Even with my running shoes, the early morning sheet of ice along the roads was making it impossible to run on the cement, so I stuck to the dead, brown grass, which crunched under my feet with every step. Air came out of my mouth in short, hot breaths—the condensation from the cold air leaving vapor trails all around me.
My times were fantastic.
My legs had strengthened, and as I pushed against my thighs, I could feel the ache in the muscles as I propelled myself forward. Down a slight hill then back up again with the evergreens blurring beside me. I ran in quick, steady, monotonous steps.
Toward nothing.
School let out early, and I went to the diner for food with a bunch of guys from the team. I wasn’t in the mood, but Jeremy had been giving me shit about not going out anywhere. I didn’t want to have another conversation about me needing to get laid, so I went with him.
I parked close to the restaurant. I was a little early, and though there were a few people milling about outside, most were just getting there, parking their cars and trying to make snowballs out of the bits of white fluff they scraped off the curbs.
Jeremy called me over to his car and started going on about Rachel being pissed at him about…something. I wasn’t really listening. My attention was diverted by the all-too-familiar sound of an old Hyundai as it chugged into the parking lot.
I only glanced over as she pulled into a spot about five cars away from us. The car revved once before it went silent. I could see her through the slightly fogged window with her phone up to her ear, and I wondered who she might be talking to since everyone from school was pretty much here.
Probably Sophie, and probably about babysitting.
Okay, so my look was more than a glance. I stared at her as she got out of the car and started making her way across the parking lot. She wasn’t looking at me, though, so I kept watching her as my chest tightened up on me.
I wanted to go over to her and hold her arm to help her across the ice.
I wanted to tell her it was all a mistake.
I wanted to just put my arms around her and tell her I was a fucking moron, and I really didn’t think I could survive without her.
I just stood there instead, watching her struggle as she held her hands out for balance, and ignoring Jeremy’s rumbling voice, barely reaching my ears.
“Have you heard a fucking word I’ve said?” he asked.
“Rachel is sick of going to all the action flicks, and you never let her pick the movie,” I said without looking away from her. I didn’t even listen to the words I regurgitated to him.
“Yeah, right. So anyway…”
My eyes moved briefly from Nicole to Clint’s Buick as he pulled into the parking lot going way too fast for the slick roads. With that rear-wheel-drive boat of his he drove, there was no way so much inertia could offset the icy conditions, and he overcompensated and started to skid. The car lurched wildly to the left and then to the right.
Right toward Nicole.
I didn’t think.
I just moved.
The pressure against my thighs as I pushed off from the ground was actually painful. The screeching sound was blaring through my head, but I couldn’t concentrate on that. All I could see was her face, her eyes wide with shock and terror as she stood immobilized and stared at the car skidding sideways toward her.
My strides were true, despite the slick surface. I could see my goal—her beautiful, beautiful face. I leapt forward, arms outstretched, grabbed her right by the head, and pulled her against my chest in the most important save of my life.
We were both flying sideways and then down toward the ground, and I could see the side of the old, red Buick as I brought her body closer to mine, cocooning her in my arms and legs as I braced myself. As the screeching of tires enveloped me from behind, the impact of the steel against my back shoved us both partway underneath another car.
Shakespeare said, “Pain pays the income of each precious thing.” Somehow, whatever I felt didn’t matter at the moment.
Now why was everything going dark?
CHAPTER 24
SIDELINES
It was an odd feeling.
Crushing…suffocating.