Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series) (27 page)

Then just as fast as I feel the pull, I begin to feel the
downgrade of the hill and try to slow myself down. It doesn’t last too long
because as I start enjoying the break, I feel the increase again. I have to
keep chanting to myself: Earn the downhill, earn the downhill, it’s just up
ahead. If you don’t get up and over this hill, you won’t get to go down. I hope
that it will distract me completely.

It continues like this for the next hour and my body starts
to feel like it wants to give up. I see more and more mile markers whizz by me,
helping me to keep going. I’m more than halfway into the race and I’m keeping a
really good pace. I start to feel my infamous wall coming up ahead as I’ve
passed the marker for the 19th mile. But I’m surprised when I see my friends
standing in plain view with signs up ahead.

Kelly’s sign says,
“Kick this race’s ass Abi.”

Trey is holding a sign saying,
“Earn your fucking beer
supermodel.”

But, the one that makes me almost stop in my tracks and
brings a huge smile across my face is David’s. He’s holding a sign that says,
“Don’t
give up beautiful. I’m waiting for you!”

I just wave to my friends with watery eyes, and push past my
wall.

I’ve timed my playlist to start playing songs that will help
push me.
Disturbia
starts to blast into my ears and the beat is what I
need right now as I dig deep and push my body. I slowly start to increase my
speed and watch the signs go by one by one. I finally reach the 23rd mile and I
give it my all, knowing I’ve only got three more miles to go and I could easily
run this with my eyes closed. I turn down my shuffle, allowing the screaming
crowd to push me to the end.

As the course starts to become a straight line I dig even
deeper, begging my legs to pick up the pace and then I see the crowd start to
become fuller. Knowing the finish line is within reaching distance, I start
sprinting the last 1.2 miles. At this point my legs are burning, my chest is
digging for air, but I ignore the pain and tell myself it will all be worth it
when I’m done.

Then I see it, the finish line clock. It reads 3:23:32 and
I’m thinking to myself, there is no fucking way I’m letting this race beat me,
and try to speed my legs up even faster. As I’m crossing the finish line I see
Matt and Julio on the other side and I keep running past the guys in tuxedos
and straight into Matt’s body, forcing him to catch me as I jump up on to him.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, one arm around his neck, I throw my other
fist up into the air in triumph. I’m beaming from ear to ear with my smile,
with the crowd cheering loudly around me. I look down at Matt and he’s just as
proud of me as I am myself. I wrap my other arm around his neck hugging him for
dear life, still wrapped around his body. I don’t want him to ever let me go.

I finally feel someone tap me on the shoulder and I turn to
face one of the guys in the tuxedos, holding a finisher’s medal in his hands. I
unwrap my legs and arms from around Matt, as he lowers me to stand on the
ground. Once the tuxedo guy is done hooking the medal over my neck, he places a
kiss on my lips saying, “Congratulations on your race, Abigail.”

Matt isn’t too happy about this and glares at the guy ready
to kill him, making Julio pull him back a little distance. I ignore Matt and
say to the guy, “Thank you,” as I hug him and give him a big smile.

Take that, Matt. How does it feel to see me kissing someone
else? I think to myself as I start to walk away, going to get my well-deserved
snacks with the other runners.

As I’m chugging my chocolate milk I see a women walk right
up to me.

“Ms. Adams, my name is Rebecca. I’m with Women’s Running
World magazine and we would love to do an interview of you to feature in an
upcoming issue,” she says while holding her card out to me.

Matt takes it and looks down at it, concentrating on the
card in his hand, but I keep looking at her, considering her offer before
saying, “I would love to.”

She smiles and says, “Good. I’ll keep in touch. I have your
assistant’s information that I got from Paul,” she says looking at Matt, “but
if you need to contact me sooner my cell number is also on the card. Thank you,
and congratulations on your qualifying time. I can’t wait to see you run
Boston,” she states and shakes my hand before disappearing into the crowd.

This is when it hits me. “I made my time!” I shout at Matt,
making him and Julio laugh loudly.

I had totally forgotten about my time as I crossed the finish
line. We finally leave the crowd and make our way back to our hotel room where
the cheering trio is waiting for me when I walk through the door.

Kelly throws herself at me, giving me a tight hug. Then Trey
comes next, picking me up as usual, swinging me around in a circle. I look over
at David and smile remembering his sign.

“Thanks for the signs you guys, I really needed them at that
moment,” I say with a thankful smile.

That must have reminded Trey of my beer because he runs over
to the mini fridge pulling out my favorite beer, twists the cap off, and hands
me the bottle. I take it from him and instantly take a drink, savoring the
taste. Damn right I earned this beer, I think to myself as I groan into the
bottle.

Everyone laughs and they start drinking along with me. After
finishing my beer and taking my ice bath for my legs, I finally take the nap
that my body is so desperately craving. The only thing missing is Matt’s body
next to mine as I drift into peaceful sleep.

I END UP sleeping until early
afternoon, my body finally catching up with its much-needed sleep. When I wake
up, I take a shower and get ready for our early dinner. As we are heading to
the exclusive restaurant where Matt arranged for us to eat, I keep beaming from
the excitement of the day. I’m so happy. I feel like nothing in the world could
bring me down at this moment. However, that all changes as we enter the
restaurant. I see Laura standing near the hostess podium and she lights up when
she sees us enter.

I stop walking and Matt crashes into me from behind. I whip
my head around to glare at him with a very confused look. He didn’t mention
inviting her, what is she doing here?

Julio walks past us and up to the hostess to inform her we
are ready to be seated, probably trying to get us to our table as fast as
possible to avoid a confrontation at the entrance.

Matt sympathetically looks at me. “I’m sorry. I forgot to
mention that I invited her yesterday when I had lunch with her,” he says,
looking frantically from her to me. “If you want, I’ll ask her to leave?”

I look back at her and she’s still beaming, looking straight
at Matt. “No. I’d hate to be a high-strung bitch and ask your guest to leave,”
I say to him, allowing our little group to be the only ones to hear my
response.

Kelly steps up beside me, hooking her arm into mine, tugging
me forward to follow the hostess as she leads us to the table. I had requested
that Matt reserve a private room for us so we could have enough space for all
of us and not draw a crowd if we decided to get loud, as we usually did.

Once we’ve reached our table, Kelly as usual, takes a seat
beside me. But as I’m walking I tug on Trey’s arm and pull him to the seat next
to me, leaving Matt across from me and confused. It only makes Laura happier
since it leaves him to take the seat next to her.

I just sit there, ignoring my menu and stare daggers at
Matt. He notices and tries to rub my leg with his. When I feel him, I end up
kicking him in the shin causing him to jerk his leg up, hitting his knee
against the table. The glasses on the table begin to rattle and everyone is
wondering why.

Kelly looks at me curiously and I whisper into her ear about
what just happened, causing her to throw her head back, laughing loudly. Matt
just glares at Kelly and she sticks her tongue out at him, still leaving
everyone else at the table wondering what the heck is going on. I finally allow
myself to focus on the menu, feeling better about the situation in front of me.

“So Abigail, I heard about your qualifying time this morning.
Congratulations by the way. But I saw the time online and noticed that you only
made it by like seven minutes. I thought with all the hype they were giving
you, you’d be a lot faster,” she says in a condescending tone, before she takes
a sip of water.

I sit there praying she chokes on her water. “I was only
aiming to qualify, not run with the elite. All the hype they gave me wasn’t as
big as I thought. Being that I didn’t actually start with the elite, it
shouldn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out I wasn’t one.”

Obviously she doesn’t like my response. “Yeah, but with the
weeks leading up to the race, that’s all they kept talking about, you aiming to
make the qualifying time. I thought it was kind of unfair how it outshone the
important runners.”

I want to jump over the table and rip her hair out. Why in
the hell am I letting this short little bitch get to me? As I’m about to give
her a piece of my mind David speaks up.

“The whole point of Abigail running this race was for her to
have a chance to qualify for Boston, which she did,” he forcefully states. “If
everyone else blew it out of proportion against her will, she has no control
over that.”

At this moment the waiter shows up to take our order and I’m
thankful for it. As we are placing our orders, I’m forced to sit there,
ignoring Laura making googly eyes at Matt. Needing to distract myself, I turn
to face Kelly to talk about the race. I tell her about the hills and how I kept
chanting to myself, and I notice that Laura keeps interrupting us by adding her
two cents as well. Like, “Oh yeah, I thought those hills would kill me too.”
And, “I love how the crowd comes out and cheers everyone on.” It’s like she was
purposely paying attention to my conversation and trying to outdo me.

I look at Matt, wondering why he doesn’t tell her to shut
the hell up, but he’s looking very uncomfortable, almost as if he wants to bolt
for the door. Normally I would have felt sorry for him, but being that he’s the
reason why I’m stuck in this situation I simply sit there glaring at him.

The food finally arrives allowing me to focus on my food and
giving me a reason to keep my mouth shut. The guys, including Julio, who I
insisted last night start sitting at the table along with us, start talking
about football. Since it was something that I hear every day at home, I decided
to shut them out.

“Whoa Abigail, that is a lot of food. Aren’t you worried
about your weight if you eat like that?” Laura asks, eyeing my steak and
lobster. “I thought models rarely eat and when they do, they stick to salads?”

Matt finally speaks up to defend me by saying. “Abigail runs
a lot, and whatever she eats gets burned off anyways.”

Laura frowns at Matt. “Wow, lucky you. I have to constantly
watch what I eat, but of course not everyone is as lucky as you to have that
body. Are you sure it’s only the running that keeps the weight off?” she asks,
glancing over at Matt.

I take a deep breath, using every ounce of control, as I
grab for my glass of water. Trey snaps at her, “Shut the hell up Laura. Just
‘cause you want to get back into Matt’s pants doesn’t mean Abigail is wanting
the same.”

I practically choke on my water, making me cough for air.
Kelly slaps me on the back to help me catch my breath. The only thing that’s
been in his pants is my hand. It was nice of Trey to stand up for me, but he
knows damn well how badly my body really wanted Matt. By the way he worded it,
he made it seem like I had already gotten in.

This obviously upsets Laura and she stands up. “I have to go
to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” she snaps at us, throwing her napkin on
the table.

By the look on her face, I really doubt she has to pee, but
I don’t blame her for wanting to get away from this table at this moment, that
was exactly what I wanted to do, but she beat me to it. What pisses me off is
that Matt stands up after her and begins to follow Laura away from the table
without saying a word.

We all sit there at the table in silence for a couple of
minutes trying to avoid bringing up what just happened. Then I realize that I
really
do have to pee. I had constantly kept drinking water to keep the hurtful words
that I wanted to throw at Laura from spewing from my mouth. Plus, the waiter
does his job so well. He kept refilling my glass. Great, now it’s going to look
like I’m purposely trying to follow them.

I give it a couple of more minutes, but after squirming in
my seat, I’m about to pee my pants. I inform Julio that I have to go to the
bathroom and he nods his head and stands up with me, making our way to the
bathroom after asking our waiter in which direction to walk.

As we begin to near the doors I see a small corner leading
to what must be a storage room and instantly spot Matt and Laura closely facing
each other. They’re clearly still speaking, but I see Laura suddenly reach up
to wrap her arms around Matt’s neck, pulling him down towards her.

As Matt allows himself to be pulled down, my breathing
hitches to a stop. My heart feels like it has stopped beating completely and
has dropped to the pit of my stomach. I simply stand there, paralyzed, not
being able to move at all. When I see their lips meet my body feels like it’s
been completely drained of life. I gasp without realizing that I had made a
sound with it.

I’m quickly pulled back. My body is being forced to move,
and the only thing I can do is allow it to be led away. When I’m finally able
to bring myself back to reality, I feel Julio’s large body next to mine, his
arm wrapped around my waist, walking alongside me.

I realize he’s leading me away, and the shock has finally abandoned
by body. I start to understand that he’s leading me back to our table and I
already know I don’t want to be here any longer.

At this point I forget all about needing to go pee and when
we reach our table I start to silently cry, letting the tears trickle down my
cheeks. I urgently start looking for my purse under the table, grabbing it,
ready to bolt to the door.

Kelly takes one look at me. “What’s going on Abigail?”

I shake my head, sniffling my tears up, and turn to head out
of the restaurant. We leave them there, wondering what is wrong with me.

As we reach outside, Julio is about to call for the hired
car, but I stop him, stating that they’re going to need it to get back and I
start to flag down a taxi. I’m relieved when one stops right away. We climb in,
Julio informs the taxi driver of our hotel and we make our way there.

A minute later I start to hear about a teenage dream singing
from my purse and I sit there ignoring it. It stops and then starts up again,
this time Julio takes the purse from me, digging around until he finds it. He
pushes the ignore button on the top of the phone and then promptly turns it
off, before placing it back into my purse. I was so grateful he did. Right now
Laura was the one enjoying Matt’s teenage dream, and the last thing I wanted
was to be reminded of it.