I pull my earbuds out of my pocket and slip them in, cuing up my favorite running playlist. Quickly my pace is set and I’m in the zone.
Maybe a little too in the zone.
Maybe so in the zone that I forget that there’s another person in this house. A person who sneaks up behind me with the stealth of a ninja—or my music is just that loud over my pounding feet and heart—and scares the crap out of me.
Turning my head to look at him, my rhythm breaks and my foot hovers in the air a fraction of a second too long before making contact with the ground. When it does, it doesn’t grab purchase on the belt and immediately sweeps under me. In a split second, my feet whizz off the treadmill, and I’m totally horizontal in the air.
But only for a moment, because I haven’t yet mastered the skill of levitation. Before I can blink, I’m smacking down onto the treadmill, my arms useless in breaking my fall. My head bounces once ... then twice.
Son of a bitch.
I see stars.
It’s not like I’ve never wiped out running before. No runner can say that. But in front of Brandon Nix ...
If my entire body wasn’t screaming in pain, I’d probably be mortified. Now it’s all I can do not to burst into tears. Instead, I let my body slide off the treadmill into a heap on the floor.
I focus all my energy on that. Andi Nichols doesn’t cry, not even when she’s given herself a head injury in front of her arch nemesis.
Chapter 20: Brandon
I’d be lying if I saidmy first reaction wasn’t to laugh. I mean, it doesn’t matter who it is, wiping out on a treadmill is fuckin’ funny. ClikClak is full of viral videos that confirm my viewpoint.
This time it’s not funny though. She hit pretty hard, and her head bounced off the treadmill. I spring forward, pulling the stop key as Andi slides off to the floor. She’s still for a moment too long, and terror fills me.
I rush to her, scooping her into my arms to get her to a safe location.
“What the hell are you doing? Put me down.”
“I’m bringing you out to the couch so I can assess you.”
“Are you secretly a doctor? An EMT? In any other way, shape, or form qualified to do anything to my body in a medical sense?”
Obviously, Andi didn’t hurt her mouth.
Gingerly I set her down, and she simultaneously shakes her head and rubs her knee.
