There is a collective sigh of relief—mine included—and even a few chuckles from some of the others. I’m not sure why Ella threw me a bone just now, but I appreciate it.
Coach Trish looks back and forth between us. “If you’re sure.”
Ella lifts one of her shoulders. “How bad can it be?”
Oh, I don’t know. Bad?
I’m about to buddy run with my nemesis, and I just joked about killing her. If anything happens to her, even by accident, I’m screwed. I try to swallow, but my throat is too dry.
After warm ups and some quick stretching, the rest of the team takes off. Coach Trish is in the rear to make sure she’s available if someone twists an ankle or has some other issue that requires her attention. That leaves Ella and I alone.
She pushes her shoulders back. “Should I be worried about going missing?”
“I don’t know. Are you tangled up with some drug lordsthat you owe a lot of money to? Do you believe aliens abduct people in their sleep?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m talking about our run. Should I bring my pepper spray? Or can you refrain from killing me and hiding the body in the bushes?”
“The bushes?” I put a hand to my chest. “We both know I’m too smart to leave you there. I’d drop your body at the nature preserve so a gator could eat the evidence.”
Her blue eyes dance. “Maybe I’d get lucky, and it would eat you instead.”
“Or we both die together in some tragic accident. Like Romeo and Juliet.”
She puts her fist to her mouth and makes a gagging noise. Then she swallows. “Sorry. I just threw up in my mouth a little. Please don’t ever compare us to star-crossed lovers again.”
The idea of anything romantic with Ella makes me nauseous, too, but I can’t let her know I actually agree. Instead, I decide I want to see how much I can bother her. I waggle my brows. “Don’t act like you haven’t ever considered what it would be like to date me.”
“Only in my darkest of nightmares. But then I wake up and remember that it won’t happen, and everything is bright again. Despite the way the rest of the female student body behaves, you’re not as great as you think you are.” She pushes past me and walks in the direction of the rest of the team.
Ouch.
I don’t care that she’s not attracted to me. But what does she mean that I’m not as great as I think I am? What exactly is wrong with me?
My features fall into place just as she turns back at me. ”Are you ready to get this over with? Or do you want to prolong this as long as possible by hanging out at school?”
“Trust me, I don’t want to spend any more time with you than I have to.” I walk toward her. “But you know you have to do this every day for the next few months. It’s not a one-and-done kind of deal. You could back out now, and then we’d never have to spend time with each other outside the classroom again.”
Sarah will be pissed if she finds out that I talked Ella out of cross country when she so desperately wants another girl on the team, but there are plenty of other girls at Citrus Prep that can fill this space. If all she cares about is them crossing the finish line, I’ll find someone else—someone else who isn’t Ella Adams.
She keeps walking. “I’m not quitting, and you know why. So either help me with the route or leave me alone.”
I want to leave her alone, but I can’t do that without disappointing Coach. So, I simply say, “Let’s go.”
We’re onlyabout a half of a mile into the run, barely enough distance to warm up our muscles, when she stops.Her face is beet-red as she gulps at the air like a fish out of water. I almost feel bad for her until I remind myself she’s only here because she thinks it’s a way to steal the scholarship from me. If she were any other runner, any other person, I would be speaking encouraging words to her. But seeing that the person standing before me is my biggest rival, I don’t tell her that she should walk around a bit while she catches her breath or that it’s hard for everyone when they first start running. Or that I could barely run a lap around the track when I first joined, and that it gets easier.
Instead, I sigh impatiently. “Can we at least walk if you’re not even going to try to run?”
Her eyes narrow as she pushes stray hairs back off her temples. “I bet you’re loving this.”
“Is my joy that obvious?” I say, deadpan, then point to the road we were running on. “Now walk.”
“No.” She crosses her arms.
“No?” My brows lower. “You don’t get to say no.”
She lifts her chin. “Well, you don’t get me to tell me what to do.”
I roll my shoulders and try to ease the tension. “So you’re just going to stand here all night because you don’t want to listen to me? Really brilliant move.”
