For Senior Year

The Mile

Emily POV:

I sprinted as fast as I could for the final stretch. The cold air burned my throat and lungs but I didn't care. I kept pushing myself harder and harder as I got closer to the finish line. I closed my eyes and kept running until I heard Tatum yell "TIME!"

I opened my eyes once again and slowed down. When I came to a stop I placed my hands on my head and stood up as straight as I could to let as much air as possible into my lungs. Tatum then walked over to where I was standing by the finish line on the track. She had her phone in her hand to keep time. 

"How'd I do?" I asked, extremely out of breath.

"7 minutes and 38 seconds." She stated.

"Shit." I grumbled. 

"Hey don't beat yourself up. 7:38 is a good time for a mile." She assured me. 

"Yeah but it's not good enough." I stated bitterly. "What do Olivia and Christina run it in?" I asked. I saw Tatum bite her lip nervously and I could tell that she was hesitant to tell me there times.

"Last time I checked, Olivia was listed as running a 7:12 and Christina was listed as running a 6:58." She stated.

"Shitttt." I grumbled. 

"Em it's okay-"

"No Tatum it isn't! How can I make the team over them if I can't outrun them?" I asked angrily. 

"You may not have outrun them right now but you will outrun them at tryouts. And it doesn't matter how fast they run or how fast you run. All you gotta do is outplay them." She said.

"I don't now if I can." I said with a sigh. There's only three days left until tryouts and I'm starting to become more and more doubtful about my ability to make this team.

"Hey don't sell yourself short." Tatum said as she walked over and placed her hands on my arms, rubbing them reassuringly. "I believe in you. All you gotta do is believe in yourself." She said, giving me a soft smile.

I looked up into her brown eyes and gave her a soft smile back. 

"Okay?" She asked.

"Okay." I replied. 

"We can hit the mile again tonight but for now lets get into some drills." Tatum said and I nodded in response. We then broke apart so that we could both get our cleats and the rest of our lacrosse gear on. 

The past week, Tatum has been helping me train twice a day since she first mentioned me trying out. Every single day without fail Tatum has trained with me at 4am and 8pm and she's had her own team practices every morning at 7am on top of that. She goes from training with me for two hours, to training with her team for two hours, and then training another two hours with me at night. I seriously have no clue how she's physically capable of doing all that. 

I mean her hard work definitely shows. She's always extremely in shape but during lacrosse season her abs are just a little extra toned and her arms a little more muscular. It's extremely hot.

"Hey you coming?" Tatum called. I snapped out of my thoughts to see that she was already standing over by the net. Cones were set up in a drill all around her and she leaned on her stick with a smirk on her face. 

My cheeks instantly heated up and turned red despite the cold air around me. She definitely knows that I was just thinking about her. It also doesn't help that she's wearing grey sweatpants and a black compression shirt that hugs her arms and chest in all the right places.

"Yeah I'm coming." I said, shaking my head before securing the knot on my cleats and getting up. I then ran over and we got into the drill.

I will admit that most of the time, Tatum was kicking my ass in these drills. I did hold my own though. I did a decent job of containing her defensively and there were a few times where I prevented her from scoring all together. On the offensive I was more successful. I managed to get around her more times on the offense than I was able to stop her on defense.