Page 125 of Running
I chuckle and shake my head.
“Good chat?” Grace says, coming to sit next to me on the couch.
“Yeah. Your brother’s in love, and it’s highly entertaining.”
CHAPTER 39
Grace
Wednesday night after class, I head to my condo. I’m drowning in homework and planning on running with Jasmine early tomorrow morning, so I didn’t ask Johnson about coming over for another night.
It feels weird to be here alone, though. And we end up talking for an hour on the phone, so maybe I should have just asked.
One big topic of excitement on our call? Earlier this afternoon, Milo Cantera emailed me to set up a zoom meeting about the potential of working for him. I’ve also landed an interview for one of the finance positions I applied for, but it would be a fallback option.
Once I hang up with Johnson, I spend an hour more on homework and then get to bed, knowing Jasmine will be waiting for me bright and early.
Only when I pull up to our meeting spot, I find Jasmine crying.Oh no.
I speed out of the car and race towards her, immediately putting one arm around her once I’m close enough.
“Jasmine, what’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“I’m—” she chokes out a sob, “I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying because I’m happy.”
What?“Oh good. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Yeah, actually.”
“Please, then. Whatever you need.”
Her hiccup sobs slow down after another ten seconds, and she looks me in the eye.
“So there was this guy, he’s on the baseball team. We dated this summer, and he was really nice at first. But then after we decided to make things official, he was…different. Really critical, hot and cold. It was confusing, but he was my first boyfriend at Tolliver, so I felt like I should stay the course.”
I nod my head to show I’m following. “I’ve had friends who dealt with the same thing. So what happened? You haven’t mentioned him before.”
She shakes her head, looking over the lawn before continuing.
“His behavior—it began to really shake me. Even when he wasn’t around, you know? And he started trying to keep me from running when I wanted, making fun of track and field.”
Oh heck no.I feel myself getting upset on her behalf.
“Finally, I worked up the nerve to break up with him. It was the first day you came to run with us, actually. Something about it all, meeting you, being with the rest of the team, pushed me over the hump. I didn’t want to go through track season figuring out how to navigate his behavior."
I tighten my arm that’s embracing her, giving her a little squeeze. "Sounds like it was the right call, Jasmine."
She smiles. “It definitely was.”
I relax my arm and tilt my body to face her directly. “But wait, why were you crying?”
“Well…” she draws the word out. “When I was coming here, I saw him near the fitness center. He stopped and tried to talk to me. ‘You made a mistake, Jasmine, blah blah blah.’ And I looked him dead in the eye and I said back, ‘No, you were the mistake, Tyler.’” She stops there and watches my reaction.
“Jasmine, oh my god.” I know how much that probably took because of how similar we are. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Yeah, so I’m just crying because it was such a release, you know? I never stand up for myself and I finally did.”
I lean in and give her a hug again. “You did it. So incredible.”
