Through Lies and Heartache (5 page)

“
Earlier when I was walking
out of English I ran into Liam and almost fell over. He got super
mad when he found me wrapped in Liam’s arms, neither one of us let
go immediately. When Ryan walked up and I was still wrapped in
Liam’s arms, they had words. Then at lunch today Ryan and I had
words and well… They weren’t very pretty either.”

“
Awe, that makes
sense.”

“
Are you nuts? How the hell
does that make sense? Those two are freaking crazy. They have no
reason to fight, both of tell me tell me I don’t know the other
like I think I do. Though Liam’s not near as bad as Ryan, but I’m
getting so sick of hearing it. Well, they can both butt out for a
while and just leave me be.”

She starts laughing, like deep in your
gut laughing. I smack her once in the leg but all it does is make
her laugh harder and I can’t help but smile. I have no clue what
she thinks is so funny but I’m glad to see her happy after the
scare with her gram. Looking up I see everyone staring at
us.

“
Aurora shut it, everyone’s
looking over here.”

“
Oh Gracie you know I don’t
care what they think.” She says with a giggle.

“
No but now both Ryan and
Liam are heading over here.” That shut her up real
quick.

“
Well shit.”

Just as the words leave her mouth Coach
Harper walks in “OK class while it’s nice outside I want to take
you all outside and have you run your mile. We’ll do it now and at
the end of the semester.”

With a lot of groaning from all the
class, we all start to head out the doors. I notice that Liam is
talking to coach and Ryan is almost to the door. When we get out to
the track I see a lot of students already running. What they don’t
know is coach will make them restart so he can time them, with that
I sit down and start to stretch. After all of the training I’ve
helped Ryan do, getting ready for his fights a mile will be a walk
in the park. My shoulders tense at the sound of footsteps, when I
look up I’m very relieved to see its just coach.

“
Gracie are you going to
join the track team this year?”

“
Well I missed the tryouts
this summer and honestly I’m not sure if I want to run this
year.”

“
Well how about this you can
use this mile as your tryout if you want to join, but I’m going to
tell you I know you helped Ryan over the summer train for fights
and you were on the team last year so I’m not really worried about
you not doing very well today we see what your time is and you can
think on it sound good?”

With a smile I tell him “ok coach
sounds good but I’m not pushing today just a lazy run.”

With a laugh he walks over to the
track.

“
What the hell Gracie, why
didn’t you do tryouts this year?” Rori finally asks me.

“
Shit, no one else noticed.
I was just going to skate by, pretend like I never ran track. Damn
it. Come on Rori let’s get this shit over with.”

With that we both get up and
head over to where coach is, he has finally stopped everyone who
was running. We all line up and wait for the count to go. Coach
counts down and yells GO! Everyone takes off while I just kind of
jog. Rori doesn’t bother to stay with me she knows I run well
enough to catch up if I want to. While I run I take this time to
reflect on my day starting from waking up in Ryan’s arms and the
dream I had, while I have no clue where that came from, I think I’m
afraid to lose Ryan for any reason. I continue to think about all
the bullshit in his truck, I know it was less about my dad and more
with the fear of losing him,
shit
how do I even explain this I know he’s going to
want to push me.

I know that once we graduate
I’ll be going to college and there’s no chance Ryan will go with
me.
His father wants him to stay and be in
the family business running the gym. All Ryan wants to do is follow
his dream of being an MMA Fighter.
With
those two roads alone I won’t ever see him even if I don’t go away
to college. This makes me wonder if I should start to push him
away,
well
shit
I think as I start to run
faster, I let out a laugh, this is why coach says I’m so good at
running I can’t get out of my head and when I get mad I feel the
need to run faster, with a sigh I shake my head, I’m now on my
second lap with no intention of slowing down looking up at coach
who has a satisfied smile on his face. I grunt and push forward I
can’t stop thinking about all that’s happened today.
Damn it, coach knew once I got this started I
would have to join the team!

Ryan

I watch her walk up to the line with
Rori, I know coach said something about her not trying out for
track, that really irritated look gives her away, she said that she
forgot when tryouts were but with that look I’m beginning to wonder
if she didn’t go on purpose. I know I was gone a month. She seemed
a little anxious about the dates, I wonder if that’s when tryouts
were… She knew I would make her go. I know she loves to run because
she helped me train this summer. If she hadn’t helped I wouldn’t be
as good as I am. I see her start to push harder in her second lap
she must be all twisted in her head. Once she starts down that
rabbit whole, she won’t stop until her legs give out.

This gives me time to think,
really think about all our talks today. It really has me worried,
she’s never upset about her dad not being here, I mean don’t get me
wrong she has her moments when I know it bothers her but she has
never acted like she has today. It makes me wonder what is going on
in that head of hers as she runs, I remember the first thing she
told me this summer when we started running, ‘
if I couldn’t keep up with her that wasn’t her problem and
she sure as shit wasn’t gonna slow down for me, if I wanted to run
with her I also wasn’t allowed to talk no matter what and I better
keep up.
’

I’ve never figured out where she goes
in that head of hers but I do know that even after this summer I
still don’t stand a chance at running half as long as she does. I’m
finishing my third lap and she’s almost done with her fourth and
coach is all sunshine and smiles. I see him tense as Gracie gets
closer, shrugging it off I run like Gracie taught me to this summer
no holding back and shut down all thoughts, just run…

Chapter Eight

Gracie

A
s
I run by Coach
I tell him
‘
whatever, hope your happy you got what
you wanted.’
Heading straight into the
showers. No one’s finished that I know of so I should be alone for
a little bit. I shower and get dressed and grab my backpack. I’m so
damn irritated that coach only ran us today, to get me on the team
but mostly I’m irritated because he was right. Leaving the locker
room I see a few kids coming in but I keep going. I’m out, I don’t
think I can handle anything else right this moment. All that run
did was get me riled up and I’ll need about a two hour run to work
all this crazy shit circling out into saner shit.

Walking to my locker put my Government
book in my locker and grab my history book and another note book
and shut my locker, ready to head over to Mr. Nelson’s class which
happens to be by the back lot, maybe I should grab all my books and
sneak out the back door after class. With that thought I turn back
around I grab all my books keeping my history stuff in my arms,
shutting my locker I head to class just as the bell rings releasing
classes.

When I get there most seats are open so
I grab the far corner seat in the very back row. That way if I have
a surprise visitor I can’t be all that surprised. I don’t keep my
head down, that shit got me in trouble earlier, when Liam walks in.
I let out a big sigh just one class with no drama would be nice,
well I have English that’s going to be my saving grace, with that
thought I let out a little laugh. When Liam takes the seat next to
mine I have to fight from letting out yet another sigh. When I look
over he’s watching me intently I finally let out the sigh and
ask,

“
What Liam?”

“
What the hell was that on
the track and why did you leave before class was out?”

“
Liam it’s no secret that
I’ve done track all through school and I left to shower and change
like everyone else.”

“
Gracie I thought coach was
gonna have a stroke when you walked away.”

“
Can we please, please,
please not talk about this? I’m really pissed at him as it is and
thinking about it is really making me more pissed off.”

“
OK Farfalla.” I can’t
remember the last time he’s called me
butterfly
, this brings a little smile
to my lips as I stare at him. Liam has called me Farfalla for most
of my life, when we were three I wanted to be a butterfly for
Halloween, once it was over I refused to take the costume off. I
wanted to wear it everywhere we went.

“
Thanks Tagliatelle” I say
while giggling using the name I called him when we were
kids.

Liam

I let out a laugh at that, I remember
how I got the nickname Tagliatelle, which means noodle. With a
shake of my head I can’t help but laugh again as I recall
it.

~*~

We were about six and the
three of us - Ryan, Gracie and I - were in the kitchen at Gracie’s
helping our mom’s make dinner like many other nights in our
childhood, when all the sudden I was smacked in the face with a
handful of noodles, when I turned to look where it came from. A few
noodles fell but most stayed as I watched Gracie fall into a fit of
giggles. I ran over to her taking some noodles and shoving them in
her face as I held her down, when all the sudden I’m slapped with
more noodles from Ryan.

~*~

With another shake of my head I let out
a sigh, things like this make what I have to do just that much
harder. I’ve known Gracie and Ryan sense I can remember, our moms
are best friends and they grew up together with the three of us
being so close in age all within a few months of each other we’ve
done everything together from learning to ride bikes to sports, we
would have sleep overs all the time; mostly at Gracie’s we used to
pile pillows into a fort in the middle of the living room and watch
movies.

Even as teens we would sleep over on
the weekends, always in the living room still in our fort. That is
until I was 15 when my father sent me away and now I’m being forced
to do something that very well may break me, in more than one way.
I’m pulled out of my thoughts as Gracie smacks me when I look at
her she looks concerned so I smile at her and mouth “What?” she
lets out a little laughs and ask me under her breath “Did you not
hear anything that Mr. Nelson just said?”

Just shaking my head at her she slides
a paper over to me as Mr. Nelson continues to talk about the things
we’ll cover in this class. Reading it I smile, we have to do a huge
project that’s due at the end of the semester just before Christmas
break, I’m happy because the two of us have been paired
together.

I miss her and this will allow me to be
close to her and spend time with her without Ryan breathing down
her neck to stay away from me. This may be a little harder then she
thinks because Ryan is going to put up a huge fight. Ever since I
was sent away he’s never hidden his disdain for me, I’m not sure
how he explains it to her or how he manages to keep her from me
without telling her everything. I know she pulled away from the
both of us after I was sent away, she got so bad that she failed
our freshman year, I repeated it also so that I could be close to
her, I also know Ryan stayed because her father wanted her
protected and she can’t be protected if no one’s here to watch her.
I know she doesn’t know because she wouldn’t be as care free as she
is. I wonder when she’s going to open her eyes, once she does it
won’t take much to see everything and I wonder what she’s going do
with all of it.

I know being forced away from my best
friends wasn’t easy and now being forced back into their life’s
just too possibly have it all ripped away again. I’m not sure I’ll
survive that and I know Ryan won’t handle it if she doesn’t let him
near her. Ever sense I was sent away I’ve been forced to watch her
I’ve noticed how close the two have become almost like he’s trying
to consume her but it’s almost as if neither one of them sees it.
Mr. Nelson talks all through class. After the bell rings I look
over at Gracie, wondering how well this is going to go. I hand her
back the paper with a shake of my head asking,

“
Well you want to tell Ry or
should I?” Her brows pinch together as she mutters under her breath
as she shoves everything into her bag, I only catch a few choice
words that would make any sailor proud. I let out a laugh when she
shoots me a nasty glair I stop abruptly.