Love Me on Valentine's Day || ✔️

1.9 // riley's race

1 . 9 / / r i l e y ' s r a c e

Grade Ten // Age 16

ALEXANDRIA ALWAYS loved track meets. It was the only sport she did, except for cross country. But unlike the latter, this was more competitive, adding a certain kick to the races. Alexandria did the 100m, and after finishing first and qualifying for the semi-finals, she was taking a break at her school's tent.

The day was chilly, as she often found the case during track meet days. It seemed that the coordinators purposefully picked the one day it was going to rain in a week of sunshine. But Alexandria wasn't necessarily complaining. It was better to put on a windbreaker than to melt underneath the killer summer sun.

"Alex!" Sara, Alex's long time friend called. "Do you want to watch Riley's final?"

Riley Ferguson was a track star, the best boys 200m runner in years. Watching him run was a pleasure to any track athlete, and they always tried to make time to see him.

Alex nodded and walked with Sara to where the race was. Already, there was most of their school's team, and the other teams with athletes competing. Alex took a spot squished between two from another school, trying to get a good look at Riley. Alex felt the familiar pumping of her heart, the tingling in her legs as she did before every race—whether she was a part of it or not. She rubbed her hands together, shouting a, "Go Riley!" as the race started.

The boys flew, their legs and arms pumping faster and faster. Alexandria felt a rush of wind as they passed where she was standing. She clapped her hands and shouted encouragement to her teammate. But in a few moments, the words died in her mouth.

Riley fell.

Everyone was silent, except for the sound of runny shoes slapping the track as the other competitors finished the race. For a moment, it seemed as if everyone had frozen. But then one of their team's coaches rushed to Riley, knelt beside him and yelled for a paramedic. That broke the spell around people, and they started gathering closer to Riley. Alex was rooted to her spot. She had never expected something like this to happen, and she knew what Riley must be felling.

Humiliation. Anger. Regret. Pain.

Sara came up to her friend, and nudged her to get her attention. "Crazy, right?" Alex was barely able to nod. "I can't believe it. I hope he's okay." Alex nodded again. She was now incapable to speech.

The two girls stood like that for a moment until a shout from Riley sounded, "Back off!" The sound of his shout finally moved Alexandria from her frozen state. She chastised herself for being so affected by this all. She barely knew the guy—have barely spoken ten sentences to him.

So why was she going towards him now, thinking she might be able to help him?

Riley was lying on the track, his leg bent at an unnatural angle. His hands were in fists, and he was glaring at the coach he just yelled at. Riley tried to move his leg away, but hissed in pain as soon as he tried to move. "You shouldn't move," Alexandria blurted out. Several people turned their attention on her. Riley was glaring at her, but with significantly less heat from the glare he directed to the coach.

"You think?"

Alexandria shrugged, taking a step closer. "You think it's broken?"

Slowly, Riley stopped looking like he wished to murder them all and nodded. His dark skin was slicked with sweat, the beads glittering in the sun along his forehead. He ran a hand down his face, "I think so."

"It's not the end of the world, then. You can still come back and race."

"But not this season. I blew my chance. I was supposed to have this ready to show universities next year," he waved a hand towards the other side of the track, where the finishing line was.

"Everyone knows you would have won that race," Alexandria said. She was now crouching beside him. "And plus, your times are incredible. Universities will look at that, not the fact that by an act of God, you fell and broke your leg."

Riley stared at her for a long moment. He had really nice eyes, Alex thought then. She was not blind, she knew he was hot, to put it mildly. He was near perfect, even her over-protective parents would approve of him. But he was older, he was thinking about universities already.

And she didn't really feel for him like that.

For the longest time Alexandria had tried to quell down any feelings she might have had for boys. Her parents didn't allow her to start dating until she was sixteen. To save herself from heartbreak, she tried not to feel. If they didn't exist, they couldn't hurt her, right?

But she was afraid that all this dampening of her feelings rendered her incapable of feeling anything for anyone anymore. It was unrealistic, she knew. But at moments when she had someone like Riley look at her like she was a star—something beautiful and fascinating—she asked herself what was wrong with her. Other girls would have already felt their heart speed up.

Not her.

Riley didn't get to answer her. The paramedics came and took him away to the hospital, and Alexandria went on to place second during semi-finals and the finals. A silver medal was placed around her neck, and she grinned, shaking hands and replying to congratulations. After everything was done for the day, the team went to visit Riley at the hospital. He fractured his ankle, but he should be back to his former glory long before next season.

Riley sought out Alexandria, and thanked her for staying beside him. He asked after her races, and congratulated her on her wins. From that moment, the two became friendlier to each other. Alexandria never felt more for him than what friends would feel for each other. All the while, she did suspect that he felt more for her, but he never acted on his feelings. Alex was perfectly content to ignore the way he looked at her sometimes, like he did that day on the track. Like she was worth knowing and understanding. Like he wanted to know everything about her, from the most trivial things to what she truly desired. She chalked up the subtle ways he touched her as accidents.

It became more uncomfortable as he started touching her more, laughing loudly at all her jokes no matter how bad they were, texting her constantly, wanting to hang out with her, finding ways to be alone with her . . . But she couldn't stop him. It wasn't like he was doing anything bad. He liked her, and even though she never did anything to show that she returned those feelings, she didn't stop him. She didn't tell him to stop, that she felt uncomfortable. She probably should have, but every time she tried to talk to him she doubted herself. What if she have misread the situation and he was only being friendly? What if all those movies and shows she watched made her see more to his actions than there are? The thoughts swirled in her head and refused to let her speak to him. And so she stayed silent and let him continue, convincing herself it was only friendly.

But the Invite proved her wrong. He had acted on his feelings, and now Alex had to reply to him. She knew she was being a little harsh when she wrote out her reply, but she had gotten through five replies already, and each one was from a person she helped to be nice. They all misinterpreted her intentions and were now asking her on dates. Why is it that being nice suddenly meant liking someone? Alex was fed up with this. She didn't owe anyone anything, least of all her time and heart.

She sat on her desk at home, a pen in her hand and angry thoughts fuelling her hand as it moved the pen across the page with her response.

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Hi everyone! What do you think of this chapter?

I rewrote this chapter several times but I'm finally happy with how it is. There's a little more of Present Day Alexandria at the end and how she's feeling. I really wanted to show her frustration and the situation with Riley.

If you find yourself in a situation where you're getting unwanted attention, you should try and stop it. You don't owe anyone anything, least of all your heart and attention. If they can't take a hint, slam it in their faces. And of course, stay safe.

See you next chapter,
Sage