Mystery of Love

4

Every year, the school conducted a fitness test to ensure that students were living a healthy lifestyle through exercising.

It wasn't shocking news for Theo, who wouldn't even be bothered if the test did not exist, let alone invoke even the slightest tinge of excitement like the average male.

Theo had a competitive spirit, but not when it came to fitness. He didn't possess any interest in gaining muscles.

Closing his locker, he bumped into Jovan and his two other friends along the corridor. Both were tall but one visibly had more weight than the other.

"Hey Theo, you ready for the fitness test?"

To which Theo simply nodded and smiled sheepishly. He abandoned Jovan in a rather irrational manner, yet Jovan never confronted him about it.

Perhaps it was an unspoken rule that when someone disappears from you, they probably didn't enjoy your company.

However, Theo was glad he found his own clique which made him feel less guilty.

Theo made new friends as well. When classes got boring, he often joined Chloe and Xylia, the girl seated behind them, in their gossiping. He sometimes had his lunch with Ruben, but he mostly ate with Abby and Lola.

The majority of his friends were females with the exception of Ruben, who was gay, obviously.

In the boys' changing room, Theo changed out of his uniform and put on his sports attire. He quickly made his way to the gym room as he couldn't stand the stench of body odour and sweat.

Upon arriving, Theo couldn't help but notice the energetic conversation between the female gym teacher and Jovan, who was assigned as the class leader in charge of sports, as he waited for his turn to have his height and weight measured.

"What a flirt." He caught himself remarking.

It was not the first time Jovan used that flirtatious tone when talking to any female. Some girls would literally giggle in a silly way whenever he tried to impress them with his terrible sense of humor.

Even the teachers were mostly charmed by the way he enunciated his words in such a confident and strong manner.

"His really getting all the attention from literally everyone who admires him so much."

"His overrated. I've seen thousands of guys like him and they're all the same. He only seems ideal on the outside because that is just what he wants others to see." Chloe nodded in agreement with Xylia's response.

The two of them were the only female sports leaders in the class. They were the minority who wouldn't jump onto the bandwagon - instead exercised their own judgment to decide if Jovan actually deserved his popularity. In fact, they despised the girls who acted "too feminine" with him.

When it was Theo's turn, he took off his socks and went to the machine. He made eye contact with Jovan for a brief second before stepping onto the pad.

After a few seconds, the machine beeped and reflected the statistics on its screen. Jovan took a quick glance and scribbled something on the clipboard he held.

Without saying a word to each other, Theo went to take a seat while Jovan continued with his duties. The gym teacher suddenly whispered something into his ears.

Within seconds, Jovan shouted: "Everyone, to the field, NOW!!"

The gym teacher had a really simple job. All she had to do was give out the instructions and simply observe the students from a distance.

Most students dreaded exercising though some of the boys were acting all hyped up.

The first warm-up exercise was 100 sit-ups. Before Theo could even find a partner, Jovan approached him and offered to pair up with him.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥. Theo felt his heart flutter for a brief second. Before he could say anything, Jovan shouted again to the class: "WARM-UP BEGAN!!"

He blew into his whistle and now looked at Theo.

"You want to go first?" He asked.

"Sure."

Theo got into the sit-up position as Jovan pressed his strong arms to hold Theo's feet down.

Every time he did a sit-up, he couldn't help blushing a little with the strong eye contact Jovan was making with him. Whenever he brought his body up, he could feel their warm breaths in sync.

"You're doing good, just 20 more." Jovan now said with a softer and more gentle tone.

As one who seldom exercised, Theo still managed to complete the sit-ups. He laid back onto the grass with his knees still bent in the sit-up position.

"Come on, it's my turn." Jovan said while patting Theo's abdomen area with his hand.

As expected, doing sit-ups appeared easy for Jovan as well. He threw himself up with so much strength that Theo struggled to hold his legs down. His hands started to ache after awhile so he had to press his knees onto his feet to keep it secured.

Being the first pair to finish with the sit-ups, Jovan took off the whistle and hung it around Theo's neck.

"Wait. Wha-"

"I'm going to see if the rest of them needs any help." Jovan exclaimed from a distance.

With that, Theo was left standing awkwardly by himself. The gym teacher saw him alone with the whistle and simply gave the next set of instructions to him instead.

"The next set will be 5 rounds around the field!" Theo tried to shout.

"You have to blow into the whistle to get their attention." A classmate suggested.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘨𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. Theo thought to himself as he didn't want to blow into the same whistle contaminated with Jovan's saliva. Eventually, he had no choice but to blow into it anyway.

Within 10 minutes, Jovan came back and took the whistle from him. He wondered if Jovan would blow into the whistle now stained with his saliva.

Running was by far the hardest for Theo. He tried catching up with Xylia and Chloe but their netball training clearly did not go to waste. Jovan was all the way at the front, leading the crowd as usual.

After what seemed like an eternity, the class was finally over. Theo could feel the sore in his thighs and calves that gave off a burning sensation.

In the boys' locker room, it was filled with boisterous energy and noise. The boys were complimenting Jovan for his physical capabilities.

When the majority had left, Theo and Jovan were the last few inside. He tried ignoring Jovan to avoid the typical, awkward locker room conversation.

As Theo took off his shirt, he felt a pair of hands grab his sides and got pulled backwards. Big arms wrapped around him as his body was now in Jovan's embrace.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴." Jovan whispered into his ears.

"Wha- What are you doing?!" He pushed Jovan away.

Theo quickly changed and left. This was exactly the kind of situation that he hated. He didn't know what to say nor what he was feeling.

His heart was beating rapidly and there was nothing he could do to calm down. He wasn't exactly sure what happened, but one thing was certain: 𝘑𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.