“You did it,” he said in my ear.
“We did it.”
“No.” He pulled back and looked at me. “This was you. I just ran next to you.”
The family swarmedpast the finisher’s chute. Micah crashed into me, foil blanket and all. Everyone gave us hugs and congratulations one by one, telling us how proud they were.
“I gotta say, y’all looked too damn cute running together. I was likeawww,” Taryn gushed. “Almost shed a tear.”
“Right? Adorable. I loved it!” Simone agreed.
Zion turned up with two bottles of chocolate milk, as Tre read his phone. “Four thirty-seven. That’s pretty good for a first marathon, Alyssa!” Then he grinned at Julian. “What about your time, though? That’s gotta be your worst one ever.”
Everybody looked at Julian.
“Best race I’ve ever run,” he said.
“How you figure that?”
“It wasn’t about my time.” He had an arm around me. “It was about hers.”
The adrenaline was already going out of me and my legs werestarting to seize where I stood. We made it halfway to the car when Julian noticed and picked me up, foil and all.
“Put me down, I’m disgusting!”
“You ran twenty-six point two miles. You’re not walking another foot.”
I stopped arguing and put my arms around his neck and let him carry me. A year ago I probably would have insisted I was fine, and crawled to the car. I nuzzled my head into his neck and exhaled, then kissed the side of his neck.
“Julian. I’ll never forget this day.”
“Me neither,” he said as he lowered me into the passenger seat and buckled me in.
39/
come yourself
alyssa
Sunday dinnersat Simone and Raschad's had become a thing I looked forward to.
Their Uncle Reggie was there that night, but unusually quiet, picking at his plate while the rest of us argued about Tre's latest Midnight Mic session, the stripped-down thing he did online, just him and a guitar, live for his followers. He'd previewed a new one Friday night, and the internet had not recovered.
“It's alove song,” Tre insisted.
“It is not a love song.” Taryn had her phone out. “You wrote a whole ballad about a woman with ugly feet. Chorus and everything.”
“Atastefulballad.”
“You rhymed 'sandals' with 'that ain't it, cancel.'” Zion was already wheezing. “In your Marvin Gaye voice. Like that made it any better.”
“Art mimics truth, what can I say?” Tre spread his hands, dead serious. “She was a beautiful woman. I'm just saying: you can like a painting and still have questions about the frame. That's a grown man's love song.”
“Over two million views from people watching you serenade-diss that woman's feet, Tre.” Simone shook her head, wiping her eyes.
“Wait, and didn’t she comment? Tellin’ on herself?” I asked, laughing.
“Anddid. She posted, and I quote…” Taryn turned her phone around to the table, “I know you not singing about my toes on the internet.”
