Kiss Or Miss - The Adventures Of Johnny Applebee

The Ace Of Spades

Chapter 2-

~The Ace Of Spades~

"Let's go, Johnson. Let's go. Come on. Let's push push push push!" I heard coach Carl's loud voice echo throughout the large gymnasium two feet away from me, egging me on as he clapped his hands in synchronization with his words. I gave a moan of pain as I felt the all too familiar burning sensation I felt every Wednesday when I did the reps of my core strengthening routine. The pain traveled through my lower abdomen & up to my chest as I slowly lifted my pointed toed legs with knees firmly planted together in perfect form as far up as I could go while keeping my back straight as I held the position there for two whole seconds while my arms reached up above me, clasping onto to the bar over my head & holding my entire body weight up three feet above the ground. I then released the position allowing my legs to slowly come down, not once breaking the form as I was trained to do. "Last one, You've got this. Let's go. Push." He said even louder. I sealed my eyes shut, tightly, as I gave one final rep of the routine and exhaled in relief from being able to let go of the form, entirely, as I released my grip from the acro-pole above me and landed straight onto the ground on my two bare feet. Exhausted & sweaty, I noticed Kieran smile at me from my prefferal vision as I tried to catch my breath & walked up to me, wrapping his arm around my bare shoulders.

"Nice try." He giggled, playfully, referring to the 50 rep record he held of the excersize. His thin frame and long flowing hair made him look almost like an identical twin as me, only his Colombian heritage made his hair a deep chocolate brown in contrast to my own with a set of large Licorice colored black eyes. I rolled my eyes at his statement. We always challenged each other on who could accomplish the most repetitions of our abdomen routine. We both dreaded it the most out of any of our strength building regimens. That was our way of making it fun. We always made things fun. It didn't matter what he did. It didn't matter what I did. It didn't matter where we were. He had been my best friend since the day I very first met him when my father brought me to the gymnasium for the first time when I was 8 years old. That was the day I violently hit my head on the Olympic trainer's balance beam which was restricted from our use due to our height and age class, yet, I did so without any nearby supervision, out of curiosity. He was the first one who ran up to me and asked me if I was okay when I was crying on the floor and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tried to comfort me. He was the one who called for help when he noticed blood escaping my little fingers which were holding the spot where I had, unknowingly, cracked my skull open. He was the one who whispered into my ear and tried calm me down and make me feel better as he rubbed my back softly. He was the one who's shoulder I cried on, last, when I said goodbye to him for the final time on my old Denver driveway on Maple Ave. on August 12th. Only, that time, it was my arm around his shoulder.

"Well?" I heard, making my brain snap from the fog it had been in from replaying the memories of earlier this year while I stood with both of my hands on Nelly's countertop to prop myself up as I stared into nothingness. I didn't even realize anyone was talking to me.

"What?" I asked him, realizing he had asked me a question.

"I said, do you want something while you're here?" the Salem kid repeated. He wasn't really annoyed, but, he put an emphasis on his words in the same way someone would if they were repeating themselves for no reason at all because the other person wasn't listening. And, I guess that's, exactly, what was on his mind at the moment.

After giving a small scowl at my previous thoughts to the side for a moment, I then turned to him and replied, "Uhm, no. This was it-this was it, thanks." I said putting my wallet in my jeans back pocket and I smiled at him. I really was grateful he held on to it for me.

Believe it or not, he actually grinned at me. "Yeah, no problem." I saw him, instantly, look up from me to the front door of the place as I heard the jingle bells on the top of the glass door ring as someone came in.