Can you keep up?

Chapter 17

Charlie's POV

I sat there in shock for a minute trying to contemplate what just went down between me and Lauren. That painful lump has basically become a permanent fixture when it comes to her and it was not giving up this time. You know how people always exaggerate heartbreak in movies and go on about how it feels like their heart has been ripped out and stamped on and then set a light? 

Well that's a pretty accurate description. 

I swallowed down my lump and stood up, slinging my bag over my shoulder and walking out of the classroom. I still had another hour of training to do so I headed to the locker room to change. Once I finished dressing and put my hair into two braids, I put my headphones in and turned the volume up to full and slumped out towards the track with my stuff. The sky was a miserable grey and I really wasn't in the mood to do anything, let alone run. To make matters worse, the cheerleaders were practicing on the grass in the middle of the track. She had her back to me as I walked over to join the rest of my squad; I'm not sure if she knew I was there or not. Everyone greeted me but I didn't remove my headphones, I just turned the volume down a little and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Hershall, why is it that I heard you were in detention and not on my track?" Coach's voice boomed at me. He loves me so he's hard on me, that's just the way he is. I sighed and took out my headphones before sitting cross legged on the grass in front of him.

"Brody gave me detention, her fault," I shrugged at him, which only made him shake his head. 

"Charlie, the race is in three days, you can't afford to be wasting time in detention," he said seriously, "get your head in the game and go do some sprints."

I sighed more deeply and reluctantly stood up before continuing to listen to my music as I jogged over to the track lines. I could vaguely hear Stacey shouting my name in the background and I could see her waving at me out of the corner of my eye but I turned up the volume, pretended not to have seen her and did a few lazy sprints to warm up. When I turned on the spot to do one more sprint I became face to face with the head cheerleader herself who had a big grin on her face. She pulled out my headphones and threw herself at me in a tight hug, which I awkwardly reciprocated. 

"Hey you, I was calling you earlier!" She sang.

"Oh, uh sorry, I couldn't hear you," I shrugged indicating to my headphones to which she just nodded.

The cheerleading squad were nearby giggling at us and that just made me feel seriously uncomfortable. They all clearly knew about our date... oh shit the date. It's today! 

"Well, I was just seeing if you were excited for tonight!" She stroked my arm and I heard a scoff from somewhere in the huddle of girls. 

"Uhh, tonight?" I played dumb.

"Our date, you didn't forget did you?" She looked disappointed and I shook my head and scratched the back of my neck.

"Oh, no, uh yeah sure I'm excited," I smiled sheepishly as I lied and the grin returned to her face. I did feel really bad for leading her on, I didn't even think I had to be honest but clearly she'd got the wrong impression. The thing is I'm a huge coward when it comes to feelings and I don't want to hurt her so I just have to go out with her tonight, hopefully she'll realise I'm not that great and move on. 

"Are you okay? You seem a little... off today. You're not putting much effort into running," she looked deep into my eyes trying to find the answer, making me nervous. I nodded and gave a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just tired to be honest, and nervous for Friday," I said honestly. 

"Don't worry, you'll do amazing, I know it," Stacey squealed and leaned in, I freaked out for a second but relaxed when I realised she was only going to kiss my cheek. She pulled her face away and winked at me before skipping off to join the rest of her cooing squad. I glanced over watching her rejoin them and I caught Lauren's eye. She was looking at me with an almost hurt expression in her eyes which made my heart ache even more. She looked at the ground and turned away. I frowned at the sky and played my music once again as I started doing some proper training.