After the Fact (Bookworms and Booya #2)

  Chapter Two

  Working It Out

  I stared at the ceiling of my room for about three hours before my alarm went off. Why? Because of a single thought, and the ripples that came after a realization finally hit me.

  Zell was my boyfriend.

  Zell was my boyfriend.

  Zell was my boyfriend.

  Of course I was shocked. After all, why would Zell want to go out with someone as timid as me when he was so outgoing and so Zell? But that wasn’t what had me wide-awake from two o’clock in the morning.

  We were going to work out.

  We’d worked out before, certainly, but Zell was my boyfriend now.

  I slapped my hand to my forehead so hard it stung. What was the big deal? Well, workouts with Zell and me the week before involved a lot of body contact as he worked on my balance and my coordination. We sparred to work on defense, too, and to get me used to different parts of my body.

  Add the ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ factor, and, well, urp.

  Oh boy.

  I could just imagine a whole bunch of things, especially with how ‘wired’ and ‘touchy’ he’d been the day before, and how much I had liked it while being embarrassed by it at the same time. How in the world was I going to survive my first workout session with him as his girl-friend?

  This was Zell.

  Releasing a very deep and very long breath, I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed to stare at my toes and wonder what I was going to do. Just act normal? But I didn’t know what normal was when I had a boyfriend like Zell. How did someone act normal when they were going to be sparring with their boyfriend?

  And he was so cute!

  I whimpered, giving my braid a tug as I forced myself to stand and go through my morning routine. I was putting on my sweatshirt after braiding my wet hair when there was a recognizable knock on the door. There was no way I could walk over and open it at first. I mean, all I could do was stare while visualizing Zell’s smiling face on the other side and once more wondering how I would work out with my boyfriend when I could barely act like a girlfriend to my boyfriend!

  The knock sounded again and I twitched.

  “Sally? You awake?”

  Before, he’d always met me in the Training Center. Now, he was meeting me here and walking me places if he could. To class. To work. To lunch or dinner. “Y-Yeah,” I squeaked out, knowing he more than likely couldn’t hear me. Come on, Sally. You’ve made it this far. Just relax!

  No stressing.

  Letting out a quick breath, I forced my feet to move toward the door, and my hand to reach out to twist the knob. To my surprise, Zell was leaning against the far wall, his hands in his pockets and his left foot resting back against the wall as he simply smiled. I blushed and smiled back.

  “Mornin’, beach bunny. Thought I was gonna have to go looking for ya.”

  “Beach–-What happened to Meg?”

  “After seeing you in a wet T-shirt that says beach bunny? Nothing doing.”

  I flushed but ignored it. I knew Zell said things like that just to get the reaction. “I like Meg,” I told him quietly.

  Zell smirked. “I’m not saying I’ll never use it. Depends.” Then he pushed from the wall and sauntered up to me, motioning toward me with a lift of his chin while keeping his hands in his pockets. “Got everything?”

  Wordlessly nodding, I pulled the door closed, my hand gripping the knob a moment before once more facing him to give yet another timid smile. Just relax. You guys have fun when you work out, and you can’t do that if you’re freaking out!

  As we walked down the dorm hall toward the main corridor, Zell gave my arm a nudge with his elbow, drawing my gaze. “You OK?”

  I didn’t want to risk the squeak, so I only nodded while fisting my hands in my sweatshirt pockets and wondering how to ask something like ‘How are we going to do this now?’ and not certain if I would survive the embarrassment. Our workout sessions already had some pretty embarrassing moments of unintentional contact.

  Flushing a different shade of red than I had ever done in my life, I looked away.

  I couldn’t believe how quiet we were on the way from the dorms to the Training Center. Of course, like I’d said, Zell usually met me there, so I was used to walking it alone. And when we walked anywhere together--before and after being boyfriend/girlfriend--we usually chatted about his class that day, work in the library, or something else. This silence was so icky, and I had no idea what to do to make it different. Of course, maybe it wasn’t icky for Zell? Maybe I was the one being paranoid?

  I wouldn’t put it past me. I mean, I was a bookworm and he was. . .Zell.

  We turned down the main corridor toward the Training Center, still silent. When I realized I was clenching my jaw as well as my fists, I forced myself to release a calming breath and tried to push the stress out of my head. Come on, Sally. If you’re stressing like this, he’ll know it the minute he puts your butt in the dirt. And then he would ask me what the problem was, not taking ‘nothing’ for an answer.

  I let out another breath, and then a third. All slow and rhythmic like what Zell had taught me to get my ‘center’ and focus right where it needed to be. I think Zell sent me some sidelong glances, but I couldn’t be sure because I was trying to not think about anything but keeping the panic at bay.

  I really did not like tough situations.

  Turning down the side hall to the Training Center, I noticed my step forward had turned into more of a shuffle. Zell sent me a glance I couldn’t help but notice this time, and adjusted his step to stay even with me. Oh man, oh man, oh man, was my mantra now because I had no idea what else to think.

  Or do.