“Right?” I murmur.
Daniella pokes her head around the door. “Sorry to interrupt your ogling, captain, but the squad is ready.”
Shit, I completely forgot about practice. “I’ll be there in a second.”
“I’ll get practice started. Take your time,” Becca says, bumping my shoulder. “I really am happy for you, S.”
The locker room empties, leaving only me and Eden. “You brought gym gear.”
Eden turns and leans against her locker. She’s still clad in black, but everything is so much tighter. I’m being a total perv, and I own it. She’s delicious. It’s amazing what happens when secret pining is given the permission to breathe. My hormones are completely out of control.
“I did. When I commit to something, I do it to the best of my ability. I committed to doing no exercise for years. Look how well I did that!”
“You look good. Really good.”
Eden stalks towards me with a glint in her eyes. “Bishop. I have an app to listen to. See you after practice?”
“We could be a little late?”
She leans in, resting one hand on my locker above my head. Her other hand skims the side of my cheer top. “Sorry, S. Time’s a-ticking.”
The kiss on my nose wasn’t what I was expecting. Or Eden leaving me to go and use a treadmill for its actual purpose.
When I finally pull myself together and head out, I notice Mr. Parker standing at the entry to his office staring as Eden puts her earbuds in and begins her first lesson. He scratches his head several times. I get his confusion. His hope was just to get Eden to take part a little more in class. This is a whole other thing.
Becca waves me over. I need to get my head into this practice. I refuse to be the girl who loses focus on her life because of a cute, slightly awkward, soft lipped…
Shit.
“Are we ready to do this?” I shout, clapping my hands.
We run through our routine a few times. I take a few minutes to alter a couple of moves. All the time I’m having to constantly fight with myself not to peek over at Eden.
I lose the battle a few times.
13
Eden
Sarah Millican is a British comedian who I fucking love. She’s also the celebrity I chose to voice my daily workouts. I’d rather have a sarcastic Geordie telling me to pick up my feet than an over enthusiastic health nut. Their positivity gets right on my tits.
Anyway, I’ve successfully completed not one but two sessions on the app. The first was pretty short, and I only had to walk. It felt more like a warmup.
The second session had me jogging for thirty-second intervals. Thirty seconds might not sound like a lot, but trust me when I say it pushed me to my limit. I had actual sweat beads on my forehead when I finished.
I was dead serious about my promise to go all in. I know I should be ashamed at how easily I crumbled, utterly discarding my years of commitment to no exercise. All because of a pretty girl. But I’m not ashamed. For the first time ever, I’m excited to step out of my comfort zone.
There’s still a voice in the back of my head reminding me of our limited time together. It’s sad to think my new health regime might last longer than our relationship. At some point, we need to sit down and have a real conversation about it. Sloane has probably already got acceptance letters from colleges all over the country. If not, she’s at least got her top three picked out and ready to apply.
I have my heart set on Rhode Island School of Art. If that doesn’t pan out, I want CalArts. That one would be pretty sweet, actually. Wouldn’t be the worst if I had to accept my second choice, considering how much warmer it would be than the East Coast.
So if I’ve already thought about college, Sloane definitely has. I don’t even know what she wants to do. There is still so much we don’t know about each other.
I’m bending over unlacing my sneakers when I feel fingers walking up my back. Snapping up, I spin around to face Sloane who is not so subtly checking me out.
“Hey, babe,” she coos. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve become comfortable with one another. In the space of three days, we’ve gone from awkward shy smiles to sucking face and calling each other babe.
“How was practice?”
