Page 41 of Hateful
My legs feel just finethe next day, but I use them as an excuse to stay in my room instead of attending the debate—which the girls’ school wins, as I predicted. Rafael gleefully gives me the rundown, telling me that Beck just kept shouting, Heath hadn’t seemed to prepare anything at all, and Jasper struggled to hold on to arguments that were flimsy at best.
“He was kind of off,” Rafael says thoughtfully as he stretches out on his bed, scrolling through his phone. “I don’t know why, but he seemed weird. Distracted. Sad,” he adds, turning over onto his back. He keeps his gaze firmly fixed on his phone. “Would you know anything about that?”
“Nope.”
I roll over onto my other side, facing away from him to hide my expression. It’s an obvious lie, but Rafael doesn’t press me. I don’t care that Jasper’s sad because of what I said.
If anything, I get a grim satisfaction from it.
The next morning, I get up and start getting dressed for a run. Rafael groans and pushes his puffy blankets down off his face and glares at me.
“Be quieter,” he says groggily.
I shut my dresser drawer louder than I usually do before shooting him a devilish grin and finish getting dressed. Outside, it’s still freezing cold, but I know that after I get going I’ll get warm enough. I head out to my usual trail.
As is becoming more and more usual lately, Heath is already waiting for me when I round the first bend. He looks up with a grin, but I roll my eyes and blow past him.
“Hey, wait!” He speeds up to catch up to me, falling into step at my side. “What’s up? You mad at me?”
“Do you not remember what happened a couple days ago?”
“I didn’t know he was going to do that,” Heath replies, and I hear sincerity in his voice.“You know how Beck is.”
“There was no way you could’ve stopped him?”
“I thought we were just walking behind you,” he says to me, huffing a little. “I didn’t know what he was going to do until he’d already kicked you.”
I grit my teeth and pick the pace up a little, reveling in the way Heath’s breaths get more labored. “How am I supposed to believe that?”
“You don’t have to. It’s the truth, though.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see him shrug as well as he can mid-stride.
In truth, I do believe him … but I don’t tell him that. I just drop my pace a little so he can catch up without him actually realizing I’mlettinghim catch up.
Eventually I have to slow to a stop to take a break at my usual place beneath a big gnarled tree. The snow crunches beneath my shoes as I walk over to it. I lean against its twisted trunk and run my fingers down the rough bark, close my eyes, and breathe in the scent of the snow.
“You’ve really been running a lot,” Heath says, plopping down on a pile of snow beside me. His face is bright red beneath his hat, and sweat drips down in rivulets along the side of his face—seconds away from freezing as soon as they’ve left the warmth of his skin.
“Yeah? So have you,” I retort.
He grins back at me. “What are you training for, anyway?”
“Training?” I don’t sit. I know that if I do, I’ll relax, and it’ll be harder to run back down the trail. I peel off a piece of bark to fidget with, trying to think of a response. I can’t exactly tell him that I’m trying to run my girly ass off so that I can pass better as a boy.
“Yeah,” Heath says, interrupting my thoughts. “Seems like you’re training.”
“I don’t even know why you’re asking.” I break the bark in half thoughtfully. “You and Beck and Jasper have been one step away from beating me to a pulp all year.”
Heath laughs and lounges back in the snow. I wonder just how wet his butt is going to be once we get moving again.
“Running isn’t going to help you fight, Alex.”
“No,” I agree, “but it’ll help me get away.”
His smile turns just a bit, and he looks down at his gloved hands. “That’s kind of sad.”
I shrug. “I guess my life has been kinda sad lately, then.”
He doesn’t answer for a while. I watch him as he pulls his hat off his head. Beneath it, his brown hair is tousled and unkempt, and just a little sweaty from all the activity. Last semester, he was the star of the lacrosse team. I know he’s athletic.
