FIVE
“So, listen,” Janine says, her mouth half-full of turkey panini. We end up grabbing lunch at Tropical Smoothie. “Melanie has two girls who she considers her very best friends, and that’s Katie and Christa. Katie is the one I room with.” She chews some more, then swallows. “She jokingly told me that some frat guys call them the Triple Threat Girls, as if it’s a good thing. I think it’s just code for being called a group of sluts.”
“Damn. Doesn’t surprise me at all,” Kendall garbles around a mouthful of her sandwich.
“She was definitely flirting with Torres today too.” Janine pops a baked potato chip into her mouth. “I mean he is hot and all, but I’m not about to throw myself at the man like she does. It’s embarrassing, and truthfully, that wasn’t her first time doing it.”
“It wasn’t?” I ask.
“No—and I don’t get why she bothers. It’s not like he can be with any of us. He’d be so fired!” says Janine. “I just don’t get why anyone wants to waste their time flirting with an asshole like him. He has such an…unpleasant personality.”
“You don’t think it’s just for show? Like maybe he’s actually nice but he pretends to be an asshole so the team knows their place?”
Janine scoffs. “No. He’s just a natural born dick.”
Kendall chokes on her drink and Janine pats her on the back with a laugh. “And to think we’re going to have to deal with him for the next four years,” Kendall muses, side-eyeing me after she’s finally cleared herself up.
I sip my drink. “I hope he’s not so bad when it comes to practicing and training.”
“Are you kidding?” Janine’s voice is incredulous. “Torres is vicious. He doesn’t care if you’re tired, if you’re sore, if you didn’t get enough sleep the night before, if you had an important paper to turn in before midnight, he will be on your ass the whole time. And if you fuck up, or your time comes up shorter than the last on his stop watch, he makes you do everything all over again—multiple times. It’s never happened to me, but I’ve been a witness to his harshness. One of the girls switched schools because she couldn’t handle it.”
I stop chewing when she states her last three sentences. That sounds way too familiar to me. I swallow.
“Well, he won’t have to worry about that with any of us.” Kendall picks up her Gatorade. “I looked you up, Rose. Read your stats. You’re great in cross country. And little Miss Lakes over here with the wild hair like Alicia Keys circa 2016 is a damn beast! He won’t have any issues with us.”
I nearly spit my water. “Alicia Keys circa 2016? Why have I never thought of that?”
“Only reason I said that is ‘cause I’m a big Alicia fan.” Kendall smiles proudly at me.
I start to say something about one of Alicia Keys’ songs, but the bell above the door rings and the person coming inside catches my tongue.
Kendall and Janine notice me staring and turn to look over their shoulders to see who the person is.
Speak of the devil…
It’s Torres.
He strolls through the restaurant and makes his way to the register, not even paying attention to us in our booth in the corner. After he’s ordered and paid, he plucks a red apple from the fruit basket and then turns, looking right at the three of us.
So, he did notice us. Apparently, he just didn’t care to acknowledge us right away.
“Bet you three don’t know the team is meeting up next week, do you?” he asks.
“Meeting up for what?” I inquire.
“Per Hamilton’s instructions, the team is supposed to meet at the track for a relay race.”
“A relay race?” I scoff. “Is this a joke? Not everyone on the team is meant to run in relays.”
“I assure you it’s not a joke. You’d know if you hadn’t run off so quickly from the meeting to stuff your faces with sandwiches and smoothies.”
“See?” Janine mutters under her breath. “Natural born dick.”
I frown. “A relay seems like a waste of time.”
“There’s a reason we asked about your skills today, as well as what you think you can bring to the team. You mentioned something along the lines of motivation, didn’t you, Lakes? Well, we’re going to see if you live up to those skills you told us all about, and how motivated you can be for your team…even for the people who, like you said, aren’t meant to run in relay races.”
“Torres?” One of the employees calls his name from behind the counter.
Torres turns to grab his food and smoothie, then he looks directly at me and says, “You talk a big game, Lakes. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’re about next week.”
And then he’s gone.
And for some reason, my heart is beating much faster than it was before he walked into the restaurant.