might be in the marathon and how stupid I feel for feeling freaked out. She strokes my hair while I talk, calming me down a little and turning me on a little more.

When I finish, she squeezes my hand. "Poor baby."

I lean my head on her shoulder, sighing exaggeratedly. "Life is so harrrrd."

She laughs. "Well, why don't you just stop him the next time you see him jogging and ask him? After all, he's not really mean, just annoying, right?"

I nod slowly. I don't really want to do it, but it does make sense. He won't beat me up, just maybe hurl a couple of stale insults and I'm pretty sure I can take that. In fact, in my current state, I could probably take him in a fight too. "Good idea. Thanks."

She beams and the room lights up.

We hang out for a couple of hours, watching T.V, talking, not doing much. She's appreciating being able to not have to do anything or move around a lot and I'm appreciating the air conditioning in her house.

Around dinnertime, her dad kicks me out with polite gruffness and invites me back another day when, he says, "we won't be biting each other's heads off quite so much." I head home the long way, jogging around the school and sweating into the nice shirt I changed into for Melissa.

I half expect to run into Jared now and my heart beats even faster than it is already, thinking about confronting him. I wonder when he got out of juvie and why he's jogging around my neighborhood…maybe he lives here now. I shudder.

But I reach my street without running into him, much to my relief. I slow to a walk and unbutton my shirt, feeling like a gangster and smiling at the thought.

"Hey."

I suppress a sigh. I should have been looking where I was going. "Hi, Owen. Hi, Cheryl."

They push themselves off the wall they were leaning on, looking even more stoned than usual. They haven't really been bothering me since I got out of juvie, but they're still here. "How's the marathon going?" Owen nudges their cat with his foot. It rolls over. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was stoned too –it always seems kind of…human.

"Um. It's all right." I stay a little ways away. They're not as bad as they used to be, but they could always go back making my life miserable.

"You look great." Cheryl slurs, stepping forward and managing to put a hand on my bare chest before I can step back.

"Thanks," I re-button my shirt, fighting the urge to wipe off my chest. They may be creeps, but I'm too nice to offend them on purpose. "How…how are you guys?"

"Eh," Owen shrugs. "We've been thinking about getting the old gang back together, you know? I haven't seen my buddies in a while." By buddies, he means huge guys with muscles bigger than their brains who are more like bodyguards than friends.

"Mm," I'm not sure what to say, but it suddenly dawns on me that I am now pretty muscular and Owen's getting a calculating look in his eye. I take another step back. "Uh, I gotta go. I'll…see you guys later?"

Cheryl gives me what I think is supposed to be a coy look, but it just comes out weird. I turn around and walk quickly towards the door to my building, rubbing my chest with my shirt as surreptitiously as possible.

And I don't like the way the cat looked at me either.