Chapter 1
The days after the incident at the warehouse turned into weeks, and the weeks slowly melted into months. So far, Annie hadn’t heard a thing from them. Through some accidental luck, her mother had gotten her cell phone number changed. No more threats, no more promises in her inbox. She just needed to keep avoiding them. That was becoming harder and harder though. Juan and Jeff were both on the track team, and coach had made it mandatory for her to go to practice. But they were seniors… it was almost over. And it couldn’t end soon enough.
The way Juan looked at her sometimes warned her that she had better not go anywhere alone. Or at least anywhere that he might be able to follow her to. Luke… he was gone now, out of the picture, and the guys seemed to know it. There was no more threat of him getting his posse to take them out. But they didn’t let on. They kept up the act. They didn’t act like they knew her, but they did find ways to talk to her. It was just small talk, yet it made her uncomfortable and they knew it.
Nevertheless, everything was good, so far.
Annie sat up, looking around frantically, knowing she’d just had a horrible dream but not remembering any of it. She looked at the clock. 3:15. She hushed her urge to curse. That was a road she didn’t want to go down again. She was just tired, it was Saturday, the day of the classic, and she had to run in the meet. She tried to go back to sleep but gave up. It was late April, one month ‘til the end of school, and such a short time since James, since the competition in Chattanooga
“One mile…6 flat. Two mile…13-anything…” She said it to the air as she pulled her rebelling body out of bed and started to do her morning stretches.
“Goodness.” She grunted, “? Are you serious?” She stretched longer than usual, hoping a wave of exhaustion would come over her so she could go back to sleep, but it didn’t. She finished her stretches, and then sat on the messy floor, relaxed. She started thinking, the thoughts racing in her mind so fast she wasn’t sure what they were about, but eventually they settled on one medium: Luke…and before she even realized that she was thinking about him, tears cascaded down her face.
“Why won’t he just leave me alone?” She let the tears fall for a moment, and then she started counting.
At 7:30, she got in the van, her tired mom locking the door and lighting up a cigarette. Come on… She thought I gotta be there like now. A quick eyeroll escaped her and then she put a cap on her emotions. Her mom got in slowly and started the car. “What’s wrong?” she asked, as if reading Annie’s mind. Everything. “Nothing, just nervous mom.” Her mom pulled out of the driveway and drove her to the school.
Cass was waiting at the gates. “Annie! Two mile’s at 9!” Annie checked her watch, it was 7:45, she didn’t have much time. “Gotcha.” She says, she looked back at her mom. “Love ya mom.” Her mom smiled, a tired and sad smile, “Good luck Annie.” She called before driving off.
“What do we have to do?” Annie asked, suppressing a yawn. Cass rolled her eyes. “Same as always.” Annie nodded. Check in, Warm up, Stretch, and Run.
At the first call for the two mile, Annie nervously went to get her number. 13. Ugh…not again. She once again had to bite back a curse. They always seeded her too low, but there wasn’t anything she could do. All the spectators were lining up on the fence to watch the start. Cass’s mom stood up on the bleachers and yelled out some encouragement that was instantly lost on the air. Second call. Annie nervously started doing some drills, then moved into the starting lanes when Cass motioned to her.
Cass will get second, Kelly will get first…I will, man I just have to run. Juan turned to look at her from where he was standing by the fence as they placed Annie into her lane. Their eyes met, he smiled, and her heart stopped all in the same moment. Memories were threatening to flood her mind.
His hands on her arms, pulling, hurting… she blinked.
He wasn’t looking anymore. He was watching the triple jumpers. “Good” She said under her breath, and then she decided she better pray. “Lord, let me do well today. Please God let me run well.” She heard the two-part start being called and she pushed her nerves away. Wait…wait for the gun…
Snap
She leapt out with a fast start, kicked it to be behind Cass, and stayed there for the first lap. Second lap. She looked up. She had pulled a 3:05 for the 800. She saw Juan smiling from the fence, he was with Jeff. They both were watching and cheering her on.
He wants to kill me. The thought came to her, quite suddenly. She started to run faster, as if she was trying to run from it. She disappeared into her own world, trying hard not to remember.
Two more laps. 6:25. That was a fast mile…gotta run faster—holy heck I’m in 3rd…
Juan was yelling her name, cheering so loudly it almost seemed as if he genuinely cared. “How can he even pretend?” She asked herself in short, ragged breaths. She only had one lap to go and was still in third place. She ran it hard, kicked the last 200 at full sprint, and then looked at the clock. She had run a 13:48.
PR’d, not bad. She thought as she broke into violent, racking coughs and blacked out at the finish.
“Mark…why can’t…why can’t you just tell Richard. I hate hiding that we are kind of together.” I looked right into his eyes when I said that. He had such beautiful brown eyes.
“Richard doesn’t have to know.” He said. “I don’t want him to.”
“Okay, so where are we going?” I asked, changing the subject. My own curiosity got the best of me.
“Annie,” he said kind of low and fast, “you remember what I told you? All of those things that I did?” I nodded. “Well there’s only two ways to keep you safe from it, either keep you out of it and away from me or drag you right into the goddam middle” I flinched. He knew I didn’t like it when he cursed.
“You’ll have to get used to that. The guys do it a lot more. And you said you wanted to be a part of my life. Right?” he asked it frantically, as if I would say no.
“Right.”
“Well then, now you can be.”
Slightly perplexed I followed him. It’s just that way with Mark, wherever he went, I followed. Except, maybe I shouldn’t have trusted him, at least not in this. He led me down the train tracks, over by the river, into the empty warehouse next to the freight yard loaded with bricks. I followed him, I trusted him.
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