YENA

Seeing Adan was strange, like déjà vu or a dream that feels too familiar.

And it was suspicious, how he was always running into me, supposedly on accident.

After he left the bakery, I got a creepy feeling, like I was being watched. But there was literally no one around.

Just the one, tired employee sitting in the back room, resting her head on one hand, and using the other to highlight in a big textbook she was reading.

No one out in the parking lot. Hardly even any cars parked along the main street, and they were all far away.

I shook off the feeling as paranoia. It was just that I was feeling so calm and peaceful, and Adan really startled me, showing up out of nowhere.

As if the universe couldn’t let me have one moment of escape, without reminding me of what drama my life has become.

Seeing him reminded me of Lucy, for some reason. So I called her when I got back to Tina’s house.

“You want to come see my new living situation sometime?” I asked her.

“Totally! When can I come over?”

“Whenever you want, really. The school term doesn’t start for a few weeks still, and I’m waiting on a call from the fashion school for the formal acceptance still. I won’t be able to pick out my classes until then.”

“Oh really? What’s the delay on that? Seems like we’re getting really close to the time when you’d need to get over there and start getting settled in and stuff.”

“Nolan told me he’s working with the school, because they needed some sort of plan in place to make sure I’d be safe while I’m there.”

“Huh. Okay, I guess that makes sense.” Lucy sounded kind of doubtful though.

“Anyway, I’m free as a bird.” I told her. “You just let me know when’s a good time for you.”

“Alright, maybe tomorrow. I’ll text you.”

“Oh, and guess what?”

“Hmm?”

“I ran into Adan this morning. How weird is that? I didn’t I’d ever see him again.”

“Oh… Really? How weird.”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I was over at the bakery by campus and he just… walked in.”

“Really?” Lucy asked again.

Her voice almost sounded like she didn’t believe me.

“Yes, really. He apologized to me too, and said that whole thing with Nolan, when they almost got in a fight on campus… he said it was, like a misunderstanding or something, trying to tell me he didn’t set it up like I thought he did.”

“You really thought he had set that up?”

That question kind of surprised me.

“Well, yeah. It was a whole thing to try to make Nolan look bad. Remember?”

“Huh. I didn’t know that you thought it was intentional… why would Adan even do that?”

I opened my mouth, but stopped myself before I could speak. Lucy didn’t know about Adan’s plans for uprising…

Suddenly, something occurred to me.

“Lucy, have you seen Adan? I can’t believe I never even asked you if you ever talked to him again, after the semester ended.”

“Oh,” she said, “Yeah, I’ve… seen him around.”

Her voice was weird. There was something else that she was thinking but not saying.

“Let’s talk more soon, Yena,” Lucy said. “I gotta go for now, but we’ll make a time to hang soon, okay?”

We got off the call and I sat there a moment, thinking.

Was it possible Lucy and Adan had been… seeing each other?

Maybe even ever since she told him she liked him, way back at the fashion show?

I couldn’t imagine it. Kind of laughed a little thinking about it.

Poor Lucy. She didn’t deserve that. But just thinking about her trying to date someone like Adan, it was ridiculous.

He would eat a sweet, innocent girl like her alive.

I sure hoped there wasn’t anything going there that she wasn’t telling me.

EVAN

This time, Yena was awake and ready in the morning.

She was already waiting for Evan in the kitchen by the time he was dressed and going downstairs.

He really didn’t mean to, but the second he got a full view of Yena in her running outfit, he said, “Wow.”

She was wearing some sleek black leggings that hugged and lifted her curves. He almost could not tear his eyes away from the shape of her hips and legs in them.

Her top half was covered in a big, baggy sweatshirt, so at least there was that.

“What?” Yena asked.

Seemed like she was having to ask him that question a lot lately, in these awkward moments he kept creating between them.

“Just, uh…”

There was no way out of this one.

“You look great, is all.” That was the truth, in short.

He avoided her eyes and made a beeline for the fridge. Grabbed a cold bottle of water and took a sip.

“Ready?” he asked as he turned back to Yena.

“I was born ready,” she said, giggling.

Evan’s hand reached out of its own will and for one more awkward moment, he touched Yena on the cheek. She looked a question mark at him.

His stupid, overactive imagination had him dipping in to kiss her lips next, in a fantasy in his mind…

He pulled away and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

The air outside was chilly, but not bitingly cold. Perfect for a run. And no ice on the ground this morning, either.

Evan and Yena started out jogging side by side.

“So,” he said as they ran. “What kind of workouts you been doing?”

“I started fencing.”

“Fencing? Wow. Sounds fancy.”

Yena laughed breathily. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

It felt a little easier to talk to her like this, when they weren’t face to face, looking each other in the eye.

“You get any good at it?”

She laughed again, then said, “No…” and got a kind of dreamy look on her face, smiling.

“Was it Nolan, teaching you? The fencing?” Evan tried to keep his tone even as he said the prince’s name.

“Uh-huh.”

“Ah.” Evan bit down on all the comments he thought of to make about Nolan.

“It was really fun though, and one of those things where you don’t even realize you’re working out so hard, till you stop and you’re sweating like crazy.”

Great. Now Evan was picturing Yena covered in glistening sweat… and big strong Nolan sweeping her up in his arms.

It was a gross thing to think about… a little growl escaped his lips and he looked over at Yena to see if she noticed.

She was breathing pretty heavy. Her cardio was okay, but definitely not as good as his.

And they were well into the woods now, following the road that would soon start heading uphill onto the mountainside. The noises of nature were all around them – birds, wind in the trees, water dripping last night’s rain onto the forest floor.

“How about you?” Yena asked between long, deep breaths. “You’ve been running this route in the mornings. And what else?”

“Weightlifting,” he said. “Boxing. And I got a personal trainer to shake up my routine, I do bootcamp type stuff with him.”

Yena gave him a sideways glance.

“A personal trainer?”

“Yeah. I’ve been meeting him in the field on campus for one on ones.”

“Wait a second,” she said. “You’re telling me… that you’re actually letting someone else tell you what to do? Mr. Team Captain?”

Evan snorted. “Why’s that so hard to believe?”

“Come on. You love being in charge. I’m just having a hard time imagining you taking orders from anyone.”

“Really? That’s what you think of me?”

“I don’t know,” Yena said. “Maybe I don’t know you as well as I thought I did, Evan. I’m just picturing the way you used to boss your team around, during football practice.”

That made him feel a little bit ashamed.

Yena had never before been this open and honest with him. She was more confident now, and she spoke her mind without hesitation.

He was grateful to know what she really thought about him.

“Anyway,” he said. “This is right about where I usually turn around, at this fork in the road comin’ up here.”

Evan slowed down from a run to a jog.

“You wanna stop for a break?” he asked her. “We could take a breather and rest before heading back.”

“Nah,” she said. She was breathing even heavier now, but doing it steady.

“Alright then.”

They reached the turnaround point, and started going back in the other direction, retracing their steps.

Then Yena flipped around, jogging backward for just a moment so she could look Evan in the eye and say, “Race you home!”

Then she turned back around and started sprinting.

Evan laughed and followed after her.

He enjoyed watching her from behind a little too much though, so he kicked it into high gear and got past her easily.

Back at the house, they paused on the front porch to cool down before going back into the warm house.

“Pretty good,” Evan said. “You’re in decent shape.”

Yena was still trying to catch her breath, and stretching her legs lazily.

“I’m gonna beat you one of these days though,” she said. “You just wait and see.”