Page 57 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
I considered him. “That’s kind of intense.”
“You don’t get to where I want to be without mental tricks.” He pulled his elbows out of the water, leaned them back against the rock edge. Steam curled off his wet biceps. “There’s this quote from Steve Prefontaine—you know, the god of distance runners? It goes, ‘To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.’ I don’t know why I’m good at running when I’d rather be better at something that doesn’t have an expiration date… like writing, maybe. But I am. It’s the only way I even have a chance at college. So…” He trailed off.
“You’re unwilling to sacrifice the gift,” I finished his sentence.
He stared at me. “Exactly.”
When he looked at me like that, I was all too aware how alone we were. How much closer I wanted him. As if reading my mind, he crossed through the water toward me, the look on his face searching and curious. My eyes followed the beads of water trailing down his throat as our fingers locked together.
Another gust of wind rushed around us, kicking my hair up as our lips met. The kiss was slow. Deep. But the more tender he was with me, the more anxious I felt.
The less certain that I’d be okay when this all inevitably stopped. When we stopped.
I was way out of my depth with him. The feelings coming up, too big. But I reminded myself that webothhad grand plans. There was no way he’d want whatever this was between us to spiral much more, either.
I curled my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss with a ferocity I didn’t know I had. Gripping my hips in response, he guided me tothe edge of the spring, his mouth never leaving mine. As his hands wandered and explored my drenched skin, I coiled my body tighter against his. His stomach rippled into goose bumps against my own.
When the next blast of wind shook the trees, it carried voices. Were they just from the springs below?
We both pulled back, panting a bit.
“Reid,” I tried weakly.
“Yeah?”
He wrapped a strong, wet arm around me, kissing me again, and I forgot what I was going to say. I’m not sure if I jumped up or he hiked me up or some combination of the two, but somehow my legs wrapped around his waist and he held me just above the water, his hands hooked under me.
And we were in that position, his mouth on my neck, when the varsity cross-country team came bursting through the trees.
“Oh my god! My eyes, my eyes!” Mitchell exclaimed, throwing a hand over his face and his other arm out in an attempt to block the guys behind him. As if that would do anything. They all saw us and started laughing and hollering.
“Fuck,” Reid rasped as he slowly lowered me back into the water. I could feel that I was bright red.
A few of the guys looked at me like I had just gotten a lot more interesting. Well, this was going to do wonders for the rumors about me.
Kenji exclaimed, “Dude! We have one rule for the springs—no hooking up!”
I was a mess inside. Embarrassed and delirious and simultaneously grateful and furious with them for interrupting whateverthatwas turning into. But I shoved it all down and put my best skill to use as I swung around, my face placid.
“Relax. We stopped, didn’t we?” I muttered, sinking low into the water.
“She’s not even varsity,” Nicole exclaimed from behind the guys as the girls’ team brought up the rear. Because of course they were there, too. She had barely acknowledged me since the truth-or-dare party, but at that moment she was looking straight at me, disgust all over her face.
“It’s a fucked-up rule. We’re a team,” Reid said.
“It’s fine,” I said just to him.
He frowned. “No, it isn’t.”
The rest of the girls followed Nicole’s lead as they shot me judgy glances, further determined to ostracize me from the team, no doubt.
I had to admit that it stung.
Everyone else seemed to get over their shock by stripping down and getting in the spring themselves. Nicole and the rest of the girls were very obviously talking shit about me on the other side of the water, whispering among themselves, then looking at me and laughing.
I wanted nothing more than to leave, but I didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of driving me out.
“Where’s your camera?” Logan asked me once he got in the water. “She never goes anywhere without it,” he told Hank, a junior he was training to take over the AV stuff for yearbook.
