Forever for a Year by B. T. Gottfred

Author:B. T. Gottfred
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

Aaron, the sophomore runner who was becoming my closest friend on the team, told me that I shouldn’t see Carolina on the nights before cross-country meets.

He said, “Save that juice for the race.” I wasn’t totally sure what he meant, but I listened to him. It was probably good for our relationship to have an excuse not to see her. Otherwise Carolina would realize I was so stupidly in love with her and she might lose respect for me.

But I invited her to the first big invitational of the season. In the dual meets since that first freshman race, I had been running smarter and better. Coach Pasquini would point out the runner in the race he wanted me to draft behind, and I’d just fall in after him and kick when I saw the finish line. I stopped thinking about winning, stopped thinking anything when I raced actually. Not true. I’d think about Carolina. I would see her eyes and her smile. Not her voice. Not anything. Just a close-up of her face in the shadows of my basement. Maybe that’s not thinking. Maybe that’s just obsessing. I don’t know. It worked. Got third twice and won the freshman race last week.

So on Thursday, Pasquini told me I’d run junior varsity this week. Told me I’d run behind Aaron and Tor during the race. That’s when Aaron told me not to see Carolina last night. I invited her to the race to make up for canceling our Friday night plans. She understood. She always understood. We video chatted and texted the whole night. Maybe Aaron was right, I would have gotten tired kissing her like we usually do. I got tired just wanting to kiss her.

But now that I was at the starting line, waiting for them to fire the gun, I wished I hadn’t invited Carolina. I’d forgotten how dorky these uniforms were. I could see her holding Lily’s hand and waving at me, but she must have been thinking she wished I played football. Football uniforms are cool. Football players are cool. What high school movie ever had the cool hero run around in big circles for three miles? Even though I was starting to like cross-country, maybe even really like it, maybe I should quit. Carolina was too great to have a boyfriend who was a dorky cross-country runner.

Bam.

Starter fired the gun. Brain went simple. Found the back of Aaron, looked at his shoulder, and ran. Ran. Ran. Didn’t notice anything else. Trees, I guess. Grass, then sidewalk, then grass, more grass, dirt, grass again. But really I just hung behind Aaron. Lingered, remember? That’s what I did. Carolina’s face painted itself on the inside of my eyeballs. So that was there. That would always be there, wouldn’t it? It would. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Carolina. Thought it every breath. Twice. Breathed it in, breathed it out.

Aaron was slowing. I didn’t feel a thing. Not pain even. I felt like we had just started.

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