Treadmill

IX.II

Saturday morning came so quickly after Wednesday night that Rebecca was pretty sure the middle two days didn't even happen at all. Three days later and it had officially been a week since she had met the famous—or perhaps infamous—Kennedy Abrams. A week since she had felt like her life was going to change, and she still wasn't sure whether it was for better or for worse.

Rebecca walked onto the treadmill Saturday morning at 10:09 AM, connecting her Bluetooth headphones to her phone before selecting her workout playlist on Spotify. She had found the time in the previous two days to change her entire playlist theme, where she had all of her playlists beginning with the words 'I am.' Her workout playlist was aptly titled, 'I am at the gym.'

She hit shuffle and started the treadmill, slowly at first before jacking up the speed to a 6.3. Her song blasted in her ears, the perfect beat for the speed she had set the treadmill at.

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,

Rebecca wasn't the biggest fan of Eminem as an artist, or rap as a music genre. But there was something about hearing the beat in her ears as her feet hit the conveyor to the same rhythm that felt a different kind of satisfying.

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti,

Rebecca looked up in the mirror across from her and looked at everyone in the gym. She thoroughly enjoyed watching people in the gym; they all seemed to be so enamored with what they were doing. The guys bench pressing more than they should have been, the girls with perfect form who made Rebecca wish she knew how to work out at all besides running on a treadmill and thinking about eating donuts when she was finished.

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready,

She needed a new playlist: 'I am running.' Maybe it would help her feel like she wasn't considering a basic run to be a full workout. Something about that felt like cheating.

To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin',

Rebecca looked in the mirror until she saw a familiar face appear beside her, grinning slightly as she watched the other girl run.

What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes—

Rebecca pulled out her headphones and paused the treadmill, slowing her pace at a reasonable speed so she didn't have a repeat of the Saturday before. She turned to face Kennedy.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Just wanted to make sure you didn't fall off this time." Kennedy laughed as Rebecca rolled her eyes. She turned back to start the treadmill again before Kennedy caught her arm.

"Hold on, I have news." She continued. Rebecca turned back around, her arm tingling where Kennedy had grabbed it. She hadn't seen the blonde the day before, and it seemed like her awe at the girl's ability to be perfect in every aspect of her life was multiplied by that absence.

"News?" Rebecca repeated, "Alright."

Kennedy smiled again, a recognizable excited smile that made Rebecca nervous.

"I'm gonna host a party tonight. I was thinking it would be good to get exposure for the account by just making an offhand comment about it or something, you know? Gain interest."

Rebecca shook her head immediately.

"An 'offhand comment?' What does that even mean? How do you plan to make an offhand comment?" She sighed, "There is absolutely no way to make that seem natural."