Runners

Chapter 4

After I got out of the shower I immediately FaceTimed Kayla and Miyia, and told them everything that happened today. As I was telling them the story they looked shocked the entire time. When I finished telling them they still looked surprised till finally Kayla said " OMG, Leah, I can't believe this. I can't wait for y'all to get together!" I immediately shut the idea down and said,

" No, I can't date him. He is dating Christi and that would be so shitty of me. And even if they broke up I would still feel bad for messing up two of Christi's relationships."

" Well didn't Christi purposely start dating Ced knowing that you liked him, so what is there to feel bad for?" Miyia asked while shaking her head.              

Yeah she was right, Christi knew what she was doing when she started dating Ced, but what if she started to develop real feelings for him and I just come around and ruin it.

"Ok yes what Christi did was wrong, but it doesn't even matter. Her and Ced have been dating on and off for the past two years. He's not going to leave her for me."

They both give me a sad look. "Guys it's not that deep alright. I mean It's our senior year, and this crush has been going on for too long. If he didn't like me before, what makes me think he was just going to fall for me in less than a day?" I say trying to not feel bad for myself. Even though this is really tearing me apart right now.

" Leah It's ok. I promise me and Miyia are here for you if you ever need it ok?". Kayla says while Miyia nods along to her words.

I give them a small smile and say " Thank you guys so much for everything. I'm gonna go ahead and go to bed now. Good night and I'll talk to y'all tomorrow." They both wish me a good night before I hang up the call.

I put on my clothes, turn off my lights, and finally lay down in my bed.

I toss and turn all night thinking about our almost kiss. I just can't believe I almost did that. Every time I close my eyes, all I picture is him. All I think about is what his lips will feel on mine. UGH!!! Why can't he just get out of my head?!! I glance over at my clock on my side table and see that it says it's 4:45 a.m.

I finally just decided to turn on my side and hope that I can get at least 2 hours of sleep before my alarm goes off.

1 Week later (October 19, 2024)

I woke up to my alarm blaring into my ear for the third time this morning. I roll over to see that it's 7:30. I quickly get out of my bed trying to get ready before I am late to school. This is the third time I did this this week and its only Thursday. When I make it downstairs my mom is waiting by the door with her keys. I give her a sheepish smile and hurry and grab a donut before running to the car.

By the time I make it to school I am already late, and my first period has already started. When I get to my class my teacher greets me and tells me that we were going to be doing a group project that we would be working on for the whole year.

I say ok and ask her who I'm partnered up with. Before she can answer, Ced comes up and puts his arm around my shoulders and drags me to his table while saying, " Well come on partner so we can brainstorm some ideas for our topic."

I follow him in disbelief at the irony of this situation. We sat down at our seats at the very back of the classroom and when I got situated and looked up, I saw Christi glaring directly at me and I hurriedly looked away. Gosh out of all the people in this class how did I get paired with him. I turn to Ced and as I'm about to ask what the project was about, he stops me and asks,

" Leah, why have you been ignoring me? I thought we were going to be friends but each time I try to talk to you, you ignore me. Do you not want to be my friend?" Ok, so I was not expecting him to ask that.

"Ced, of course I want to be your friend. It's just... I don't know, ever since we almost kissed I... just felt like I needed to keep my distance a little, to figure out what's going on in my head." I whisper, hoping Christi doesn't hear.

He nodded his head. " Yeah, Leah, I get it. What almost happened kinda threw me off too but how about we just forget it happened and try to move on." He said while avoiding eye contact

I shook my head sadly and said, "Yeah sure let's just act like we didn't almost kiss, like you didn't almost cheat on Christi and move on with our lives. Sounds great to me." I don't know why him saying that pissed me off, but I just didn't understand how he could say that as if we didn't just almost fuck up his relationship.

But why should I even care. Maybe it's because I know Christi will just bully me even worse that she has been. Maybe she would even start to get physical. UGHHH!!! This is why I should have just left him alone now things are just going to get worse.

"Leah. You know I didn't mean it like that. I know what we were doing was messed up, that's why I think it's best if we just push it to the back of our minds and try to forget it."

"So, you expect me to try to forget it when you were the one that initiated the kiss." I say feeling angrier every time he opened his mouth.

"Well shit Leah, you acting we actually kissed or even fucked, when we literally did nothing, so just calm down and lets just do our work." He says I can hear in his tone that he's getting upset but I don't care when he's the one who started this

"You know what, because you clearly don't care I'm not gonna care either. So, what the hell is the project about anyway?" I huff, hoping he can hear how upset I am in my tone. But honestly, I don't know if I'm madder at him or myself for putting myself in this situation.

He lets out a sigh and starts to explain what we had to do. As he explains what we need to do I understand why we have 6 months to do it. Like damn who just randomly thinks of these types of projects.