Sullivan Siblings

XVII

"Okay, wait, so let me get this straight," I say with a smirk upon my lips. Kieth rolls his eyes as he takes the weights off the bar for my bench press. I'm happy to say he can now add two five pounders on it for weight! "You used to date Lana and that's why she said you were bad news?"

"Yeah," Kieth admits with a confused half chuckle. "I didn't even cheat on her or anything. One day she just decided she was done with me."

"Well, just so you know." I bite my lip and look up at him from my laying position on the bench press seat. "I won't drop you like a cat is clawing at my face."

"Haha." Kieth laughs in surprise and motions for me to start repping. I place my hands on the cold silver bar and wiggle my wrist about until the grip feels secure, then I lift. I love it now, the feel of the burn and pushing through the struggle. So what if I'm weak? It's a start!

Keith's feet are planted close to the head of the seat, his hands ready to catch the bar. Embarrassingly, I have dropped it a couple times. The only reason it doesn't land on my lack of cushioned chest is because he catches it. Today fares better, and when I have the bar set securely on the safety hooks, I sit up with a whoop.

"Did you see that?" I ask Kieth, clapping my hands in pride. My arms were wiggling and felt like jelly, but I did it!

"Getting better," Kieth confirms with a nod. He looks around the empty weightlifting room before pulling out his phone and scrolling while I take my break.

"Superman can't notice if people need saving when he's glued to his phone," I mutter pettily. Kieth guffaws, loud but short.

"You wouldn't be my Penny Carter so I asked this other chick," he informs me after looking hesitantly at me. Then, he shrugs and flicks his eyes back to his phone. "Just got some nice flirting going on. Other than that, I'm not really interested. I just end up flirting with every girl I see."

"Maybe that was Lana's problem." I point out. I start preparing myself for my second set of repetitions

"Shit man, yeah. Point taken." Kieth licks his lips and stuffs his phone back in his pocket to spot me. Silence resumes around us while I lift twelve reps, my breathing and the bar hitting the safety hooks a couple of times the only noise.

"Yo, Girl Sullivan!" A boy's voice calls out. I look to the door to find the hot senior that Emmett got into the fight with. Now that I am looking at him full on, and not worried about a fight, he is actually extremely good looking. Something just doesn't do it for me, probably the way his eyes glint in jealous revenge. "That's pretty cute, that baby weight."

"Yeah, well, my brothers don't lift baby weights." I shoot back. Because my arms are really wobbling in my struggle to complete the twelfth rep, Kieth picks the bar up and sets it on the safety hooks.

"My name's Austin," he introduces himself while slinking into the room. Austin looks over his shoulder to see where our PE teacher is, not wanting to get caught skipping class. I sit up on the bench, wishing for a phone so I could contact one of my brothers. Why would I trust the guy my brothers got into a fight with? "You got any socials?" Austin pulls his phone out.

"No," I answer him, hating the embarrassment making my cheeks sting red. Every single classmate of mine has a phone. It really isn't fair! Kieth's phone makes a chiming noise and he pulls it out to respond to a text.

"Phone number?" Austin asks, his eyebrows furrowing in surprise. I think he hides a laugh.

"No," I say, my voice clipped. My sweaty palms itch so I wipe them on my sweats covered thighs. For some reason, Austin takes that as an invitation to check me out. It's a very slow full body look that makes me very uncomfortable. I'm getting Georges vibes from him.