Runner

The mid morning sun shone in gently onto the skin of the young man that was in bed. His hair fell down into his face and he groaned as he heard his phone ring for the seventh time in so many minutes. He had decided early on that morning that he was not going to school and when he had told his mother when she had come in to get him up she was fine with it. Kaleb Harris was a good kid; made good grades, was on the track team, girls liked him, not because he was cute but because he was actually nice to them. He was a good guy, if he did say so himself. After a moment of his hearing his ring tone he grabbed the phone and put it up to his ear.
“What do you mean you aren’t coming to school today?!” Kaleb’s eyes shut as he heard his best friend shriek into the phone and he sighed softly, his dark hair falling down into his face as he kept it buried into the pillow.
He knew that this would happen. Anthony always worried when his friend didn’t come to school for a day or so. But who could honestly blame him? He was tired. He had been studying extra hard lately and his parents still made him do this chores. Why couldn’t they understand and let him just sleep whenever he wasn’t studying? That would be the good thing to do. That was what he would let his children do. They had evil power and they knew how to use it; by making him clean his room.
“I’m tired, Tone.” He muttered into his phone, his pillow close to his mouth, probably making it difficult for him to hear but he didn’t care. “Go away.”
“Do you realize that we have to present today? Do you understand that? Hello? Do you realize that I’m going to have to get up there, by myself, and bullshit an entire presentation?!”
“Do you realize that you just said realize like… eight times?” He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling.
“Kaleb, come to school.”
“Anthony, go away. If you didn’t want to bullshit the entire project maybe you could have… Oh, I don’t know, do some of the work instead of using me as a cover up to go see Natalie.”
“Kaleb, which would you have honestly rather do? Go and get laid… Or work on your Macbeth project? Sex… Macbeth… Sex… Sex is the winner, Kaleb. Sex will always be the winner. Sex and weed. Yeah, that’s the two things that will always the things that win. Sex and weed.”
“And sleep.”
“No, not sleep. Sleep is for pansy ass kids that stay up too late doing… what was it you were even doing last night?”
“I was studying. Studying for the test that is going to be after the Macbeth project. That and Math, Zoology, Spanish, and Swim team has a meet soon so… yeah, I was doing that.”
“You know what you need? You need a girlfriend.”
“Shut up…” Kaleb groaned softly and sat up in bed. His hair was sticking up in every which direction and his eyes felt as if they were going to close back at any moment. In the last few hours he had maybe gotten six hours of sleep and that was not enough for him. Considering all the things he had to do in one day. Reaching out he looked at his clock that was by his wall and groaned. God, it was still only seven.
“Come to school. I’m going to freak on this fucking project if you don’t.”
“Listen, I’ll come by around fourth period, okay? Just let me sleep for a couple hours…”
“Okay. You better be here man. I swear to God.” He hung up the phone and Kaleb dropped down in his bed. Starring up at the ceiling he listened to the soft growls of his dog, Zelda down in the corner of the room. He could hear his mother getting ready in her room that was down the hall from his, shuffling around for her keys and swearing softly under her breath when she hit her foot on the door on her way out. His brother and sister, Kyle and Kristi, the twins, bickered outside over the front seat of the car, but both of them knew mom would make them sit in the back because they couldn’t get along.
When all was silent in the room he sat up slowly and glanced around. Zelda was running in her sleep, her legs flailing every which way and he snapped his fingers and she jumped up quickly only to lose her stepping and fall back down on the large, chewed up, dog-bed he had gotten her two years ago.
“Chasing that squirrel again? Squirrel?” Zelda’s eyes widened and she started barking happily, her ears falling into her face and her long tongue fell out of her mouth as she jumped up onto the bed, signaling that she needed to go outside to find that blasted squirrel he got her hyped up about.
Kaleb got up and he brushed his blonde hair away from his face and walked down the hall, Linkette following at his heels. He would let her out, bring her in, and then get some sleep before he had to go back to the dreaded place of school.
Well, not dreaded. Kaleb liked school, he did, but he was just sleepy was all. People liked him, which made things easier for him and the teachers were all very fond of him, giving him an extra day or two on things because they understood the pressures of life (And they loved him, even just in secret.)
Maybe Anthony was right though; maybe he did need a girlfriend. Not because of the sex, even though that would be nice, but because he just needed something to take his mind off of things. So yeah, maybe sex.
Opening the door Zelda bolted out of the door and into the grass, sniffing around for the squirrel. Chuckling he went to one of the wooden chairs on his front porch and sat down, lacing his fingers together and putting them on his stomach and sitting back in the comfortable chair, the morning lulling him. He watched Zelda prance around the yard, her tail wagging back and forth and her eyes darted and she threw her head up and howled, meaning that she was so very close to finding the squirrel.
He had found Zelda three years ago in the middle of a thunderstorm. Water had come up to the porch steps and somehow, in the middle of the angry thunder and flashing lightning he had heard something howling outside. And against his better judgment, and against the pleas of his mother and father, he went outside. She was caught in the drainpipe, trembling and starred. Since she was so leggy it had taken him a while to get her out but in the end he had gotten them both in the safety of his house. She had caught fever not long after and they had all thought she would have died that summer. But he would stay up late nights, playing Zelda and making sure that she was still breathing in the morning and so he had called her that; Zelda. It fit, she was strong and she was a good girl, even though she was a complete goofball at times.
Everything went silent them and he looked up after a moment. A girl was running down his road, a girl and her dog that wasn’t strapped to a leash. Her long red hair bounced as she did so, going behind her like a wave of fire and her eyes seemed determine as the two raced towards the stop sign that was next to his house. Her clothes were modest running attire and she was saying something to the dog next to her, smiling playfully at him.
She did not even seem to see him sitting there watching her. But Zelda wanted to make her presence known. She ran down the hill that lead to the road and started barking, her head thrown back in her battle cry. The dog slid to a stop and looked at her and Zelda stopped midway down the hill, the girl stopping after a moment.
“Cap?” She questioned, her eyes curious.
But the dog seemed to be on a mission of his own, he charged towards Zelda but just as she was half way up the hill she called him again, “Captain! Get back here!” She ordered. The dog skidded to a stop and looked back at her. His eyes were questionable as to what to do. “If you don’t I swear to God I will make you sleep in the hall way for a week. Do you want that?”
She’s talking to the dog as if he was human, he mused.
“I will give you to the count of three.” She warned.
The dog, looking back between his owner and Zelda seemed confused. Zelda was hunched down with her tail in the air, looking as if she was ready to pounce on him from the top of the hill.
“One.”
The German shepherd looked at her and took a step towards her. He knew that he would surely get into some trouble.
“Two.”
Zelda watched the dog walk back towards his master and she did not like that, not one bit. She put her head back and howled up at the sky and the dog turned back sharply and with all his speed tried to chase her, making his owner gasp and start climbing up the large hill of their driveway, Kaleb stretching his neck to watch her.
“What are you doing!? Are you insane?! We don’t know these people. Cap!” She growled and the dog was too busy chasing Zelda into the back.
Thank you, Zelda.
Kaleb made his way towards her, jumping down the flight of stairs that lead from his porch and started towards her. The dogs were in their own little worlds as he did so, his heart starting to race and his hands sweating a little as he came to stand about five feet away from her. She didn’t seem to notice him because she kept calling for her dog so Kaleb awkwardly cleared his throat and she turned sharply.
“Hey.”
“Do you live here?” She asked, seeming a bit annoyed.
“Well, yeah, I—“
“Can you get your dog away from my dog before he gets hurt?”
“Do you make it your job to tell people what to do?” He was only teasing her but she seemed to take offense to it and before he could apologize she smarted off with, “Only when the owner of such a dog is alluring my dog away.”
Captain must have heard the tenseness in his voice because he turned and ran towards them, standing in front of the girl and the hair on his back stood up, growling deeply.
Kaleb took a step back and the girl gently leaned out and stroked the top of his head but the dog didn’t seem to let up. Zelda raised her read and trotted over and the dog stopped but his ears were still back and his head was still low, his teeth showing.
“Good boy.” She said.
Good boy?!
“Do you make it a normal thing to be happy with your dog when he could easily bite off a guy’s foot?”
The girl just starred at me and she glanced at Captain and turned, “Come on, Boy.” She started jogging back towards the opposite direction. Kaleb hurried after her.
“Hey! Hey, I didn’t mean to get rude or anything with you. You just… I didn’t know anyone new moved here…”
“How do you know I’m new?” She inquired suspiciously.
“Small town, when a new face comes around people start to take notice, especially one as pretty as yours.”
Nothing.
No giggle, no blush, no anything. She just starred at him before she glanced down at the dog known as Captain and started walking back towards the direction she came. But Kaleb wouldn’t let up that easily.
“Where’re you from?”
“No where.”
“Where are you living?”
“Here.”
“But where?”
“Do you always make it a thing when you stalk innocent girls?” She said and stopped before Captain nudged her and she started running again. “Goodbye.” Kaleb was sure if he tried he could have easily caught up with her but it would be kind of a stalker-ish thing to do.
“Hey! I didn’t catch your name!”
“I didn’t give it.” She called but did not turn around to look at him.
Kaleb smiled and then looked down at Zelda, who was biting at her own foot at what was probably a flea or two. Rolling his eyes he went back inside. He couldn’t sleep now, not now that he knew a new girl was close to him.
Living in a small town had its perks and its flaws.
One of the perks was that he could know about any one new, some kind of gossip that is going around, and it would be easy for him to make himself a good reputation by doing good things. But on the downside there could be things that people could know and when you are doing something; nothing is sacred in this town. But there was one thing he wanted to know. And that was who that girl was, what she was doing here, and what her story was.

“Okay, so let me get this straight.” Anthony started as they molded a piece of clay into what looked like a square, “You met a girl,”
“Yes.”
“You talked with this girl.”
“Yes.”
“You flirted shamelessly with this girl.”
“Yes.”
“And she did not even react to it?! Maybe she’s a lesbian… Oh, that’s hot. That’s really hot.”
“Please, shut up. Do you not hear anything that comes out of your mouth?” he chuckled, ripping off pieces of the red clay and rolling them into balls.
“Yes I do and if I do say so myself, I sound fucking sexy.”
When Kaleb had gotten to school two periods early he had made sure that he had found Anthony to tell him of the girl he met. He was probably over reacting to it but most girls, eighty percent of girls at least, found him rather attractive and a good guy. So why in the world didn’t she even tell him her name for God’s sake?
“Okay, listen to me. She just totally blew me off. There was no flirtation, no smiling, no nothing. She was being cold and I don’t get it. I mean, Zelda came over and tried—“
“Oh, maybe she isn’t a dog person.”
“No, she had a dog, man.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t love Zelda. I do though, I love Zelda.” He grinned. “How can you not when she does that cute little ear thing when she—“
“Okay, I get it, you love her. Okay, she came over and the dog that she had with her started chasing Zelda around, you know, trying to play. And I guess she got pissed and when I tried to talk to her the dog tried to bite off my foot.”
“Maybe she likes it rough.”
Kaleb took in a deep breath. Sometimes he honestly wondered why they were friends in the first place. “Okay, you have to listen to me. She—“
“What’s her name, dude?”
“She didn’t tell me her name.”
“What do you mean she didn’t tell you her name?” The bell ran and he stood, going over and putting his clay with the other bunches of clay that was piled up for the class to mold. “As in, she didn’t tell you her name right off the bat or—“
“She. Didn’t. Tell. Me. Her. Name.”
For a while Anthony was silent. He washed his hands, dried them, and then grabbed his backpack from the floor. “My suspicions were right; she’s a lesbian.”
“I highly doubt she is a lesbian.”
“You don’t know. She could be.” They walked out into the hall together and for a moment Anthony forgot about the girl that Kaleb was interested about.
But why?
There were plenty of girls at the school that he could talk to; enough girls that wanted to talk to him, if he did say so himself. Why was this girl on his mind? She had been rude, smart, and overly witty to him… but still. He wanted her.