Synopsis- The track team was an outlet for your anxiety. You’d run until you were the last one standing, in some ways it helped. The cool autumn air, the early morning fog, the quiet. One day when a new member joins- his voice fills that silence. He won’t leave you alone and everyone notices his strange behavior towards you. Thing is, you’re beginning to catch on too.
“Did you hear? There’s going to be a new member.”
“Oh, seriously? I thought that was just a rumor…”
The wet grass of the football field digs into your legs as you watch the traffic from outside of the school yard past the metal fence.
Sleep held onto your short track uniform which couldn’t prevent the cold from biting at your shivering limbs.
‘I’ll have to switch to my winter clothes soon.’
The thought makes you pull your knees to your chest.
You all sit in a circular formation with the coach off to the side talking with another teacher, their quiet whispers reaching your ears.
“…. I thought recruiting was over? Why is….. trying so hard…… to get him in?”
Their conversation comes out in small pieces that you can’t quite grasp, who’s joining?
Moments of quiet silence pass by as you all begin to start the ground stretches, limbs reaching across the artificial greenery.
Calm footsteps come from the opposite direction of the field towards your team. Before you know it, you hear a polite voice behind you. His words being slightly muted by the gauzy morning fog.
“Hi there, I’ll be joining the track team from now on. I hope we can become familiar with each other!”
His voice is smooth and softening that it makes the air against your skin brush against you like delicate hands. Theirs an edge to it however, one you can’t ignore. One that pulls your attention from your extending form and towards the tall boy behind you.
The coach swiftly brings everyone’s eyes back to himself by officially introducing the new recruit. Instructing everyone to keep stretching, he goes back to sit beside the teacher at the side of the basketball net.
You feel the space beside you get taken as the tall male sits too close for Comfort- shoulders pulling in as you try to make distance.
You stand at the edge of the pavement as your group gathers at the start of the park entrance.
And by your group you mean the new guy beside you, his arm presses against yours even though the entire path is clear for him to move away from you.
‘He’s getting too comfortable around me.’
That’s what you think. But that’s all it is, a thought that will never evolve into words. You’ll never say it and he’ll never truly know how uncomfortable you are.
You were paired with him as your the fastest on the team, as well as being the only person to have worked with new members before.
You look up before asking for his name, realizing he never told you and you weren’t listening when the coach said it.
“My name? Just call me ____. That’s what everyone calls me.”
You nod your head before reluctantly explaining to him what you’ll be doing.
“This park route is 2 miles long. Usually, we sprint it, but since you’re new we can just jog. After that we’ll go back to campus and do a quick lap around the school. You ready?”
He lifts a quick thumbs up before setting his front foot on the entrance line as you do the same. You glance at him and you wonder by his posture if he’s ever done this before.
The sound of weight hitting ground clears through the air as the early morning ribbons of light feather through the trees and warm your skin.
Sweat laces through your candy like scent and fills the boys senses. A quick shudder racks his body as he turns his sight to you. The air around you glowed in honeyed colors as he tried to remember to breathe, to blink, to function. You couldn’t feel his attention on you, to focused on controlling your breathing. His gaze lowered. A sliver of shame ran over his mind before he fixed his eyes back to your tired form.
The way your skin glistened, how your chest moved beneath your tight tank top, how your smooth thighs brushed against each other as you moved. Every now and then he could feel your hips gently brush his, which made you let out a murmured apology before suddenly finding interest in something in a different direction than him.
Practice had finally concluded for the day as you leaned your back against the fence, head slumped back looking at the litany of clouds painted across the now vivid sky trying to get the strength to start heading home.
All the other athletes had left, that is except for one. Sweat rolled down the expanse of your neck and got caught on the curvature of your collarbone as you glanced at the black haired man already staring at you.
You felt your throat tighten from unease and anxiety as you tried to ignore him and how his long legs crossed over the other. Hands in his jacket as he tilted his head down and curved his upper body to face you.
An overwhelming smile marked across his face as an unsettling feeling licked up the walls of your stomach.
You got this feeling with everyone, but why did his smile make you feel controlled when others made you feel scrutinized? Was it anxiety…
Before you could succumb to your thoughts, he appeared in front of you, too close as he leaned his body forward. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was trapping you.
He suddenly leans back and turns his head to the side, him rubbing his neck as his ears redden.
The scene in front of you makes you get rid of that thought immediately.
‘He’s just shy. It’s his first day too, why would I think such a terrible thing? I should get to know him.’
“Hey…. Uhm c-could I maybe drive you home? It’s pretty cold out and I wouldn’t want you to get sick.”
You could feel the way your head slightly tilted to the side trying to register what he was saying through the fog of your mind.
The hopeful look in his eyes makes you nod your head before staring down at your feet.
You hear a sigh, maybe one of relief, maybe of happiness, or eagerness?
One moment you were standing in the freshly cut grass, and the next you were in his car.
A quiet melody came from the radio and you looked at the buildings that passed the window. Everything felt somber and light in the early autumn air but warmth still filled the car.
Only once the car stops and you climb out and wave goodbye, finally in your room do you realize something.
Had… had you ever told him where you lived?
germansingergirl
gracieabrams
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
snowghoul
blakekathryn
