Ain't No Mountain High Enough

"I Ran"

My mom was still hanging around a couple hours later when I went into the living room, but I got the weird feeling that an important conversation had happened in my absence. They were all staring at me with this weird look on their faces, like they were all in on some elaborate prank. My anxiety was already high thanks to Arjun, so my hands were already shaking.

"Uhhh...did something happen?" I asked when no one said anything.

Veronica smiled from where she was perched on the back of the couch. She swatted Keto, who was sitting like a normal human being in front of her, in the back of the head. "You tell him," she said with a giggle.

"It wasn't my idea! Ms. Gage brought it up!" Keto whined, rubbing the back of his head.

"Can you just tell me what's going on?" I said, wringing my hands. They really liked to torment me, didn't they?

Ms. Harlow laughed and exchanged a look with my mom. "Well," she said. "It's about Boston."

My thoughts instantly went to Valerie. Were we going to visit her? She hadn't been able to come to us like she wanted for the last few months thanks to her job, but surely I could miss a few days of school to go see her. I missed her...and just the thought of seeing her again sent butterflies flying through my stomach. "What about Boston?"

"Ms. Harlow mentioned you said something about the Boston Marathon the last time you guys were up there," my mom said, a small smile on her face.

I blushed. "Aw, come on. I was kidding."

"I don't know, you seemed pretty serious," Keto said with a laugh.

"I was just going to tell you that I know one of the people in charge of it this year," my mom continued before I could reply to Keto's comment. "Are you still interested? We could get you registered in the wheelchair division, if you want."

I frowned. I had forgotten about all that stuff for a while, but now that it was on my mind again, I didn't know what I wanted. Stephen and that whole thing was starting to become a distant memory. Because, yeah, I just wanted to do it to spite him...to prove to him I could. But was that even worth it now? Besides, if I could only do the wheelchair division, I wouldn't even be running against him.

But I could race against his time...

"Well?" Veronica said. "We could take a trip up to Boston for it and everything! It would be fun!"

Even if I didn't do the marathon, I still wanted to go up to see Valerie. But I laughed it off. "Are you crazy? Me in a marathon?"

"It's not that crazy," my mom said, laughing. "I'm sure with training, you could do it."

They were really going to try and convince me, weren't they? Geez, I shouldn't have brought it up back in April. I wouldn't have if I knew they would pester me about it. My face was heating up, and I knew I was turning red. But why was I getting so embarrassed about it? "I don't know...," I said, frowning. "It's probably just a waste of time."

"Well, if you change your mind, you know how to find me," my mom said, shrugging. "But you only have a month before registration closes, I think."

"Thanks," I mumbled. There was a little nagging voice in my head wanting me to just do it, but I ignored it. I didn't belong in a race- even a wheelchair one. Heck, I didn't belong in a race before I had the accident!

I didn't say anything else, and they seemed to forget about it, too.

~ ~ ~

The next day, I found I didn't really have the energy to do anything. I still hadn't heard from Arjun, and that only added to the heap of things I was worrying about. No wonder I couldn't get myself to do anything. I was too busy wasting energy on stressing the heck out. I started to wonder how much stress could kill a person, and looking it up didn't do me any good. The possibilities of it just made me worry even more. What a mess, right?

Later that afternoon, while I was trying to do some calculus homework, my mind kept wandering. I got to a problem about some guy named Ted who was running a race. For a minute, I couldn't concentrate well enough to comprehend what I had to do, and the race made me think of what my mother said. Could she really help me get into the Boston Marathon? I bit my lip as I thought of it, that nagging voice returning. I could do it...I could beat Stephen a different way. More than that, I could prove to all of them what I could still do.

Plus...going to Boston would mean getting to see Valerie.

I picked up my phone and called my mother, who answered after two rings.

"Randall? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I said, heaving a sigh. I couldn't believe I was doing this. "I changed my mind. Could you sign me up for the race?"

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Thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate the votes!

Listen to "I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock Of Seagulls!

Peace✌️~ A.J.