Verge of Insanity

Chapter Nineteen

Mara Leigh

When I woke the next morning I was groggy. Just like last time when Xander wasn't around, I hadn't slept well. 

I got dressed quickly, ready to find him and ask what last night was about. After thinking about our age difference for a while, I'd gotten used to the idea of being with someone older. I had no doubt that with his age came experience with women, whereas I had none with guys. That was the only issue I could find with it.

Xander wasn't in his office, or in the living room. Blythe was the only one in the kitchen, and when I asked her where he was, she didn't know either. I was starting to realize that the boy had some bad disappearing habits.

I was walking back to the room when I heard Ella's voice. 

"Would you like to go for a run with me?"

I froze. I'd just met this version of Ella yesterday, and didn't know if I could trust her not to leave me in the bottom of the Watauga River yet. 

"It's okay if you don't," she said, smiling. "Beau was scheming with Xander this morning and they took off early. So I just figured I'd ask in case you wanted to get out of the house."

Beau and Xander scheming together? That's sketchy.

I supposed it wouldn't hurt to get out of the house though. Even though I wasn't a runner at all....

"I'm not a runner at all," I warned her.

She laughed. "Then we can run however far you can go and then we'll walk around the grounds."

"That sounds more like it," I smiled.

She lended me some of her running gear, since I didn't have any. It was going to take a while to get used to this Ella. 

The shorts were incredibly short, and I knew would inch up my thigh even more when I ran. But Ella's were the same length, and she didn't look concerned.

She kept pace beside me as we ran down a beaten path through the woods behind their house. It was almost disturbing how Ella wasn't even breathing heavy and I sounded like I was dying. At least she was sweating a little. My whole shirt was wet with sweat, but you could barely see it on her. 

Feeling like a wimp, I had to stop as we neared the river. I couldn't make myself even jog the eight feet it would take me to get to the river. Ella switched to walking and followed me to the river bank. Slipping off my shoes, I plopped on the bank and peeled off my socks, putting my feet and legs in the cool water. Ella followed suit, surprising me. 

"I thought you weren't a runner," she grinned.

"I'm not," I gasped, wiping sweat off my forehead with my arm.

"That was a mile and a half right there," she said. 

My jaw dropped and I looked at her, disbelieving.

"Surely you run at home?" she asked.

I shook my head, still in awe. 

"Wow," Ella said, copying my confused face. "You must be naturally good, then."

I just let it be, deciding that it must have been because I was running with someone in a place that distracted me from what I was doing. 

"Does it bother you that you had to break up because of Xander and me?" she wondered suddenly.

I thought about it before I answered.

"Not exactly," I said, honestly. "It did at the time. But he seems to like you. And I've heard Blythe talking about her mate. If our relationships can grow as strong as her's, I can live with it, you know?"