According to my phone, I had only been pulling the sled for about 40 minutes. The terrifying thought was that meant Caleb had about 50 minutes left to go before practice would be over. That, of course, was assuming that Coach would let him leave on time when the team got done.
When I ended my call, I found that my eyes had remained glued to the graceful man who continued to pull the sled up and down the grass with ease. He was no longer running but maintained an impressively steady pull. Every movement made his muscles flex and ripple beneath his skin. It was mesmerizing.
Every lap, I found myself standing in his path with the bottle of water I had refilled. He would meet my gaze as he took a few sips before he looked over the rest of my body and then continued pulling the sled. Not a single word was shared between us after he had taken over my punishment, but I could see all I needed to hear in his expressions.
From the determination on his face, I knew that
I woke up the next day after sleeping through my alarm, unable to move my legs without my body screaming in agony. My phone lit up with a text from Chloe asking me to meet her for coffee since I had already missed my class, and I reluctantly pulled myself out of the safety of my blanket to get dressed. As much as I didn't want to leave my room, I was desperate to talk to her about everything that went down with Caleb. I didn't really care about the fighting with my dad and Selena after. My thoughts were consumed by the memory of him kissing my forehead in front of the team, and how he took over my punishment. It made my heart stumble out of rhythm. As sore as I was, I couldn't help but admire the way that winter was approaching as I walked to FIX. The campus landscape crew had cleaned up all of the fallen leaves. The ones that remained on the trees were a beautiful array of browns, yellows, and oranges as they ruffled in the chilled breeze. The quad was busy
It didn't take very long for my excitement at seeing Chloe to diminish. Jones was trailing behind me like a lost puppy, and I really wanted to be alone with my best friend. I needed time with Chloe to talk through my thoughts about Caleb and make some sense of them. Having Caleb's friend hovering over me really limited what I could say openly. As I stood in line to order my drink, Chloe went back to the table that she had claimed so we wouldn't lose it. Unfortunately, Jones stayed with me. "That was crazy awesome! Man, I wish Caleb was there to see that!" He laughed, and I rolled my eyes as I continued to face away from him, in the same direction of the line. I tried to shake off the bad mood that Diana had put me in, but it hung around like a storm cloud over my head. "I always hated her, but you're pretty cool." A sense of pride filled me that was quickly pushed down at the realization that I was being compared to Diana. It was the same thing everyone in th
My feet pulled me quickly across campus from The Row where all of the sorority and fraternity houses were located. I had been in bed playing Wildlands PvP with my mind lost in thought of the last time I had played the addictive video game. There had been the most beautiful girl sitting in my bed next to me as we talked, laughed, touched… That was all pushed to the back of my mind when my phone buzzed. I couldn't help but feel anxious. The text that Jones had sent me only a few minutes ago caused my stomach to tighten. Jones: Head to the quad before your girls kill each other. My girls. Plural. That was an aggravating sight. I only wanted one girl. As my eyes scanned the quad, there was no sign of a fight or anything that could resemble the start of one. Surely, if there had been, a crowd would have formed by now. It seemed that this school had nothing better to do than to get involved in drama. Whether they spread the gossip or start
As a kid, I loved Diana with everything in me. I would have done anything for her, and both of our parents knew it. It wasn't until we started dating at the end of my junior year in high school that I started to see things differently. Sure it was what I had dreamed about since I was a boy, and our parents couldn't have been happier. The problem was that while it was nice, it wasn't what I thought it would be. As soon as we became more, I felt like our friendship had ended. At that point, we were just two people who were taking comfort in each other. It was nice to be together, but there hadn't been any overwhelming feelings of love or happiness. We were just content. I had talked to my mom about it after a few months, but she was so sure that the feeling would pass. She told me that it would take time to adjust to the change in our relationship and not to give up on Diana because we were meant to be together. I regretted that conversation immediately
I smiled as I walked out of my dorm room the following morning. There was nothing that could bring me down today. Tyler had informed me that the team had already left for their away game, which meant a campus free of football players, and even better, free of cheerleaders. While my body was still stiff from the Hell week it was put through, I felt good. I could honestly say for the first time in the past month that I felt free. I pulled on my hoodie as I walked out the door, wishing it was the olive green hoodie that I had already returned to its owner, but I was ready for a glorious weekend regardless. Chloe was not in the dorm when I woke up, and after I waited over an hour for her to text me back about grabbing breakfast to catch up, I gave up on expecting a reply. It did feel weird to eat alone, but my phone kept me company as I sat at the crumb-covered table with my eggs and bacon. Mid-bite, I glanced up and smiled when I realized that I had sat at this table be
It wasn't until I was leaving class on Wednesday afternoon that I saw him again. I had pushed through the doors of the lecture hall in a hurry to meet Chloe at FIX. She wasn't in the hallway when I got out like normal, but I couldn't blame her for not waiting for me as my professor had accidentally run over on time. We had been going to either FIX or the dining hall together every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after our classes were done for the day. As we were both ended those days at the same time in the business lecture hall, it was convenient. She had canceled on me on Monday due to a project she had been working on. Considering this was the longest we had gone without talking in two years, I was beyond excited to see her again. Chloe hadn't been around the room for anything more than to sleep each night, and she was out again bright and early each morning. For a small part of my Monday night, I had sat in our dorm room fuming as I stayed up way later than normal in hope
"So, what's with Jones?" I asked with curiosity as we walked between the buildings to get to the quad, where FIX was located. Caleb's head turned to me faster than I had thought possible, and the smile dropped from his face as his jaw clenched. "What do you mean?" The irritation in his voice was evident. It made my smile grow wider as I saw him shove his hands into the pockets of his windbreaker forcefully. The obvious jealousy filled me with pride as I realized that I was not the only one feeling a little territorial. I wanted to ask him about what Diana said so bad, that I had to physically bite my tongue to stop the words from coming out. Besides the fact that he had asked me out a few times now, it was none of my business if they were had been talking about getting back together. I had seen with my own eyes the way that he was holding her last week after she confronted me. It was very apparent that they still had feelings for one another, and I didn't want to be
On Wednesday, Chloe received an angry text from me when she canceled on hanging out again. At this point, it seemed to me that we had become nothing more than roommates instead of best friends. She had stopped responding to my messages (unless she was canceling our plans), she was never in the dorm unless she was sleeping, and I rarely ever saw her around campus anymore. I was alone most of the time, and while I enjoyed having some time to myself, I was starting to curse my inability to make new friends. That was never something that I had been good at. There were groups of people all around me that I could walk up to and try to talk to, but it was also extremely intimidating. Instead, I sat under the tree on the edge of the quad by myself. My phone was shoved violently into the front pouch of my backpack. I didn't want to wait to see what excuse Chloe had come up with this time. My dad may have been mad at me. I may have been alone. I may hav