boxer ⋆ luke hemmings ✔️

06. A Liar.

Sophie Hood kind of wanted death.

Actually, no. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get a giant tub of ice cream, put some fluffy socks on, and binge-watch an entire TV series on the sleek screen of her laptop as she waited for the next day's sun to come out.

She didn't want to be here, sweating and gross and hating life, with her brother's girlfriend. The girlfriend bit wasn't even bad- she loved Autumn Hadley, Calum's high school and current sweetheart and practically her other older sister besides Mali- she just hated what she was making Sophie do.

"Come on, babes," Autumn breathed, only slightly panting as she sped up her movements on the elliptical machine, "You can do this,"

They were at the gym. Which seemed a funny place to spend quality time with her brother's girlfriend, but it was much too late to turn back now.

The girl had practically dragged her there, her spirits high whilst Sophie tried to dig her heels into the pavement to refrain from going. She suddenly wished she'd never made the New Year's resolution of 'get into shape', for despite it being many many months later, Autumn took it very seriously.

"I don't belong in here, you know," Sophie said, pointing a small finger at the older girl and crossing her arms, "It's like putting an elephant in a cage,"

"But are you an elephant?"

Sophie wanted to make a crude joke about how yes, yes she was, and it made her slightly insecure so she'd really appreciate it if Autumn didn't point it out; but she didn't, in fear of it being insensitive. "No,"

"Is this a cage?"

"No?"

"Then no excuses," Autumn chuckled, slowing the movement of her elliptical.

Sophie surpressed her groan. If it wasn't for the fact that her brother was hellbent on his little sister loving his girlfriend, she wouldn't be here right now.

"Why don't you start off with something easy?" Autumn suggested.

Sophie kind of wanted to tell her that she only had two forms of exercise; the walk to the fridge downstairs, and the walk upstairs back to her room. Any crazy-looking machine she encountered in the gym, no matter how 'easy', would be a task.

"Actually, yeah," Sophie said, her posture straightening once she caught sight of the one thing in the large hall that didn't make her head spin, "I wanna do that,"

Autumn's eyes drifted, her gaze narrowing for a bit. Upon seeing what Sophie was pointing at, however, she sighed, "Soph,"

"What?"

"That's a bench."

"I know," Sophie grinned, triumphantly. She then started to make her way over there, "Now excuse me, but I have to start training. You know where to find me,"

"Not so fast," Autumn shook her head, pulling the young girl back and ignoring her groan of annoyance, "Hey, I thought you wanted to get in shape?"

"I am in shape," Sophie crossed her arms, "Round is a shape."

"Oh, hush up," Autumn rolled her eyes, ignoring the untrue comment, taking her by the arm and leading them both to the treadmills.

Sophie almost gasped at the sight of the people running on the things. They were all like Autumn; fit, determined, and not at all bothered by the fact that their legs were moving faster than their heartbeats.

Jesus Christ, Sophie thought, It's like being in a room of trainee Usain Bolts.

She just looked at them with wide eyes, her expression moving onto Autumn. "No."