Breathe, Annie, Breathe (22 page)

“Did Jeremiah tell you? His frat accepted Colton into the pledge class.”

“That’s great!” I say to Kelsey. She and Vanessa are driving me back to Franklin for dinner. We’re going to Joe’s All-You-Can-Eat Pasta Shack so I can carbo-load before the marathon tomorrow.

Kelsey and Colton have been dating for nearly two months, and contrary to the bathroom incident in which they weren’t wearing shirts, they’ve been taking it slow. But it doesn’t surprise me when she says they finally went all the way.

When Jeremiah and I got back to campus after zip-lining, we sprinted to my dorm. We couldn’t get there fast enough. We stumbled from the elevator to my room, tugging at each other’s clothes, nearly trampling a freshman guy, kissing the entire way. In my room, he tripped over Vanessa’s shoe, lost his balance because of his shoulder, and landed on top of me. Our heads clonked together and we groaned.

The very sweet, very unsexy memory makes me laugh to myself. “I’ve been sleeping with Jeremiah too.”

Vanessa bounces up and down in her seat. Kelsey honks the horn, squealing. I kind of want to squeal myself. I love spending time with my friends.

About five minutes out from Franklin, I whine, “I’m so hungry.”

“I swear, Annie, I can’t believe how much food you eat,” Kelsey says.

She’s right. For lunch today, I ate an entire large pizza by myself. With my training schedule, I wake up hungry and go to bed starving, no matter how much I eat.

When we get to Joe’s, I hop out of the car and jog to the entrance, preparing to order tortellini. We walk in the door, the little bell jingling, and tons of people yell, “Surprise!”

A huge banner hangs on the wall: GOOD LUCK, ANNIE!

Kyle’s best friend, Seth, rushes up and hugs me. “I hope you don’t mind…we just wanted to show you how excited we are.”

My eyes welling up with tears, I gaze around at the crowd I wasn’t expecting. Mom and Nick are here, along with Jeremiah. Vanessa, Rory, Kelsey, Colton, Jack, and Savannah. Coach Woods. Stephanie, my manager from the Roadhouse, and some other people who work there. My old principal, Dr. Salter. A bunch of guys from the Hundred Oaks track team. Men from the fire department. Even Liza and Andrew are here, beaming at me.

Kyle’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Crocker. His little brothers.

I swear, it’s like the entire town is here. To support me. To remember Kyle.

My heart lurches when his parents come over to me.

“We’re so proud of you,” Mrs. Crocker says, giving me a big hug.

His father says, “We’ll be there tomorrow at the finish line.”

“Daddy got us a fog horn to blow when you run by!” Kyle’s little brother Isaac says.

“I can’t wait,” I say with a laugh.

I introduce Jeremiah to Mr. and Mrs. Crocker as my boyfriend. Mr. Crocker slips a comforting arm around his wife and gazes at her until she nods as if to say,
Yes, I’m all right
. Then they both shake Jeremiah’s hand and ask how college is going. Mrs. Crocker makes me promise to drop by the house during Thanksgiving break next month.

Coach Woods is digging into a massive plate of spaghetti. I walk over to her table to thank her for coming. She swallows and lets out a loud groan. The guy she’s with says, “Don’t eat so fast or you’re gonna bust a lung.”

“Shut up, Henry.”

“Um, hi, Coach Woods, thanks for being here.”

She looks up with a smile. “Annie, hi. This is my boyfriend, Sam Henry. Henry, this is Annie, my former student.”

The picture of him on her desk at school doesn’t do him justice: her boyfriend is hot. Way to go, Coach Woods.

“Good luck tomorrow,” he says, grinning.

“I can’t wait to see you run,” Coach Woods says. “I’m so proud of you. Matt says you’re in really good shape to finish.”

“I am,” I say. I’ve never worked so hard in my life.

“Need any pointers?” Henry asks.

“She does
not
need pointers from you,” Coach Woods says.

“Sure she does. You know where the beer stops are, right?” he asks with a wicked gleam in his eye.

Coach Woods groans again. “You’re gonna get me fired one of these days, Henry.”

“I do know where the beer stops are,” I say. “Miles sixteen and twenty-two.”

“Matt’s got you trained up well, I see,” Henry replies, stretching his arms across the back of the booth. “I wish I could come to the race, but I have to work.”

“What do you do?” I ask.

“I just got on with the Titans as an SEC scout.”

“The best job ever,” Coach Woods says. “Basically he watches college football games all the time.”

“How can I get that job?” I ask, making them laugh.

After I’ve said hi and thank you to everybody, I join Jeremiah over at a big round table with my friends. Jack Goodwin and Savannah are down from Kentucky. Rory drove over from Knoxville and is currently kissing Vanessa’s neck. We all roll our eyes at that and tell them to get a room. Kelsey holds Colton’s hand and he’s so busy staring at her, he keeps missing the straw as he tries to take sips of his drink.

“Now that Colton’s pledging my fraternity, I can ask him to do anything,” Jeremiah whispers in my ear, playing with my braid. “I could make him feed you spaghetti.”

“Oh stop,” I say. “Don’t torture my friend.”

Later in the evening, Jeremiah comes back to my trailer with us. We sit at the kitchen table because he wants to go over the course maps with me for the gazillionth time. But I quickly learn that “go over the course maps” is code for making out, because he won’t stop stealing kisses. It’s fun, but I can’t get something out of my mind.

“I need to do something,” I say quietly.

“Let’s do it then.”

“Alone.”

He stares into my eyes, fiddling with his leather cord necklace. “Okay.”

“I’ll be back in a little while if you want to stay here. You and Nick can see what’s on TV.”

“Cool.”

“
Die
Hard
’s on,” Nick announces.

“You watch that every day—”

“I love that movie,” Jeremiah interrupts me, flopping down on the couch beside my brother.

With a deep breath, I grab Mom’s keys and borrow her car.

It’s time.

I go to the drive-in. Our spot. I sit on the hood of the car and eat popcorn, watching
Titanic
. I’ll never forget all the moments we shared, good and bad, sad and funny. All the wonderful time we spent together. Every moment means the world.

I’ll never forget you.

•••

A noise jolts me awake. My eyes blink open to find Jeremiah sneaking into my room at home. He crawls onto my bed, laughing, and touches his nose to mine.

“I thought you went home?” I hiss. “You can’t sleep over. My mom’ll kill me.”

“I forgot to give you something before the race.”

He clasps something around my neck. I gaze down to see it’s his lucky leather necklace. Our eyes meet, then he kisses my fingers.

“Love you,” he says. “Sweet dreams.”

“Love you too.”

He scrambles off the bed and tiptoes out into the hallway. Then I hear him getting in trouble.

“I sent you home an hour ago, young man,” Mom says.

“I forgot to give Annie something.”

A loud snort. Nick. “She needs her sleep for the race!”

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Jeremiah says.

“I better not see you again tonight, Jeremiah Brown,” Mom says.

“You’re as bad as Annie!”

I laugh myself to sleep.

But I don’t sleep well. I keep waking up every hour because I’m scared my alarm clock won’t go off. When it finally rings, Mom and Nick rush into my room.

“Just wanted to make sure you’re awake,” she says, and it nearly makes me cry because she believes I can really do this.

I grab a shower to wake myself up, pull on the clothes I laid out the night before: my favorite pink shorts and the panties that never ride up. I safety pin my race number to my white tank.

I ride to Nashville with my family, just the three of us. Nick drives and Mom mans the radio. They both took off work. My knee shakes the entire drive.

After getting good-luck hugs from my mom and brother, I join my team under the tree with Matt’s blue flag. Andrew has an arm around Liza’s waist, and they both hug me.

Matt smiles around at those of us who made it to today. “I’ll see you all at the finish line,” he says without a trace of doubt in his voice. And then it’s time for us to head to our corrals.

But I have one final thing to do: I slather Vaseline all over my thighs.

“Another Vaseline convert,” Matt says, chuckling. “Told you it’d help with the chafing.”

“I don’t think I’m comfortable with you talking to my girl about chafing,” Jeremiah says as he walks up to our team.

“I’m her coach. It’s well within my bounds.”

“And I’m your brother. It’s well within my bounds to knock you upside the head.”

And of course, the brothers start in on each other. Jeremiah grabs Matt in a headlock and Matt jabs at his brother’s stomach. I roll my eyes.

An announcer’s booming voice tells us to report to our corrals. The cool air seems to still. I begin to follow Andrew, but Jeremiah takes my elbow.

“Good luck,” he says, quickly pecking my lips. He tweaks my braid, then walks off with his brother, waving at me over his shoulder.

I weave through the crowd to my corral.

I check my shoelaces one last time.

Make sure my official timer is attached to my shoe.

Shake out my legs.

Slip Kyle’s red Nike headband on.

A gun fires in the distance. The crowd inches forward. Cheers echo in the park. And I’m off.

And as I cross the starting line, I picture Kyle’s face and say thank you for helping me get through this.
Thank
you
for
all
you’ve given me.

And when I look up at the gray sky, light breaks through a cloud and I feel the sun on my face.