The Recipe of Us.

08 | the gym

< "I love him, and sometimes, he loved me too." >

I sighed heavily and shut the front door, my sweat coating my face. I felt all gross and sticky and the shower was calling my name.

"You went for a run." Ava pointed out and my eyes locked onto hers sitting on the couch, with a coffee mug and her ipad on her lap.

"Yeah," I said as I pushed my front hairs back and away from my face. "You...went on a run?" She repeated in disbelief and I rolled my eyes as I took off my trainers.

"Is there something you wanna say?"

"Yeah. You went on a run."

I rested my hands on my hips, still slightly out of breath. "Is it that much of a shock that I went to exercise?"

She scoffed in response. "You've never exercised a day in your life."

She wasn't wrong.

"Well today we're gonna start. I'm gonna shower and then we're going to the gym." I announced as I walked to my room and she quickly got up to follow me, mug in hand.

"We?" She repeated as I searched my closet and found a clean hoodie and some shorts with fresh socks. "Yes. We. You need to stay in shape for your show anyways." I reminded her and she rolled her eyes.

"That's why you daydream all the time." She muttered and I turned to look at her, expecting her to continue.

"You have fantastic memory." She pointed at me before walking back to the couch and I shrugged to myself.

「❀  ❀  ❀」

"You know, this is the best idea I've ever come up with."

"This is the worst idea you've ever come up with!"

Some people in the gym turned to look at us but Ava didn't seem to notice how loud her outburst was.

"Hey, what if this is like some sort of alternative method to your daydreams? You know too much exercise is actually bad for you."

"Stop trying to find reasons to get me off this treadmill." I panted as I kept running at a normal speed.

"I-I'm not. I'm just saying that you're in a public place and that's good. It's the first step to moving on. You're not hiding out in your house anymore."

"So what's the problem?"

"Maybe...the daydreams are better...than this." She stopped the machine and rested her hands on handlebars as she gained her breath back. "Don't you sing and dance, full energy, for like 20 minutes?" I asked as I stopped the machine and eyed her.

"No no no. That's different. I want to sing and dance for 20 minutes. I don't want to run on a treadmill." She defended as she shook her head.

"Maybe treadmills aren't for you." I advised as I moved to the weights. I picked a reasonable amount of weights and lifted it up.

"I'm just gonna sit this one out." Ava sighed heavily as she stood opposite me as I stood in front of the long row of mirrors.