Weight

Part Six

Over the next week, Nate and I fell into a steady routine. We'd both be up to run early in the morning, but it seems that he was always five minutes ahead of me. We never ran together.

Our first Friday living together also happened to be a game day. Game days always got me a little extra excited to go to school. When I came downstairs that morning, Nate was still standing by the island in the kitchen.

"What are you still doing here?" I asked in surprise.

He smiled. "I thought we could start running together. Maybe we will push each other."

It didn't take me long to agree. I needed somebody to push me. My workout had gotten rather bland over the last few weeks and I needed something new.

We strolled outside together. It was early. The sun was just getting ready to peak over the horizon; we were bathed in that hazy light of the early morning. Our run started at a slow pace, trying to feel each other's ability out. We quickly realized we both needed to amp up the speed, so our light jog turned to a run. We kept this pace as we race down the long driveway and around the curve of the street. The loop around the blocks we bolted on blurred by me faster than they ever have before. By the time we reached the driveway again, we were locked in an all out sprint. I was out of the breath and my knees were weak, but Nate had silently started a competition to outrun me. I wasn't letting that happen.

I hit the door with full force, my arms out in front of me to break the impact. I had slowed my speed at all, which was probably a mistake but I was too tired to care.

"I win!" I triumphed, my fists pumping into the air.

Nate had intelligently slowed to a stop beside me. He raised his eyebrows before saying, "I didn't know we were racing."

I looked at him incredulously. "Of course we were racing. You said we'd push each other." He was still looking at me amused. "I pushed myself to run faster than you."

"Well, you wouldn't have beaten me if I actually tried." Nate stretched his arms and leaned against the porch post casually. "I was going easy on you."

I rolled my eyes. Sure, he was. I saw him panting along side me. I know that run took just as much of a toll on him as it had on me. I gave him a pointed look and the corners of his mouth turned up every so slight. "Okay, maybe you did push me a little bit," he admitted.

I smiled in pride, but the smile wiped from my face when I watched Nate peel his sweaty shirt off of his body. Working hard to keep my jar wired shut, I need to stop myself from drooling. His skin glistened with sweat and his abs flexed as he wiped his face with his T-shirt. Before he caught me staring, I attempted to force myself to stop staring. I must've failed because Nate looked up and gave me a lazy smile.

I cleared my throat and said, "I'm gonna go shower." Lame.

After my shower, I didn't worry about blow drying my hair. My brown hair was pin straight, so I didn't need to do much to it. I put on my uniform, as always did for game day, and tied half my hair back with a bow.

While Nate showered and got ready, I put some stuff for our lunches into brown paper bags. When Nate was ready, we drove to school and parked in Nate's assigned spot.

I immediately clammed up when I stepped outside of the car. For the first time all week, Paisley was standing a few cars away. I watched her jaw drop as she ogled at the spectacle that was Evie Bishop and Nate Keller showing up to school together. If only she knew, it was the fifth day that happened.

My eyes peeled from Paisley. Sunlight was hitting Nate's blond hair just right. A familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach fluttered lightly. It wasn't the first time; I'd been experiencing the butterflies for the last couple of days. I convinced myself it was just physical attraction. It was hard to save myself from the gravity that is Nate Keller when he pranced around shirtless morning and night.

My gaze flicked to Paisley once more. Her eyes were following Nate and I, and I saw the anger that danced underneath. I shuddered. Paisley would be digging into me later.

The day dragged on slowly. Paisley didn't talk to me at all, even at lunch. I considered talking to her first, but I didn't know where to begin. I felt sick.

Nate nudged me in the side. "You okay?"

"Paisley is suspicious. And angry," I explained. "I'm not sure what to tell her or how to make things better."

Nate sighed and dropped his voice, whispering low in my ear, "I know it's hard, but I don't think either of us are ready for people to know our situation." Completely in agreement, I nodded my head quickly. "Just tell her I've been giving you rides because your car is still being fixed."

I knew Nate was right. That was the best things to tell her. Paisley was my best friend, but she was also a huge gossip and I didn't want to deal with the rumors that would fly.

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I would call it déjà vu. Paisley marched up to me as I was stretching on the track before practice and ordered me to explain. "He's just giving me rides to school since my car is still getting fixed," I repeated the story Nate had fed to me earlier. Keeping my voice casual was harder than expected.

Paisley squinted her eyes at me. "Since when are you guys such good friends again?"

I panicked. I didn't have a good answer lined up. "I don't know. . . His family was over the other week and with us both being captains we have to talk about game themes and you know we just fell back into old patterns." I said it quickly, hoping that rapidly rambling on would mask the mostly-lies I spilled. "I don't know." I said again with a sigh.

Because truth is, I really didn't know. I wouldn't be able to tell you why the Kellers chose me. I found it hard to believe they had no other family friends who could do the job better than I. Every time I thought about my situation with Nate, I was at a loss for words.

Paisley didn't believe me, that much I could tell. But I guess she wasn't in the mood to argue because instead of pushing farther, she stuck her pinky finger out and said, "Well promise me if anything does start to happen, okay? I want to be the first to know."

My stomach twisted as I linked my finger through hers. "Promise."

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If anybody ever actually reads this, thank you.