Chapter 13

Something loud woke me up. I jerked in my new bed at the sudden disturbance of the quiet. Light filtered into my bare bedroom through the blinds. I lay there, waiting and drifting back to sleep, but it happened again. Someone was knocking at my front door.

I rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed. Not used to living alone, I usually wore an old pair of gym shorts to bed. There had been too many mornings while growing up that my sisters had thrown a fit if I came out of my room in just my briefs. And most of those mornings were because I had stumbled to the bathroom too sleepy to care what anyone thought of me. Of course, Mom and Dad took the girls’ side. They also pointed out that if there was a house fire in the middle of the night, I might not have time to put on anything while trying to get out. Aggravating my sisters was fun, but the thought of the neighbors and fire department seeing me in my briefs did more to enforce the idea than anything.

Even having a place to myself, I still didn’t like the idea of strangers seeing me in so little, certainly outside of an emergency. So, I got up and added a t-shirt to my attire.

“Good morning sleepy head,” Rachel said as I opened the door.

I grinned. “Morning.”

She was wearing a form-fitting tank top and a matching pair of biker shorts. Both were cyan with yellow sports stripes and they gave me a wonderful view of her curves. Cyan ankle socks and jogging shoes completed the simple ensemble. She wasn’t sweating so she couldn’t have just finished with any kind of workout.

She looked me over as well and asked, “You planning on running in that?”

I took a deep breath and suppressed a yawn. “What are you talking about?”

“Running?” she said, jogging in place. “You mentioned running cross-country in high school while we were at Mr. Shepherd’s yesterday. Running is good exercise. And it’s best to get it over with in the morning, while it’s still cool.”

I could feel a bit of heat coming in from the doorway. “Cool?” I asked.

She nodded with a big smile. “C’mon. It’ll help wake you up.”

I smiled and shook my head. “You’re one of those damned morning people, aren’t you?”

She smiled brilliantly.

She felt better than last night. To be honest, so did I. My headache was gone, which was always a good thing. I shook my head. “Give me just a minute to get ready and I’ll join you.”

She nodded, stepping inside. I went and got my workout clothes, shoes, and socks and went to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and taking care of my morning necessities, I got dressed and went to the kitchen.

I pulled out a bottle of frozen water. I had put it up there the night before, knowing that I would want to go running, but not wanting to drink warm water by the time I was done.

Rachel watched me as I put it on my hip. The bottle itself was just an old Evian water bottle I kept refilling. I had an old fanny pack that stopped being useful for carrying stuff because the bag part had fallen apart, so I sewed a handmade bottle holder to the waistband and used it to hold the bottle so my hand wouldn’t go numb carrying it. I had made similar ones for Eric and Ellen each upon their requests. They thought it was nifty.

With everything in place, I was ready to go. Rachel smiled. “Where did you find that?” she asked pointing at my fanny bottle holder.

I grinned again. “I made it.”

“If you got the materials, you might make a few more. I know some students that would love to have something like that for when they go exercising.”

I nodded. “That works. You ready?”

She went to the door and opened it. With a flourish, she smiled and said, “Just waiting for you.” She took off out the door.

I scrambled to make sure I had my key, locked the door, and caught up to the bouncing golden hair ahead of me.

The sun wasn’t very high in the sky but I could already feel the heat building up to another blistering Texas summer scorcher. Birds sang their many songs and flew about, gathering food and getting back to their nests before the temperature was too high. Whoever came up with the saying, “The early bird gets the worm,” might not have had Texas summers in mind, but it still applied.

The heat was the reason for the frozen bottle of water. I wouldn’t need water right away. After the first mile, I would use the bottle to cool me down as I ran, rubbing it against my head and neck. After the second and third, enough would be melted to be a pleasant coolness to rinse out my mouth. By the time I got back, four miles later, half the bottle would be melted and I would enjoy a bit of it in spurts. All at once would be too much of a shock to my gut and it could cause problems. It was a practice the twins and I got into when in school. Virginia didn’t get as hot as Texas but for a few days in the summer. The real difference was Texas was less humid. The air would sap you of more fluids, taking away even your sweat. So, the frozen bottle had many uses. I would take it with me any time I had to walk anywhere, and since I didn’t have a car that would be pretty much everywhere.

Rachel led me along Sunset Ct., heading east. I was paying more attention to the movement of my body than anything else, keeping pace with Rachel, and controlling my breathing, when I noticed something odd about her. Her ponytail was tied up high, bouncing with her every step. Her outfit hugged her body like a second skin. Her motion was steady and smooth.

And her aura was missing.

I stretched my legs to catch up to her. When I was beside her, I was looking her over with wide eyes. Her aura, her bright golden aura was gone.

Rachel noticed how I was looking at her. “What’s wrong?”

I met her eyes. “You’re aura ... it’s gone.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

I shook my head and fell behind her as we passed a cyclist. Then she fell back to me and asked. “Has this happened before?”

“Not that I can remember. Usually, when I run I’m too focused on what I’m doing to pay attention.”

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “We’ll finish the run. When we get back to the apartments, pay attention to when my aura comes back.”

I nodded, fell back again, and continued focusing on the run.

Half an hour later we were back at my apartment. Both of us went through various cooling-down stretches. I watched her carefully as I went through my normal motions. She was still lacking an aura. Had something changed? Did I finally have control over that ability?

She looked over at me. “Well?”

I was still cooling down. The heat had hit me harder than I’d thought. When I stood up and looked at her again, her aura came into view. I nodded. “It’s back.”

“So, while you’re running or cooling down, no auras. Once you’ve finished, they come back.”

I nodded. “Seems so. I don’t care for the idea that I have to be running to stop the auras though.”

Rachel shook her head. “It’s not the physical aspects of running, it’s your focus. You’ve trained yourself to ignore everything else while running. Learn how to ... I don’t know ... empty your mind and you should gain some control even when not running.”

I nodded. “I guess that makes sense.” Then I looked up at the cloudless blue sky. “I’m going to get a shower.” I looked back at her. “Do you have anything planned for today?”

She nodded. “Just come over to my place when you’re ready.”

With that, I turned to my apartment while she left for hers. I was very happy that all the apartments were ground level. If I’d had to climb stairs after that run, I would have died. It wasn’t that bad of a run. I was used to it back home, but my legs felt like soggy noodles. After a hot shower, I felt a lot better. Dressed in a deep green t-shirt, denim shorts, another pair of ankle socks, and my tennis shoes, I headed over to Rachel’s.