Boot Camp

19: Old Version

"Why do we have to get up at seven every morning," Martina mumbles unenthusiastically, throwing a pillow to the foot of her bed. "At home I sleep in until noon everyday."

"Tell me about it," I mumble, rubbing my tired eyes. "My record of consecutive sleeping is eighteen hours."

"Haha, nineteen," Martina darts back.

"At least there's no team challenge today," I reply, breathing a sigh of relief. My other pair of sneakers will be spared. My poor babies.

"And you get to see Axel," Martina tells me, turning over in her bed and resting on her side. A wide smile is playing on her lips as she attempts to untangle a large knot in her dark hair with her left hand.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, throwing the sheets off of me.

"Oh come on," she replies. "You definitely have a thing for him."

"Well how do you know?" I challenge her. Is it that obvious?

"Well," she begins, sitting up and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "Whenever you come back after you see him you're all cheery and glowing."

"That's called sweat."

"No," she answers holding up her index finger. "You definitely have something for him. I mean you're blushing as I speak."

"Okay, fine," I snap, aggravated by the fact that she is right. I pick up my water. "It just bruises my ego to say I like him, because he can be so aggravating sometimes."

She shrugs, taking a swig of water from the bottle on the side table. She wipes the edge of her mouth and talks again. "Maybe he just doesn't know how to express his feelings very well. Or maybe you get him all hot and bothered all the time, so he feels like he has to be rude to you to soothe his giant ego."

I snort in laughter, spewing half the gulp of water in my mouth onto the floor. "Martina, you are something else. I can guarantee you that's not the case."

She rolls her eyes. "You'll figure it all out. What was that old boyfriend of yours like?"

"You want the whole story?"

"Hell yeah. I'm always down for some shitty romance."

I cross my legs and place a pillow in my lap, resting my arms on it. "It was this guy named Jonah, a random kid that went to my high school. Before homecoming in October I didn't have a date, so my friend Mina brought him up to me during lunch and said that he wanted to take me to the dance. I thought it was pretty weird considering I'd literally never seen him before, but Mina assured me that she knew him and he was really cool. So I listened, and it turned out he had some serious attachment issues. I couldn't get him to stop trying to talk to me or force me to go on a date with him, until a random December day where I kind of shoved him into a mountain of dirty snow, cussed him out, and ran away. The end."

She lets out a laugh at the ending, shaking her head. "But don't you think it's a little strange that your friend just shoved a random guy onto you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Truthfully I did think it was weird at the time. Mina wasn't normally one to interfere with my nonexistent love life so it was quite out of the normal that she was suddenly so pushy in that area.

"Anyway," she says through a large yawn. "Let's get some breakfast. I'm starving."

***

Axel is smiling as I meet him for our workout session, which I take as a good sign for the day. Yesterday's little break in the ocean was a lot more fun than I expected, but I don't get my hopes up too high that we'll be doing anything remotely as fun today.

I find I'm not wrong.

"Ready for a hike?" he asks, stretching his arms behind his head. There's too much excitement in his voice for a trek in nature on a ninety-degree July day.

"Not exactly?" I respond and bend down to loosen up my stiff legs. I blush when I realize I just gave him a show of my chest on this angle. He says nothing, although there is a hint of a smirk on the edge of his lips. I return to a standing position and clear my throat.

"Wait, hold still," he says and takes a couple steps towards me. His fingers meet my exposed shoulder and flick something from my skin. I watch the small insect fly away and am surprised I don't scream and run in circles. Once again, Axel's touch lingers for a little longer than necessary, and the fact he's looking into my eyes isn't helping the warm feeling that rushes through me. He clears his throat, drops his hand, and the feeling disintegrates. "It was just a bug. Let's get going."

The trail is steeper than it looks, challenging the limits of my already perpetually sore legs. If that wasn't bad enough, I have to swat away a fly or a bee or whatever other demonic flying creature every few seconds, earning me a couple eye rolls from Axel. I don't feel bad for laughing in his face when a wasp lands on his forearm and he lets out a high-pitched squeal.

"When will we reach the end of this thing?" I ask through a couple huffs, unable to catch my breath. I press my hands to my cheeks, and they feel like they're on fire.

"Not anytime soon," he replies without even turning around. I can hardly make out a droplet of sweat on the back of his neck, while I look like I just hopped out of the shower.

"I swear those burpee things look easy next to this." I rub the back of my stiff calf and drag myself the next several feet, my muscles screaming for help. Axel turns around.

"Would you rather do those right now then?" he asks, lifting a brow. He eyes my tragic state, though not a flicker of sympathy crosses his face. I guess this is the part of the camp where I should be "used" to exercise.

"That's clearly not what I meant," I grumble, pushing myself to the limits to overtake his speed. Never letting me feel accomplished, he's at my heels in seconds. We continue this way until the end becomes less of a fantasy, visible through less squinting with every step.

"The view is always worth it," Axel says as we reach the end of the trail, a low cliff. The scenery is incredible from here, rolling green grass overtaken by the beauty of the ocean in the background. I can't find it in me to say anything; it's mesmerizing. Instead I collapse to the ground and wrap my arms over my knees as I stare off at the sky. Axel lowers himself next to me and releases out a deep sigh. I can't tell if it's from exhaustion, since it's something he rarely appears to experience.

"You know what I think is the best part about being so high up above everyone else?" he says, making me tilt my head in his direction. "It's the fact everything that can hurt you is below you, and you can just sit back and laugh."

"By hurt, do you mean physically or mentally?" I ask, resting my head against my forearms over my knees. "I'm struggling to figure out if this is another one of your metaphors."

"Mentally," he replies, leaning back on his hands. "I guess it is more of a metaphor."

"In that case, it wouldn't matter whether you were on top of a cliff or a hundred feet under the surface of the ocean, would it? You'd take your mind there with you either way."

"I guess you're right," he chuckles, brushing away a few rogue pieces of hair from his forehead. "I suppose you just feel less afraid higher up. Like, the things holding you back seem less important when you realize how small and insignificant everything really is from a bird's-eye point of view."

"What's holding you back then?" I ask quietly, unsure at this point if my question is even related to this topic. Axel catches on, glazing his eyes over my face with a hint of amusement.

"Something that seems a lot more small and insignificant way up here," he replies softly, echoing his own words. My breath hitches in my throat when he leans forward, his hand moving to the underside of my jaw.

I want to tell him to stop, to say that he can't go all philosophical on me and then kiss me like this, but the thoughts don't quite reach my lips.

They must reach his head, as his lips brush past my mouth and meet my cheek before disappearing altogether.