Cold

5 - Cold Excitement

 Ezra sat on his front porch swing, letting the light breeze push him. Julia had seen that a goat yoga class was opening up. He figured it would be a perfect opportunity to work out. In his lap was a small piece of paper that had hours from 12 am Wednesday to 12 am Thursday written out. He crossed out "3 pm" as he watched his phone turn to four.

53 hours in. I'm over two whole days. After this, it'll be 56 hours in. Then I'll come home and say Julia and I got something to eat afterward and I'll go to bed and tomorrow morning I'll be 66 hours in. This is crazy I'm going to go all the way.

Julia's car pulled up at the end of the driveway, beeping her horn twice before realizing Ezra was already outside. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and jogged a little over to her car. She clapped her hands with a huge smile on her face as he got in the car. Her hair was tied up but a lot of hair still hung around her face.

"Are you excited?" Julia asked as she bounced in her seat, hands gripping the wheel tightly.

"Heck yeah, I am!" Ezra put his bag in between his feet which bounced in equal excitement.

"You look nice, very athletic," Julia eyed his black running pants and polyester Julia started driving and he plugged in their favorite playlist. The two screamed every word of every song on the way. They even recited some of the ads they had heard so many times before. The parking lot came into sight and they could already see people set up on yoga mats and baby goats walking around within the area.

"Oh my goodness look at the little goat baby boys! Look at them go, they're so precious look at 'em!" She squealed as she got out of the car as fast as possible. They both ran over to the fence in which the goats and yoga resided. Julia didn't bother with the gate door and just hopped over it. Ezra laughed heartily, watching Julia drop to her knees and hold out her arms just for a baby goat to go running into them. He walked in through the gate and crouched down next to Julia to pet the goat. The two of them fawned over the little goat until another head-butted Ezra's back.

"Woah there buddy!" He fell forward off his toes, leaning into Julia as he exaggerated his fall. The rowdy goat brought up his front legs and landed back down, playful prancing around, ready to play. "You're gonna be a handful during yoga aren't ya?" He chuckled and batted at the goat's ears, petting them roughly.

"Ezra, he's not a dog," Julia said as the goat she held nuzzled her face.

"Then he better stop acting like one!" He said, falling onto his back and letting the goat jump all over him.

"Oh look they have names! Mine's is Margaret."

"Mine's is... Dennis! Dennis the menace is more like it," Ezra laughed as he rubbed Dennis' face between his hands. "'Margaret's house? I didn't do anything bad enough to deserve to go to her house! She's a lunatic, I'll go crazy. She tortures me! She's mean, she's ugly, she doesn't share!'" He talked in a nasally voice to mimic their favorite movie. Julia laughed so hard she had to clutch at her sides.

"'I could pound your face!'" She moved Margaret around as if she were the one talking. They laughed so hard no one could hear them but just see two teenagers rolling around in the grass. An instructor stood over them and cleared her throat.

"I hate to interrupt of course but the class is just about to start," She said cheerfully. Honestly, he didn't expect any other type of employee. They did yoga around goats all day. They got up and walked over to the lead instructor to give her their money before laying out their mats. Ezra looked around at everyone else who was there.

It was all girls, varying ages but none of them were teenagers. He watched them all get ready as the instructors call everyone together. That woman has such a flat stomach. Her waist is so small. She's wearing a sports jacket and I can still see exactly how skinny she is. She's perfect. Her wrists are so elegant. I can see the bones move. She has a thigh gap. Her legs don't look anything like mine. How are her leggings so smooth against them and not jutting out at each of her bones? I bet all she does is exercise and fast. There's no other way she could look so smooth and skinny right?

He snapped out of his envious trance when Dennis head-butted him again in his leg. He laughed and looked to Julia but she was glaring at him. She looked from him to the woman he had been watching and went back to stretching on her mat. Ezra's face twisted in confusion. Why should she care who I'm looking at? Sure she's like 20 but she loves Declan Mckenna and he's 20. I don't even like that woman anyways. He sat down on his mat and folded his legs like everyone else. He pulled at his sweatshirt so that it wasn't bunched up by his stomach. No matter how hard he tried it just wouldn't sit right. He was covered in rolls. Just focus on the moves.

Dolphin plank pose. Dolphin pose. Downward-facing dog. Four-limbed staff pose. Plank pose. Side plank pose. Upward plank pose. Come on, suck in my gut. Upward bow pose. The class went on just like that. Over and over again. Relentless. Of course, Dennis had no plans to take it easy on Ezra. He head-butted to his heart's content and stood on top of him for every plank. Eventually though, the class came to an end. As everyone was packing up their things he caught one last look at the skinny woman. Halfway through the class she took off her jacket and just had a tight tank top. Proving to everyone that she wasn't concealing any type of waist trainer.

"Why don't you just ask for her number already?" Julia said. "I'm sure she'd love some 17-year-old chasing after her." She stood with her arms crossed waiting for Ezra to pack up his things.

"I don't want her number. She wouldn't even be my type anyway." Ezra rolled his eyes as he threw on his backpack. "And remind me why you should care anyways?" Julia narrowed her eyes at him but she remained silent and left to the car.

The ride home was silent too. Nobody talked, nobody played music. Julia pulled up in front of his house and didn't even put it in park like she usually did. He didn't expect her to talk to him anyway, he probably would have been shocked if she did. The door shut behind him and she drove away without a single word. I was just looking at the woman and I told her I didn't like her so it's not like I'm keeping any secrets.

He went right upstairs to his room, briefly explaining to his mom that he ate with Julia. Ezra pulled out the red notebook and updated his completed hours. I can't believe I'm at 56 and tomorrow morning it will be 66 and tomorrow night this time it will be 80! I knew I had self-control. He hopped into the bathroom to shower before bed. He got undressed and was ready to go straight into the shower when the scale caught his eye. He couldn't help but to step on and just take a peek at his progress so far. 125? For real? That's crazy! Ezra stepped off and jumped around in a circle giddily. He was smiling bigger than ever until he saw a glimpse of himself in the mirror. A fat bouncing mess as he saw it. His excitement plummeted and he stopped cold. Staring at his body in the mirror.