Blackstone Academy: The Rogue

23. Troy Roman

Troy P.O.V

Date: October 4, 2238

"You got it, Jax!" I encouraged him as we jogged side by side on treadmills. Our speed and movements synchronized as our sneaker-clad feet pounded viciously against the belt. "Only sixty seconds left. Keep going. Don't slow down!"

When working out with Jax, I discovered early on that the best motivation was doing the exercise with him instead of barking commands on the sidelines. It made the time pass faster too. But mostly, it seemed that him seeing someone else complete the tasks and knowing he wasn't alone gave him that extra push.

"How much longer?" Jax panted out in between breaths, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Thirty seconds," I replied after checking the timer displayed on the screen. "You got this, Jax!"

"Argh! Why is time moving so slowly?" He growled as his chest rapidly rose and fell beneath his white t-shirt with each breath.

"Time!" I yelled, stopping my treadmill and turning to face him.

"Oh, Thank god!" He groaned, stopping his machine and collapsing against the handles.

"Stop being dramatic. You only ran for fifteen minutes. That was just a warm-up to get you ready for the workout."

"Fuck me." He breathed out, grabbing his metal water bottle and chugging half its contents. After he drank his fill, he looked over at me. "This wouldn't be so bad usually, but with only three hours of sleep...ugh!"

"Three hours? What were you up doing?"

"I was..." his eyes flicked to the guy on the other side of the room, fiddling with the settings on the recumbent bike before he lowered his voice. "You know."

It took me a minute before realization dawned on me. "Ew. Are you telling me you were stroking one out all night?! Cause bro, I re-"

"No! Not that." He stepped closer and continued to whisper. "I was going through the footage I recorded on Family Day. You know to help us."

"Oh. Well, did you find anything?"

"Not really, but I'll wait until we meet with Nova to tell you everything."

I nodded. "Alright."

Jax grabbed his towel off the handle before we walked toward the weights.

"Hey," I called, slowing my footsteps as we neared the guy. "I meant to ask you this earlier, but where did you get the glasses? I know it's not any of my business, but..."

"The technology department. I test out different gadgets for them."

I raised one eyebrow. "We have a technology department?"

"Yeah... kind of. There are only four members. And it's down in the basement under the garage, but... yeah."

"The basement?"

"Yeah." He dabbed his towel across his forehead. "By the way, Amber offered to let you and Nova go down there if you needed some quiet time away from the people harassing you about Family Day."

"That's cool. I'll tell Nova about it." I tilted my head as the corners of my lips curled upward. "So Amber, huh? You want to tell me about her?"

"There's nothing to tell." He muttered, switching his bottle from hand to hand.

"Bullshit!" I chuckled. "I don't think you're spending time down in a basement just for some gadgets?"

He went silent and looked off to the side for a minute before looking back at me. "What about you?"