Boot Camp

28: Old Version

The next few days pass by quickly, almost too quickly.

It's funny when things are going bad, or when you wish a certain time period in your life could be over as soon as possible, time passes by so agonizingly slow. Yet when you finally feel like your life is actually great for once, one moment you blink and the next everything is over.

Maybe it's just that I'm having a difficult time trying to register that my time at this camp is almost over. It's Thursday, and I go home Monday.

Home.

I have barely thought over the fact that I'd have to go back to my regular home life again for the next month. It's been lingering somewhere in the back of my mind, but I'm just not as particularly ecstatic to go home as I was a few weeks before.

There's the wedding and then the fact college starts a little after that (I internally die each time I remember), and worst of all, coming back to my town means the possibility of running into Mina, whom I don't I think can look at, let alone speak to, any time soon.

And most of all, there's Axel who will no longer be a constant in my daily life.

"So," he says, leaning his hands on the bench press seat in between us and looking me in the eye. "This is the last workout we have before the final team challenge tomorrow."

"Right," I state, trying not to sound my disappointment. I only half succeed. "Wasn't it just yesterday I was dying after running five minutes?"

He chuckles. "You have come far, Whitney."

I expected that our last workout would be on the beach or on top of a hill somewhere, maybe even Mount Everest with Axel's love of the outdoors, but instead we're back in the gym. I suppose he's sparing me the suffocating late July humidity.

"We're going to do a bit of cardio first and then do various strength training exercises," he explains, cracking his knuckles. "I just want to make sure we cover everything since this is the last time here."

I nod and begin to stretch out my legs, my hands reaching well past my toes. I'd never been very flexible before so this is quite an enjoyable anomaly for me.

After a few more minutes of stretching, I get onto the treadmill and look over at Axel.

"Okay so these things kind of freak me out," I tell him as he clicks on a low speed.

"Whitney you're telling me out of all the crazy exercises you've done here, a treadmill is what's going to freak you out?" he questions, as if I'm utterly ridiculous for saying that.

"Um hello?" I say as I'm forced to pick up my pace. "There is literally nothing preventing me from slamming back into the drywall behind me."

"Actually there is," he quips, pointing to my legs. I fight the urge to smack him, but it becomes physically impossible when he bumps the speed up a couple miles.

I begin to jog, my ponytail slapping against my back. I make sure to focus straight ahead and stay close to the front of the belt. Nothing about running fazes me anymore; tripping to my death does, however.

A few minutes later, Axel brings the speed up so high I feel like I can't even keep up with my own feet. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying it, even leaning against the arm of the treadmill next to me.

"Is th-this even sa-safe?" I manage to ask between breaths. I look down and regret it, feeling like I want to throw up.

"By now you should know my aim is not to kill you," he answers and then brings the speed down to a more tolerable six miles an hour. "I'd have missed way too many opportunities to do that if I had been feeling homicidal this whole time."