Love's Not A Competition

We walked to the dining room and we walked over to where everyone was already gathered.
“What’s up?” Brittney asked.
“The football team is having a charity run.”
“Uh huh,” Katie said.
“Do you guys want to participate?”
“I would love to but I sprained my ankle,” I said, grinning.
“Don’t worry; it’s in a month so your ankle will be healed by then.”
“Great,” I mumbled darkly.

“What kind of run is it, some kind of race or a fun run or what?” Zeke asked.
“It’s, uh, not important. I’ll tell you later on. It’s around the campus. I need you guys to put up some posters to advertise the run. But you have to promise that you will do it first,” Aidan said.

“Okay, we promise,” we all said.
“You can’t back out now, no matter what.”
“Okay, we get the point,” Katie said.

Aidan grinned and gave some posters to all of us. I shoved them in my bag and finished my lunch quickly.

“Uh, I won’t be back after school. I have some stuff to do first so I’ll see you later,” I said to Zeke.

He nodded and we all moaned as the bell rang. My afternoon classes seemed to fly by and I was happy to get out of school. I hobbled along slowly to the café down the road and looked around the small place. Jesse was sitting at a table in the back and he smiled at me when he saw me looking. I hobbled over to him and sighed as I sat down in the chair. A waitress came over and we ordered our coffees. We talked about random things until she brought our drinks back.

“So tell me about what happened to your ankle,” he said.

“Well, Zeke and I were having some races because we are both on the track team but I do sprints and he does hurdles. We did some running races first and then I tried to do some hurdles. I tripped over the second one and twisted my ankle as I tried to land.”

“Oh, is Zeke that guy that burst into the room at the party with that girl?”
“Yeah, him,” I said.
“You’re friends with him?”
“Well, he’s my roommate,” I said quietly.
“Oh yeah, I always forget that your school has boys and girls sharing rooms.”
“Do you tutor at other schools as well?”

“Yeah, a few in the area,” he said. “Has this Zeke boy been annoying you again? I can beat him up to put him in place if you want.”

“Nah, I’m okay. He’s not as annoying as you think. He can be kind of nice when he wants to be.”
An idea popped into my head and pulled one of the posters out of bag.
“Do you want to help charity?” I asked.
“How?” he asked.

“The football team has organized a run for charity. Take one of these and think about it.”
He looked at the poster briefly before folding it up and putting it in his pocket. I finished my coffee and sighed.

“Well, I’m really sorry but I have to go back now. Can I see you again?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure, what about tomorrow?” he asked.
“Okay, call me later with the details.”

He nodded and I stood up and hobbled to the door with him. I walked him to his car and leaned against it as he unlocked the car. He smiled and leaned in, kissing me gently on the lips before getting into his car. I hobbled away, sighing. I guess my vow to stay away from boys hadn’t lasted very long at all. At least Jesse will help with me getting over Zeke. I saw Zeke putting up his posters and walked over to him.

“Hey,” he said when he saw me.
I waved and pulled my posters out of my bag.
“Here, you carry them and I’ll stick them up,” Zeke said.

I nodded and he handed me all of the posters. We walked around the school, sticking them up every now and again. It was just as I was handing the last one to Zeke that I finally glanced at it. The first word that I saw was underwear. I snatched it back off of Zeke and finally read it.

“What?” I yelled.
Zeke looked at me and grabbed it off me. He read it and looked at me funny.
“Aidan can’t be serious,” I said.

I grabbed the poster again and tried to run towards the dorm building but it didn’t really work. I found Aidan and Brittney sitting in the lounge and hobbled over to them.

“What the hell is this?” I yelled.
I shoved the poster in his face and waited for him to answer.
“You can’t back out,” he said.
“Like hell I can. I’m not running around in my underwear. You expect everyone to agree to this?”

“I’m okay with it,” Brittney said.
“That’s because you’re weird,” I said.

Aidan glared at me and I growled in frustration. After a moment Katie stormed into the room with Zeke close behind her.
“What the hell is this?” she yelled.
She held up the poster and I nodded.

“It’s ridiculous,” I said.
“Some pedophile will come and stare at us while we run around in our underwear.”
“Come on Katie, it’s for charity,” Zeke said.
“You just want a chance to see me in my underwear.”
“I’ve seen you with less on,” he smirked.

She smacked his arm and turned back to Aidan.
“I can’t believe that the coach agreed to this.”
“He was the one who suggested it.”
“Okay, that’s a little weird,” I said.

Katie nodded while everyone else stayed silent.
“I’m not doing it,” I said.
“Don’t be spoilsports,” Eric said, walking over to us.
“Eric just wants to see girls run around in their underwear as well,” Zeke said.
Eric and I glared at Zeke before I sat down in the sofa.