At 17 years old Sage Aurora never thought she would be stuck trying to rebuild her life and mending her heart.
Throughout her younger years she thought nothing could stop her. She was popular, free-spirited, and felt on top of the world. At least t...
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"Gina those arms are not nearly as straight as they need to be! They're called Candlesticks for a reason!" your coach screamed, miraculously over the sound of her blaring boombox. "Let's go ladies! It's not that hard!"
The muscles in your arms ignited like fire and your legs felt like they were about to give out from under you. The weight of your body was a thousand tons, and you kept telling yourself you could take it, but you didn't know how much longer you could lie to yourself. Even Chrissy looked like she couldn't endure another circuit without throwing up.
It had been a couple of months since your cheer coach went on leave and even though your assistant coach never returned, still pending her investigation, your head coach was back with a vengeance. Having a baby really did the exact opposite for her motherly instincts, and you swore she was taking all of her sleepless nights out on you.
"Three more minutes!" she called out as she walked around the field, sizing up her prey. "Sage, your form is horrendous!" She yelled at you from across the way.
Chrissy didn't dare turn her head, but her eyes glanced at you. You peered back at her anxiously. The last thing you wanted was to be singled out at the end of your practice. That always meant laps around the track to 'cool off'. It took everything within you to lift your trembling arms higher and you clenched down on your jaw, praying the three minutes would be over soon.
"I'm gonna lose it". You heard Chrissy whimper next to you. Her arms began to shake. "Shit. Sage", she choked out.
Your eyes darted to her. "Don't you dare", you seethed, refusing to let her fail with only a couple minutes left. "I am not letting you. Let's go!" You encouraged her, but you really needed to hear it as well.
Chrissy shut her eyes as she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. "Just smell the roses... and blow out the candles", she shuttered to herself and tried to steady her breathing.
While you stared at her, a tingle caught your attention. It began to dance down your shoulders, over your biceps, and down to your hands. Your fingertips ever so slightly became numb and your shoulder muscles began to tighten.
"Oh, shit", you cried quietly. "Oh, god. I'm cramping", you breathed.
Chrissy clenched her hands into a fist trying to get her mind off of the 30 minutes she stood there holding her arms out and flexing her abs.
"My fucking shoulders are cramping", you exclaimed, now in a panic.
"Ignore it!" Her voice was quick. But she was scared for you.
"I can't Chriss. Oh no, oh no, oh no". You began to freak out. Mentally, this was not good.
"We have like 30 seconds to go. You have to hold it!" She tried to reason with you, but knew it was not looking good.
You let out an agonizing groan as you tried to open and close your hands, hoping to get your blood circulating. You couldn't do it any longer. A two hour practice, with full high intensity training, coupled with an arms and abs workout for thirty minutes at the end was not something you were used to. Hell you'd taken up smoking weed with Eddie these past couple of months. You were in no shape to be doing any of this.
