Breathless: Emily's Story

Chapter 2

September 11- Emily

I jog up the driveway and the three steps to the Byrne's front door. I ring the doorbell and wait a couple moments before I hear footsteps coming from the back of the house, or maybe the stairs.

The door slowly opens, until I see a half awake Avalon standing in the doorway.

"Uh?" She greets, and I smile pulling the bullhorn out of my pocket, pressing the button on the top of the can. She jumps like a few feet up and stumbles backward. "What the fuck?" She looks up at me, fully awake now.

"Sorry, I use it for practices. I got excited to use it only on one person. Probably shouldn't have been a person who was more asleep than awake"

"No shit" She answers, standing. "Wait here while I go get my running stuff on" She lets me inside, closing the front door behind me. She jogs up the steps to get dressed, and I just look around at the house. And aside from the occasional box here and there, thy looked like they lived there for awhile.

"Ready?" I call up the steps as she jogs down them. She nods. "Lets do it then!" I say clapping, as she raises her hand, letting me know that was too loud as well.

After making Avalon do a random amount of different work outs then run with me and then make her do the same random odd amount of works outs, I make her do 100 sit ups at the park. I jog in place for a moment before Grace runs up to us.

"Hey, Emily, already training another freshman for cheer squad?" I look over to her, smiling.

"Uh, yeah, but I don't think she's a freshman"

"I'm a sophomore" Avalon answers from the ground, where she sits out of breath and red faced.

"Wow," She remarks. "Then you should definitely feel special" I roll my eyes.

"Why's that?" Avalon asks, getting more of a control over her breathing.

"Emily only trains one freshman a year and she doesn't waste her time on sophomores. She never has, but she's doing something different for you" Grace explains, squeezing my arm before she walks back to the huddle of girls she'd been talking to. I momentarily look back at Avalon, still sitting on the ground, but her eyes were on Grace. I turn, following her eyes and see Josh, waving at me. He was my friend from the football team. We flirted but we both mutually would never want each other.

I smile as he notices me. He waves, and I wave back, blowing him a kiss. Mentally rolling my eyes at myself. He was probably the only one, other than my cousin, that knew I wasn't really the type of girl to blow a kiss in a serious way, so I did those types of things to him as a joke.

"Now," I begin, snapping out of my trance. "We do yoga"

"Yoga?" Avalon asks, staring at the sky. I smile, grabbing both of her arms, pulling her to her feet. And damn, I had to admit she was really fucking light. "Why yoga?" She squints her eyes at me now.

"It helps us stretch before I begin to teach you some routines"

"Blah, do I have to?"

"Blah?" I smile, asking as she shrugs.

"I guess It's something I picked up from my mom" She shrugs, and I frown, thinking of my mom. I didn't truly forgive my mother for leaving me. If she hadn't died then I wouldn't have to live off of these rare nights that my father was sober. I wouldn't have to protect my baby brother. I wouldn't have to feel alone or afraid to let anyone love me.

"Let's do this yoga, what are the poses?" Avalon says, obviously noticing that I'd blanked out, momentarily. I slowly climb out of the hole I'd dug myself into once again. I was afraid one day, I wouldn't be able to climb back out.

I smile, forcing everything away.

"The first pose is called Pouncing Panther"