Bruised

Chapter 35

The days went by slowly, but the week went by so fast. Makenna was glad to return to her routine once the assessment week was over. It was Saturday and rather than heading to the library, she decided to head to the gym to meet up with Thea. She, along with everyone else, deserved a break from their books and Vanessa shared the same belief.

To Makenna's surprise, she had seen more of Atlas in the past week than she had Thea. He and Will had started sitting with her and Vanessa at the library. She wasn't sure how she felt about it because she hadn't let herself think too much about it because of the week's hectic schedule. But it was starting to sink in.

After he dropped her off outside her dorm on Sunday, she thought she wouldn't see much of him during the week. Needless to say, she had been wrong.

That Sunday, Atlas pulled up in front of her dorm. Makenna hopped off the bike while she took off the helmet. As soon as it came off, she looked at him to find him watching her. She swallowed and handed him the helmet.

"Thank you,"

Atlas smiled and hooked his hand through the helmet,
"Anything for you."

Anything for me? What does that mean?
She wondered.

"See you later, Merida," Atlas said before he took off leaving her with a frown, wondering if she heard him right.

Makenna had laid in bed that night searching the internet for what he meant when he called her by another name. The first thing that popped up in her search was Merida Bikes and she spent a moment trying to understand why he would call her by the name of a bike brand.

Their meta description read road bikes, mountain bikes...

Did he think she was dangerous?
She asked herself.

She swiped on the screen and stopped at the next ranking on her search. It was a Wikipedia link to someone named Merida. The picture showed a girl in a green dress and red hair.

Ah, this makes more sense.
Makenna thought.

She opened the link and read a bit about the girl only to find out that she was a total badass. When she finally shut her phone down to go to bed, she had a smile on her lips.

"Hey," Makenna snapped out of her reverie and looked up to find Thea, "What's that look on your face?"

Makenna frowned and got up from where she was seated securing her hand wrap.
"What look?"

"Now it's gone," Thea took off her hoodie and revealed a sports bra, "But you had this weird look,"

Makenna stood with her hands on her waist and an expression that said: you'd need to do better than that.

"You were smiling," Thea smiled cutely at that, "And it was not the normal Mac smile, it was...different."

Makenna blinked rapidly, her hands falling to her sides,
"More moving, less talking."

"You asked,"

Makenna said nothing more and got into some warm-ups with Thea before she got right into training.
"Remember the combos we tried out last week?"

"Uh, my muscle does."

"Let's refresh your memory,"

Makenna went through the combos with Thea and then allowed her to try them on her until she got the hang of it.

"So, what was that smile about?"

"Just a memory."

Thea's expression told her she didn't believe her even though she was telling the truth.
"Not just any memory,"