"Come on," I puff. "Come on, you got this."
The weights feel a hundred pounds heavier than usual. My biceps are bulging, and I'm sweating like a pig, only been in here thirty minutes.
This is this last time I take this long of a break. I haven't been in here in over a month.
With another grunt and final push I get the bar fully extended and slowly lower it back down, setting it in place.
"Shit," I huff exasperated.
I duck from under the bar and sit there panting. That was only twenty, normally I can push out fifty before breaking a decent sweat.
Damn that's frustrating. I go to reach for the bar again and my bicep ripples in agony.
I groan getting short with myself and jump to my feet.
"Fuck this, I'm going on a run," I mutter to myself.
I snatch up my hand towel, water bottle and secure my phone into my arm sleeve. Hurrying down the stairs, I glance at the clock; it's almost noon.
Malina should be close to getting home by the time I'm done.
I step outside into my backyard and the wind kicks up, blowing leaves and swaying trees.
In go my earbuds and off go my feet and I jog into the trees.
●●●
Malina
Today was a breeze. I was finished with my second final and done with school for the day before I would've gone to lunch on a normal day at 12:00. I feel pretty good about it. I'm glad I went to the group study last week, Sabrina, the red head brought up a lot of stuff I didnt think to touch up on and a couple of those things were on the test.
Now I'm at Target getting groceries. All I have left to get are the carrots and potatoes. I push my buggy, weaving around the stragglers and as I go around the corner, I almost slam my cart into someone else's. I step back with my cart to let them go by and my heart drops.
"Malina?"
Dwayne, the boy whose feelings I spit on and stomped all over
"H- hey," I push out and force myself to breathe.
He looks taller than I remember, or maybe I feel smaller.
"How have you been?" He asks, bright teeth pulled into a small smile.
"I'm good, I'm good, how are you?"
He nods, "I'm pretty good, thanks... I'm glad to see you, you look really great."
My hand goes to tuck loose hairs behind my ear as I blush.
"Thank you, you too... Hey, I've been wanting to say, I'm sorry about how everything turned out."
Dwayne shakes his head, "I mean I guess I was in the wrong, the way we got caught like that. But I aint gone lie, getting choke-slammed like that had me on edge a while," he chuckles.
I push out a laugh, but I still feel horrible about it, my hand goes to my ponytail, fidgeting again.
"Nah but," he adds. "I just wish you got back to me at some point. I was worried about you."
"Yeah I'm sorry about that too, I honestly just didn't know what to say and I felt like shit."
He nods, his brown eyes hold mine for a second then he asks about Adeen.
"So what's up with your stepdad, or whatever? He don't hit you right?"
"No he doesn't," I reply quickly. "And not that it really matters, he's my brother-in-law," I add.
"Mm, my b-"
"Dwayne, there you are! I thought we said we'd meet in aisle eight."
Approaching Dwayne's buggy is a short dark skinned girl with afro puffs in her hair. She pouts her glossed lips at him as she puts a bag of rice and a pineapple in the cart.
"I'm sorry," Dwayne says and waves a hand in my direction. "I just ran into a friend."
The girl turns to me, I expect her to be mean mugging but instead she shyly smiles.
"Hello," she says softly.
Dwayne jumps in, "Charlotte, this is Malina, Malina, Charlotte, my girlfriend."
My heart pangs, the girl extends a hand and with an arm feeling like jelly, I shake hands with her and let it flop back to my side.
"Nice to meet you," she says.
"You too," I add. Then I look at Dwayne, "well I should get going, nice to see you again."
He smiles a big one, "you too. Maybe we can get together sometime, Charlotte's dad runs the bowling alley downtown. We could all go after hours and only embarrass ourselves in front of each other."
"That sounds like fun, I'll uh, hit you up about that."
He nods, I give them both a final wave then push my cart as fast as I can get through every one else.
Author's Note
Sunshine Kisses is a new story I've published today. Please feel free to check it out:
https://www.wattpad.com/676302585
YOU ARE READING
Dabbling in Danger
RomanceHe straightens his posture, his tone is even, voice calm and his eyes soften. "If," he raises a finger at me, slows his speech slightly and enunciates more. "I recieve more than a little trouble from you. I will, give you what you deserve. That is m...
