Watch Your Temper

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Halfway

        "Oh... Good Lord... I seriously... need to get back... to the track team... sometime."

Imagine this: It's a dark, cloudy, peaceful night.

You're on your way to a nice dinner party at a fancy restaurant in New York City. You're excited. You made sure to wear your most expensive-looking clothes and you spent hours perfecting yourself and erasing your every flaw. You grab your spouse and leave your home, driving down the busy but beautiful NYC avenues. You pass the hundreds of towering skyscrapers that seem to stretch up to the sky in an everlasting climb. You sit back in your seat and sigh, feeling content and relaxed.

You look out your car window again... this time, you see a girl. It isn't just any girl. It's a brunette, gangly, pale teenager by the name of Temper Violet Adagio. She's huffing. She's puffing. Her normally-ghastly white face is rosy red, and she can barely catch her breath. She continues to run, looking like a fool all the while. You turn away from the window and pretend you didn't see her.

I silently laughed, thinking of how stupid I must have appeared.

On a normal, typical, ordinary, average, usual day, I would have been mortified.

But today wasn't a normal, typical, ordinary, average, usual day.

Today was the day I was sprinting after Mr. George Barry Arbing through the hectic labyrinth also known as New York City.

I wasn't exactly a hefty girl-- I was slightly underweight! I guess I was just really slow because I hadn't run for like... a few months. I was quickly losing speed, even though I could vaguely see my target off in the distance. I estimated he was a good six or seven blocks ahead of me.

I had no time to spare. Every time I took a brake for a breather, George got a little bit further out of reach. I had to keep going.

"George... wait! Someone... help.... taxi?" I spluttered out, waving my arms around frantically like a nutcase. I received a few strange looks from the people walking by me.

I felt my lungs go on fire, a raging internal inferno gaining power within my body. I sucked in a jagged breath and saw the world become a bit lopsided. I was getting light-headed.

I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe deeply, focusing on the task at hand. I'd worry about my physical fitness later. For now, I needed to catch up with George.

I bit my lip in pain as I felt something in my leg pop. I surged forward, fighting through the pain, but came to an abrupt halt. I had a sudden realization: I could always call him later!

I groaned, feeling like a huge genius. I wasted all of that energy for nothing! I could just call him or something! I lived next to him, for goodness sake! We were bound to run into each other sometime.

I started to walk at a lame pace, taking my time and watching the tiny speck-- George-- vanish into the world ahead. I crawled along clumsily, spotting my apartment building a block away. I had just pulled out my cell phone to text Lauren that the "T+G Operation" had failed, when I had another spur-of-the-moment epiphany.

George and I lived in the same building. I was at that building now. But George... George had continued on walking past it. Where was he going?

I frowned in confusion. What in the...?

I saw a woman standing a few feet from me, a pair of binoculars in her hands. Wow. It was like she wasn't even trying to conceal the fact that she was a tourist.

"I need these for a minute," I exclaimed hastily as I plucked the binoculars out of the woman's grasp. She squeaked in surprise and hollered at me in annoyance, but I ignored her and put the lenses up to my face. I had to squint into the dark, but I saw him. Yes, I saw him. I was sure of it. And he was getting into a taxi.