Right Now

Two

Their was a big crowd gathered around the starting line on the track, the freshman all gathered in a tight crew, nervous for their first practice of cross country. Chris walked onto the track, bombarded with hugs and greetings from her teammates. She pulled down on her neon spandex, glad to finally be back with the team. 

"Chris! Good to see you!" Coach Steven said placing a hand on her shoulder. "Ready for another great season?" Chris nodded excitedly, laughing. She lined up along with the others, ready to listen to the longer than necessary speech of her coach. There wasn't much that he said that was new to her, the practice schedule being right after school every day, this was the meeting spot and so on. 

"Varsity will change depending on performance at each race, but of course, every race, every practice, no matter how insignificant it seems to you, is very important! Being the first practice, today is just an easy mid-mileage run. Hopefully you've been running all summer, as I asked in the email," coach said, waving them off. 

"Chris, how much are you thinking of running?" Abby asked her. Abby, another of her good friends, was also gunning for varsity. She'd been close last year, always missing the spot by a little bit. 

"Probably around five, wanna run with me?"

"Yes, and you can catch me up on everything that has happened with Luke," Abby winked, wriggling her eyebrows. Nothing much had really happened that summer, but everyone expected them to be the new power couple. Chris had never really been in a serious relationship before this one, and she was glad it was with Luke. 

"And you with Calum," Chris laughed.

"Oh my god, stop nothing happened!" Abby winced, covering her eyes. Chris probably considered Abby to be her best friend, along with Lea and Carrie. She just felt closer to Abby since they did the same sport and were both really dedicated to it. Lea and Carrie did soccer, and both were varsity, so they understood the whole dedication to a sport thing. 

"Oh please, there's more to it than you are letting on," she pressured, poking her gently in the ribs. 

"Let's just go running, ladies," coach said approaching their little group. "You girls going for five?" Abby, Chris, and two other girls nodded. The four walked away, starting to jog once they reached the road. 

"Which run are we doing?" Abby asked, running beside Chris. 

"The one that passes the closed down Ben N Jerry's that's an easy one," Chris responded, tightening her ponytail. 

"So Chris, you gonna tell us what happened with Luke this summer?" one of the girls, Emma, asked from behind her. 

"And skip the party, we all know about that first make-out that happened at Calum's party over the summer," Abby added. 

"Yeah that happened, and basically we started hanging out more after the party, and we decided to put a label on it."

"Finally, you guys had so been crushing on each other all through junior year," Alex laughed. That had been pretty true, and Chris knew it. They'd been close, heck, Luke had written a song for her, she just never shared that with anyone. 

"Luke is so sweet, I'm jealous," Abby winned. The girls continued pestering her for more details, even though there was only so much she could tell them. "Also, did you hear about Vanessa? People are saying she got knocked up over the summer."

"That's awful! Poor girl," Chris said sympathetically. Alex and Emma, who were running behind them, breathed heavily, evidently not used to the faster pace while running. "Is she gonna keep the baby?"

"It's just a rumor, but I don't think so." Being the first day back from school, and the first practice, their was so much, so much drama to catch up on the five miles didn't seem long enough for everything they had to share. But the whole time, Chris felt bad for Vanessa, knowing it wasn't her fault she'd gotten pregnant. 

When they got back at the meeting spot on the track, only the girls who'd run  three or less were back. The freshman leaving practice waved nervously at Chris, knowing full well who she was, but still couldn't believe she was a nice gal. 

"Chris, are you going to Calum's party friday?" Abby asked, looking up from her stretches. 

"I'm not sure, if we have a hard workout then probably not," she answered, sitting down beside her and doing a few push ups and crunches. 

"Looking good!" someone whistled at her. Chris spun around and saw Luke, all sweaty in his soccer uniform. 

"Not too shabby yourself," she said and let him place a kiss on her cheek. 

"Need a ride home?" he asked, picking up her backpack and putting on the shoulder that wasn't carrying his. 

"That'd be nice, thanks. Bye coach!" she shouted walking away. He waved at her and she took her bag back from Luke. "How was soccer?"

"Freshman team is gonna suck this year, the varsity team seems pretty good, more so than usual," he chuckled, leading Chris to the parking lot. Not many cars were left in the lot, only the few of the druggies that were getting high up the hill of the field across the street from the school. 

"It must be terrifying for those little froshies, having to practice on the first day with tall jacks like you," she laughed, hoping in his car. The plush leather seats burned her skin. 

"Yeah, I guess. It must be the same for the girls having to run with you. You're the high school legend," Luke laughed, bringing the car to life. Chris shook her head, and checked her missed texts. All were about the party at Calum's. "You gonna go to that?" Luke asked.

"How'd you know it was about the party?' she asked, looking at him lazily. 

He shrugged, "that's all everyone can talk about. The first party of the year." He sped down the street, and turned sharply. Chris felt her body lurch to the left along with the car, almost falling on Luke. 

"How did you pass your test still boggles my mind," she laughed, and took his hand. He glanced away from the road a split second to look at her, smiling. He pressed down on the gas, zipping up the slight hill. Chris didn't live too far from the school, so combined with the lack of traffic and Luke's race car driving, he turned on her street. 

"Here ya go," he said, leaning over. His hand covered her cheek as he lifted her chin, pressing his lips to hers. She smiled, feeling him copy her actions. 

"Bye Luke," and with a wink she closed the door and walked back inside her house. Just as she opened the door, she heard Luke run up behind her. 

"You forgot something," he said.

"What?' she asked. 

"Me." And with that he pulled her in a tight kiss. His tongue found the roof of her mouth, tickling it slightly. He held her tightly against him, and she dropped her bag to better hold him. "There we go." She laughed and pushed him off, walking inside, hearing him make his way to his car. Her dog barked, jumping up on her. Chris grabbed a protein shake from the fridge, and with that, went up to her room, smiling because of Luek.