Hollywood Horrors

Story Ten: Hidden Desire

I peered viciously at the tall boy standing near me, a gym bag dangling from his neck. His hair was wavy and had a reddish tinge. His hazel eyes were trained on the coach as he spoke about cross country try-outs.

“What’re you looking at, Abrams?” he sneered.

“How is that any of your business, Ganser?” I shot right back. He gave me a degrading glare and turned his gaze away from me.

I sighed. It was sometimes tiring to keep up this charade with Daniel Ganser. Why did I have to fall in love with my worst enemy?

But still…. Maybe our hate status would change. Then we could be together….

Someone elbowed me aside and I saw a blonde about half Daniel’s height wrapping her arms around his waist.

Of course. I’d forgotten to factor in Lauren Evans; cheerleader, popular, little, and Daniel Ganser’s girlfriend.

“Hey, Katie.” Daniel hugged her adoringly. They were quite a good couple, besides the fact that Daniel was the same height as Lauren when he was sitting down. She was way too short, but that was how she ended up at the top of pyramids and such.

“Hey, baby,” she giggled. Her blond ponytail, tied in Westville High red, whipped me in the face. I rolled my eyes at the disgusting sweetness.

“Track try-out is today after school,” Coach Harper announced. “Be there.”

“Are you trying out?” Katie whispered to Daniel. I eavesdropped, half because I had nothing to do, and the other half was because I was hopelessly attracted to anything Daniel had to say.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“No, I have cheer and color guard practice,” Lauren said, “Sorry.”

Suddenly an idea occurred to me. Why not try out for cross country? I loved to run, and this was the perfect chance to get closer to Daniel. I snorted at my idiotic side thought about Daniel. But still, Daniel or no Daniel, this would definitely look good on my essay for college.

Two hours later, I was wearing shorts and stretching.

“What are you doing here?” I saw Daniel looking at me in disgust.

“Trying out,” I said coolly. Before Daniel could do any more than give me a sneer, Coach Harper came out.

“You are going to run two miles and I’m going to time you. The ten fastest times will make it onto the team.” We lined up on the red dirt track as Coach Harper handled a stopwatch. “Ready, go!”

I took off, letting my feet take a will of their own. This was easy stuff. I ran about five miles a day to let off steam. I didn’t see anyone near me. Were they all ahead of me? My eyes darted frantically in front of me, but not one person was in sight. Then I saw Daniel sprint ahead of me. I’d gotten it all wrong. I was ahead of everyone else! Taking up speed again, I raced Daniel to the finish, but he got ahead of me.

Daniel glared at me. “Where’d you learn to run like that?”

“I don’t just stay at home and do homework. I run and play soccer too.”

He just gave me an irritated glance, but I thought I saw a hint of newfound respect in his expression.

“Whoa, you two. Five minutes and forty-six seconds, Daniel. Five minutes and fifty seconds, um….”

“Melanie Abrams,” I interrupted. I tried to erase Daniel’s smirk from my mind.

“Melanie, a few seconds faster, and you would’ve broken the girls’ record. You two are definitely on the team.”

Daniel grinned, and I was dazzled by his smile. He never smiled like that at me. I wished.

The rest of the people gradually caught up. Coach Harper read off the fastest times, and we were done. Some walked dejectedly out, while others high fived each other. I walked out of the locker rooms, just in time to see Daniel assaulted by Katie’s lips. Making a face, I quickly got away before they saw me.

The next day, running was more intense. We ran through Valley Grain, a sloping hill that consisted mainly of dry grass and shrubs. I maintained a steady breathing rate throughout, and kept in pace with Daniel. Hey, who else could I run with? Everyone else was yards behind us.

“Are you taking steroids or something?” Daniel asked suddenly.

“Uh….no?” I was surprised momentarily by the fact that he was talking to me.

“How can you run so fast? I find it hard to believe.”

“I run about five miles a day.”

His face was disbelieving. “Even I don’t practice that much.”

“I need a way to calm down.”

“Getting your heart rate up is your way of calming down?” He snorted.

“Whatever. I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” I snapped. This was making me pissed, and talking wasn’t good for running anyway.

“Look, I’m sorry, alright? It’s just difficult to understand why you decided to start running in junior year.”

“This is about you again, isn’t it?”

“What?” He was confused now. I wiped my forehead and was glad to see the scarlet gates of Westville come into view.

“You don’t want me intruding on your perfect life. Isn’t that why you decided to purposely give me death glares every time you see me?”

“I…”

“Oh, save it.” I put on an extra burst of speed and jogged ahead. I guess I got a little eager, seeing the gates of my school. Suddenly, I was falling, and rolled a good distance down. I felt a stabbing pain in my ankle.

“Ouch,” I whimpered. I heard quick footsteps, and then Daniel was kneeling beside me.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Argh, go away.” I flinched away from him and tried to stand up. Once again, I felt the stabbing pain, and fell down again.

“You need help,” he said. The thundering of other footsteps seemed miles away, which was probably the case.

“Not from you, I don’t.” I was prepared to crawl. Then, in a flash, he scooped me up and started walking with me down the incline.

“Let me go!” I exclaimed, trying to wriggle free. He just held me tighter against his chest. I was briefly overwhelmed by the scent of his aftershave.

“Nope. You need help, and you’re obviously not going to get there on one foot.” He carefully stepped over a rock.

“Why are you being nice to me? And what about Katie?”

“Team members are supposed to help each other. And what about Katie?”

“Isn’t she going to get angry?”

“No, she’ll understand. If she doesn’t, I’ll break it off with her.” I gaped. Was it really that easy? Just end it right then and there?

“Wow…”

“Here we are.” He planted me on a bench just outside of school. I sat down with a sigh of relief, the cool air washing over me, my ankle dangling limply. He pressed the spot where I fell down on.

“Ow!” I yelled.

“Whoa, your ankle’s swollen.” He placed his hand over my foot. His hand was cool and comfortable. I wanted it to stay there.

“I guess I won’t be able to make it to the meet Friday.”

“Just slap an ice pack over it,” Daniel assured me. “It’ll be better in no time.” He started to lift his hand.

“Can you keep it there?” I begged. “It’s really more comfortable that way.”

“Uh, okay.” He looked nervous.

“Daniel!” The shriek pierced the still air, and a couple of pigeons fluttered on the telephone poles.

“What are you doing?” Katie demanded.

“Katie, she’s hurt.”

“Why are you even talking to her? Ugh! Are you really cheating on me?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Uh huh. Right.”

“So you are! Ugh, I swear! You’ve been growing more apart from me ever since this girl got into the picture! What happened to our relationship, Daniel?”

My mouth was hanging open by now.

“Enough, Katie.” Daniel’s voice was low and dangerous.

“No! Are you cheating on me?”

“If I said I was, what would you do?”

Katie gasped. She walked right in front of me and raised her hand. I thought she was going to smack me in the face, but instead, she brought it down onto Daniel’s. The resounding sound was scary.

Daniel brought his hand to his cheek slowly. There was fire in his eyes, and I cowered back.

“We’re over.” Then, he slung me over his shoulder, and I gasped a breath of surprise. Daniel and Katie were over? The golden couple wasn’t together anymore?

“Gah, put me down!” I huffed.

“Dannie, Dannie, wait!” Katie shrieked.

Daniel ignored her and headed toward the nurse’s office.

“I don’t need to go there!” I complained. “Just let me go home!”

“Fine.” He put me down. I wobbled on my leg and more or less collapsed to the ground. Now I had a bleeding knee to go with everything.

“What was that for?” I demanded angrily.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to go home?”

“Fine! Can you lead me to my car, please?”

“Fat chance.” His face was still stormy after his breakup. “I’m taking you with me. What’s your address?”

“Can’t you just let me go home by myself? Why are you suddenly so preoccupied with trying to make me ‘safe’?” I air quoted “safe”.

His voice lowered. “I need something to distract me, alright? So quit the questions. I’m taking you home, and you can retrieve your car tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? “Wait…You’re bringing me to school tomorrow too?”

He reversed the car out of the parking lot, then turned to me with a smirk. “Well, I thought you’d want a parent to take you, but since you insist, I guess I’ll have to.”

I looked at the ceiling in embarrassment. Why did he always have to act so superior?

“By the way, you really are the reason I’ve changed.” He patted my hand tenderly, an action that made me stagger back mentally.

“Here it is. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He winked at me, then pulled out of my garage. I stood there, watching the car move away. Changed? I smiled as I unlocked the front door. Maybe cross country wasn’t a bad idea after all.