Lightweight

Chapter Two

The next day Annie woke up at dawn, as usual, and put on her running gear. She loved the feel of the small black running shorts that swished when she walked, the way her black running shoes made her deadly quick, even the way her sports bra constricted around her and held her in. They were all signifiers to her brain that it was time to get serious and go hard, one thing every part of Annie's body loved to do. It seemed as if that was all she was built for, what she was good for.

The plan was a quick three miles along the beach while the sun was rising and the air was still cool was the perfect way to start Annie's morning. She left the hotel, which was right on the beach, and kicked it into high gear. The beach was empty and completely Annie's. She loved to run, once she started to get in shape and move down in her weight class she realized her love for running. She could just run and run and run, and then the pounds began to disappear. It also helped to take her mind off of everything. All of the bad memories, her worries, her fears, the pressure of it all. Everything.

Annie put in her ear buds and put on Pandora. She ran in step with the beat of the music, song after song after song. The fast paced song she was running in step with came to an end and in its place came a happy beat and the words, "You're insecure, don't know what for, you're turning heads when you walk through the do-or-or." Annie sighed, so these were the guys that ruined her pool day yesterday and made her freak out and flashback to her high school days of misery. She had to admit, though, that was a darn good song. When it ended it was still stuck in her head. She slowed down to a jog and made a One Direction station on her Pandora account. I suppose meeting them would spark an interest in any sane person, even Annie. By the time Annie was done with her run the sun was up and she had fallen in love with all of the One Direction songs.

Annie came back into the hotel sweating from head to toe, feeling great. She quickly raced up the stairs to the twentieth floor for a little last workout and made her way toward her room. As she walked by the other rooms on the floor she wondered which boys were in which rooms. One of the doors began to open and she quickly tried to get past without being spotted. A head of blonde hair appeared in the door way. She was at her door, so close to getting in unnoticed, but Annie was never favored by luck.

"Hey, Annie," Niall's voice rang from behind her and she sighed and banged her head on her door softly before turning to face him.

"Oh, hi, Niall," Annie quickly said and opened her door, trying to end the conversation.

"Just go to the gym?" he asked, clearly he wasn't getting the hint.

"No, I went for a run on the beach," Annie said, putting one foot in the doorway.

"That must have been pretty to see the sunrise at the beach, but I could never wake up that early," Niall laughed.

"Well, um, yeah, ok. I really have to shower now," Annie said, praying he would get the hint.

"Oh, ok. Well, maybe I'll see you at breakfast?" Niall said.

"Maybe," Annie said and hurriedly went into her room and closed the door. She looked in the mirror, behind her tan she could see she was blushing like crazy. Had Niall noticed? She really hoped not. This wasn't Annie, she didn't blush at boys, she glared at them. It wasn't their fault that she didn't trust guys, they hadn't known her before, it wasn't fair to them just for Annie to automatically not trust them. But it was just so hard for Annie to think they wouldn't be hiding something up their sleeves; after years of constant bullying it was hard to change the way your brain was hardwired to think.

Annie turned the shower on. While it was heating up she went over to her laptop and searched One Direction on YouTube. Video after video popped up. How could there be so much on one band? She knew they had a large following, but really? After watching a few video diaries they had made, what looked like a while back, she could see what made their fans love them. It was the music that got you interested but the actual boys and their personalities that made them such diehard fans. Yesterday she had been in the presence of some amazing guys and she acted like a scared paranoid antisocial freak who suddenly ran away. Had she blown it? Did they think she was a weirdo?