Always and Never

part 4

The next saturday-

"Workout circuit at mine, 10am :)" is the first message that Skye opens up to on the groupchat on saturday morning after a long week at school. Checking the time, she yawned, feeling the tightness of her skin from all the crying the night before, still upset and overwhelmed without the sport she loved. She quickly got changed into a loose t-shirt and a pair of footy shorts before grabbing a smoothie out of the fridge and setting off on the 10 minute jog to Caitlin's house.

Pondering whether she should tell her best friends of her situation, she decides that it is probably best to not put it off any longer. Knocking on the front door of Caitlins large suburban home, Skye's mood is instantly lifted when Caity's younger sister Amelia answers the door. Ruffling up her early morning curls, she greets the younger girl with a big smile.

"Morning Millie, is Caity in the gym?" she asks softly, wary that the girl looked like she had just gotten out of bed.

"Yeah she is down there stretching" Milly replied, referring to the family's large basement gym that never failed to impress Skye. Giving Amelia one last fist bump, Skye navigates the endless corridors and finds herself standing at the doorway of the gym, smiling at the sight of her best friend singing along to the music coming through the speaker while warming up for their workout.

"Evelyn not her yet?" She asks before nodding in understanding when Caitlin quickly replies that she couldn't make it. Quickly standing up, Caitlin walks over towards Skye before smiling and pulling her into a big hug, causing the blond girl to exhale before relaxing into the embrace.

"I'm quitting footy" she blurts out before having a second thought. Caity steps back, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

"What do you mean you're quitting? You can't just quit" she exclaims before her face settles in a look of puzzlement. Skye begins to explain what her parents have told her, looking down at the ground and avoiding Caitlins gaze.

"So yeah, I don't really know what I am going to do now..." she finishes hesitantly before taking a big sigh of relief that she had told someone her situation. Caitlin simply grabs both of Skyes shoulders, forcing her to look up. Smiling down at the shorter girl, Caitlin massages out the tense knots in Skyes shoulders before pulling her best friend into a hug.

"I know it might not seem like it right now" she whispers, "but I know you, and I know that anything you decide to do after this, you will do well, because that is just the type of person you are." Backing away from the hug, Skye simply nods and gives a small smile in return, grateful for her friend's words.

"What about soccer?" Caitlin mentions. "I mean, it would make sense, Ezra plays, and your whole family is mad about the sport" She continues. Skye pauses, thinking it over, "you know' she replies "that is actually not a terrible idea". Caitlin just shoots her a playful smirk before pulling her towards the weights section.

"Come on future soccer star, lets build up those quads then" she jokes before sending Skye a playful wink. Rolling her eyes in response, Skye just chuckles before following Caitlin to the squat rack and beginning their excruciatingly painful workout program.

An hour later and the girls have finished up their weights program and are sitting next to each other on the lifting bench, downing bottles of water to quench their thirst. Standing up suddenly, Caitlin extends her hand before pulling a grumbling Skye to her feet.

"You're such a child" she jokes before poking her friends face. Skye fights off a small smile and just continues mumbling complaints under her breath.

"I will stop grumbling if we can go and run" She replies, earning a raised eyebrow from Caitlin. "Come on Caity, I had to do your weights so now you need to come and run with me" she pouts before lacing up her runners. Caitlin sighs in defeat, "I guess it is only fair" she replies, causing a jump of excitement from her blonde counterpart.

Another 30 minutes pass and the girls pull back into Caitlins street having run just over 6kms. "Are you even human?" Caitlin explains between pants as she looks at Skye who appears to be having no issue with her breathing. "what can I say" she shrugs "I just like running". Giving Caitlin one last friendly nudge she runs backwards, beginning her jog home, laughing at the look of disbelief on her friends face.

"Skye I really hate you sometimes" She calls out in a slightly amused expression.

"No you dont" responds Skye, "You really don't" , wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes, Caitlin flips of her best friend over her shoulder, ignoring to dramatic kiss that Skye blew in her direction before turning around and jogging around the corner out of sight.