Page 17 of Waking Olivia

We line up and the weakness overwhelms me. I have to pull it together. I have to at least stay with the team. I need to pee again, but it's too late. The gun goes off and from my very first steps I know how this will go. Some days you feel weak and it turns out that it was transient, nerves or just some shallow weakness with a deep reserve beneath it.

This is not one of those days.

For the first mile, I run with Erin, noting her curious glances. I've never stayed back with her before, and she probably thinks this is strategy on my part.

It's not.

I'm running with her because it's all I'm capable of.

At the second mile, it gets tough. I'm breathing heavy, and sweat rests thick on my back, bristling against my skin like something alive. My stomach is churning and I think that water I drank coming here might be about to make a return trip.

On the third mile, I'm still with Erin, but barely. She’s all that is keeping me going. My vision has begun to dim on the sides as if I've got a flashlight pointed on her in a dark room.

The circle of the flashlight narrows…

Narrows…

Narrows…

When I come to, I'm in the back of an ambulance. We're not moving, so I assume we're still on the field.

Will is there, hovering behind paramedics. He looks vaguely concerned but mostly he looks pissed off as if I fainted on purpose. Even now, looking angry, something about his face draws me in, makes me long to run my index finger over the rise of his lip, his cheekbone…

Stop, I command myself. It's inappropriate in so many ways. Mainly because Will is an asshole.

They've already started the IV. "I don't need this," I mutter.

"I must have missed the part where you got a medical degree," snaps Will, his tone drawing surprised stares from the paramedics and from me.

Will is an asshole, but I expected a little sympathy in the back of a freaking ambulance. I scowl openly at him. "I'm not dehydrated, and even if I am, I'm fine now. I can drink it myself. I don’t want to hold everyone up."

"Oh, sonowyou're worried about the rest of the team?" he scoffs. "I think your worry is coming a little late, don't you?"

"Dude ..." says the aghast paramedic to my right. "Seriously? She just passed out."

"I'm sorry if we didn't place," I tell Will between clenched teeth, hating him in an altogether new way at this very moment. "I don't know what happened. I think I'm just coming down with something."

"That’s interesting,” he says, looking me dead in the eye. "Because you looked pretty healthy running across campus this morning."

The rideback to school is the longest of my life. No one seems to blame me for the loss—Will hasn't told them precisely how much of it is my fault—but no one's happy either. And Will ...

He doesn't say a word to anyone.

“My office,” he hisses as we exit the bus. “Now.”

15

Olivia

Iwaitin the hallway as he walks past. His face is so cold, so still, it could be chiseled in stone. I follow him into his office and he slams the door behind me. "Explain," he demands.

I'm not telling him what happened. I doubt he'd believe me anyway. "About this morning? You've heard of the walk of shame, right?" I smirk.

He narrows his eyes. "Dressed in running clothes?" he demands. "No shoes? Drenched in sweat?"

"You're probably not aware of this, but when sex lasts more than 30 seconds, the girl can get sweaty too."

"Cut the shit, Olivia. I want the truth, and you'd better not lie when I ask it. Did you go running this morning before the meet?"

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