Mick sat between Joey Oates and Terence Perez during warm ups. Joey wore short shorts and when they did push-ups the pale white flesh of his upper thighs wobbled as Joey’s body tired toward the end of the 30 count. He wished it was one of the girls sitting next to him in their co-ed class, but the teacher made them line up alphabetically. Said it caused less chaos when the gym was filled with three simultaneous classes of 45 students each. He wouldn’t have minded having Lilly Suarez next to him, to hold her feet steady for her as she did sit ups in the white shirt that showed the outline of her bra.
P.E. was the only time their paths crossed because Lilly was in accelerated everything. Mick wasn’t into any of his classes and muddled through with Cs.
The teacher whistled to get their attention and told them to start their mile run. Mick knew the route, positioned himself to be near Lilly as they squeezed out the gym door.
“Hey,” he said, holding the door for her.
“Hey,” she said, brushing her hair back out of her face into a scrunchie.
As soon as they were out on the asphalt, he pumped his legs in his green P.E. shorts. Lilly dropped to the back of the crowd. She wasn’t a runner, and if he slowed to her pace, Joey and Terence would give him shit. Instead, he ran as fast as he could and circled back to where she was at the end of the pack, alone. He paused. He could keep forward and take first in this non-competition, or run the route again and keep Lilly company, not worry about the pace and the opinions of others.
He took a step.
No comments:
Post a Comment