Lemon Water // Paul Lahote

ninety one

Paul

Three hours. She's been sprinting on the treadmill for three entire hours. I don't know how she's still going anymore. Maybe it's the transformation that giving her all this extra energy, or maybe its the adrenalin from the nightmare she just had. "Sam" I said and his head snapped to look at me, "We have to take her off. She's going to run herself into the ground"

"What time is it?" he asked, making no move to stop her.

"It's almost three in the morning. She has school in a few hours. She needs to get some sleep"

He nodded and together me made our way over to her. She was oblivious to us, in a point past exhaustion. Her movements were sloppy, a sign that her body was about to give in. As Sam pulled the key out of the treadmill, I pulled her into my arms, carrying her away from the machine. 

"NO! NO I HAVE TO BE FASTER! THEY'RE GOING TO TIE BECAUSE OF ME!" she screamed, trying to lunge out of my arms. I held onto her tighter, walking from the room as she continued to scream at me.

She quickly tired herself out, falling into a restless sleep. The peace was short lived, however, because during the ride to Sam and Emily's place she woke up from another nightmare. "NOOO! PLEASE!" 

"Shhhh. Shhh, Serena, baby, it's ok. It was just a dream. It's not real" I cooed to her, stroking her hair.

Emily met us at the door of the small cabin, "I drew her a bath" She said tiredly, she's obviously been up all night stressed. I carried Serena into the house, following behind Emily to the bathroom.

Re Re was in a sort of zombie like state at this point, not making any sound and kind of just staring off into space. "You can set her on the toilet, I'll help her out if she needs it" Emily whispered, ushering me out as soon as I let her go.

"I'll be right outside, ok Re?" I said, making eye contact with her. Serena nodded, sending a teeny tiny smile my way.

A minute later, Emily joined me outside the door as well, "She didn't want any help. I'll check on her in like 10 minutes"

Emily left the hall, leaving me standing there waiting for my imprint to finish washing up. I didn't want to say it out loud, but she reeked of sweat. I slid down the wall and sat there waiting for her, but I didn't have to wait for very long. "Paul?" she called out so quietly I almost didn't hear it, even with my enhanced hearing.

I rushed into the bathroom to find her standing there in a towel, staring at me, "What's the matter?" I asked concerned

"I don't have any clothes" she mumbled, looking down embarrassed.

I listened to the house for a second, and found that Emily was fast asleep despite saying that she would come back to check up on Serena. Losing the only reasonable option we had, I decided to peel my shift off and hand it to her. She looked at me like I was stupid, then she laughed at me.

"Thanks, Paulie, but I need underwear"

"Who says you need underwear?" I asked her, wiggling my eyebrows at her.

Before she could respond, a loud cough interrupted us. "I do" Sam said, appearing from thin air, "I brought your gym bag in. Hopefully you listened to Emily and kept an extra set of clothes in there"

"Thanks, Sam. Get out Paulie" she shut the door in my face and Sam glared at me. 

"Don't even think about it, Lahote. We hear each others thought, remember? I know everything" He grumbled, shoving past me to go up to bed.

A few minutes later, Serena opened the door wearing my shirt and a pair of her gym shorts. "Ready for bed Paulie?"

"What's up with calling me Paulie all of a sudden?" I asked her, grabbing her hand as she lead me to the guest bedroom.

"I don't know. You don't have any good nicknames so I figured I'd make one up. Is it not ok?"

"I love it. Now go to bed. We have to be up in three hours"

Serena

Sleep didn't come, and when it finally did, it was restless. Around Paul I had to act ok, but I wasn't. Someone is going to die because of me on Friday. Someone was going to die if I didn't get faster. I didn't even know who it was yet, all I knew was that an innocent life will be lost because of Luke's stupid obsession with me.

I was wide awake when the alarm started to ring. I worked quickly, urging Paul to get ready faster so I could stop by the gym for a little bit before classes started. "No, Serena, you need to eat before we leave" Paul pushed as I tried to drag him out to the truck.

"Paul, please? I can eat a granola bar on the way"

"No. I'm barely supporting this crazy idea you have as it is. If you're going to do this, you need to do it on my terms. No skipping meals, no just eating something quick. You're going to kill yourself if you don't"

I nodded and sat at the table next to Sam, putting an egg and some hash browns on my plate and beginning to eat. Despite being annoyed by him, I knew that Paul was looking out for me. They were all looking out for me, but this is something that had to be done on my own. If I was constantly being swarmed by them, there's no way that Luke and his buddies would strike. That meant more deaths at my dispense. I ate quickly and ran outside, waiting for Paul to finish also. That kid can eat a lot, and he's taking away precious training time. 

While I was waiting, I planned out my schedule. Get to school. Run. Go to class. Eat Lunch quickly. Run. Finish Classes. Go to practice. Run. It seemed simple, but I knew that it wouldn't be as easy as that. They wouldn't let me run for long today, especially not after practice. I had three days to get better. To be faster than him. I needed every second that I could get.