Good Enough

Mia - Mornings

I wake up when sunlight starts streaming through my window. And as soon as my eyes are fully open, I jump up and out of bed. Looking at my phone on my bedside table, I see that it's already a late start to my day.

I rush up and out of bed and quickly get myself put together and ready. Once I'm finished changing and getting dressed, I take the stairs two at a time. I head towards the kitchen, but it's only to get a glass of water.

Except when I enter the kitchen, I see my mom and sister eating waffles. Not even even homemade waffles, which would be a little better. It's those frozen type that you put in the toaster. Anything frozen is fattening.

My mom sees me walk in and smiles. "Good morning Mia!"

"Morning Mom." I answer, my flat tone a striking difference to her happiness. I can't fake my way through happy while I'm watching her eat her feelings out.

"Are you going out for a run?"

"Yup." My tone is clipped and flat still. I hate watching Mom eat.

"Your want something to eat before you go?"

"No, it'll just make me feel sick while running. I'll just eat when I get home. I'll see you both later."

They respond but i don't hear as I'm already slipping out the door and looking for the nearest place to run on my phone. I hate moving around so much. But my mom loves the idea of starting over and starting new.

Yet she won't change her appearance.

Sighing at my own thoughts, I put my ear phones in and start to head towards the easiest path closest to here. It's kind of like a nature walk, the kind where you can admire the trees and things like that. At least I think it is. I'm only going off the minimal research I was bale to do at home last night. 

Once I'm there I start jogging, which eventually  turns into running. I put my music louder to overpower my thrumming heart and footsteps.

Getting caught up in my own rhythm, I close my eyes. There's almost no one out this early, but so I have the whole trail to myself.

Eyes still closed, I keep running forward, lost in the music and myself. Except I feel something slam into my shoulder full force. My eyes fly open and I feel myself start to loose balance when the something reaches out and catches my hand. Raising my eyes up, I see that the something is a guy.

He helps me up and then proceeds to blow air up into his eyes. His forehead glistens with sweat, and his hair and shirt are matted to him from sweat too. It'd be almost gross if he weren't alright looking.

He takes out his own headphones and looks at me apologetically. "Shit man, I'm sorry."

I only shrug. "It's fine. But you should watch where you're going."

A smile plays on his lips, but he quickly stops it from becoming a full smile. The only reason I know this is exactly what he's doing is because I've used the same expression when I'm with Zoe.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going. You were the one running with your eyes closed after all."

I can't help but roll my eyes at him. "Oh, yeah whatever. You must have been doing something wrong if you ran into me too."

I dark shadow crosses his face and the possibility of a smile is gone.

"Yeah, maybe. Maybe not." His face looks almost lost for a second before he goes back to looking down at me. "I've never seen you run this trail."

"That's probably because I've never run this trail before." I say simply. I'm not going to tell this random sweaty guy my life story.

He nods and seems to decide to stop asking me questions. "Alright then. Well...sorry for knocking into you. You might not want to run with your eyes closed anymore though."

I scoff.  "Yeah okay. I'll try not to."

He nods at me again and starts to walk away. I start to put my headphones back in when I hear him stop and walk back towards me.

I take the headphones out again. "Yes?" I don't like my runs to be interrupted. I need them desperately.

"Are you new in town?" He asks. He seems like the type of straight-forward guy who doesn't like to ask pointless questions, yet he doesn't come off as rude or anything close to it.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I heard here was going to be a new junior at East High next week. That wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"

"Maybe. How did you hear about that?"

He shrugs. "When you do everything, it's easy to hear about things."

I rise my eyebrows. "A little conceited there, aren't you?"

"No, I don't mean to sound conceited but walk in on any sport or club, and you'll probably find me there. Unless I'm at another extracurricular activity or some shit like it."

"Wow. You must be a real popular guy then."

He shrugs again. "I guess you could say that. Although I wouldn't. I'm not really into socializing."

"I find that hard to believe, since you're talking to me right now and all that."

"Right. I guess I still feel bad about knocking you down earlier."

"It's fine." But if I were lighter, I should've been easier to knock down.

"Do you know how this trail goes?" He asks after a beat of silence.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, do you know where it splits off into three and etc etc?"

I scoff again. "Uh. No. I'm new here, remember?" 

"I mean, you could've checked online or something."

"I did. But I didn't know I needed to pick between three trails. Which one do you recommend?"

"Depends. If you want to get lost in the beauty of the wild life and all that bullshit, then pick the first one that comes up. If you want to straight up run like you were running before, then the second one.  And if you want to do more of a hike, then the third."

"Which one did you just come from?"

"Second one."

Explains the sweat. "Alright. Thanks."

I start to walk again, except I quickly become aware of the fact that he's following me. I don't turn around, just talk without looking. "Weren't you going the opposite way?"

I glance at him, and an unreadable look paces over his face. I think he's...confused? But that doesn't make sense. He's the one following me.

"Well..." He trails off and I stop to look at him. 

"Well what?"