Chapter 2 Getting along

Chapter 2

What the fvck was Elsa Quinn doing in a gym?

He paused, glancing around the room, and then back at the girl from his own high school.

She didn't look back at him, nor did she appear to care who was in the room. She wore one of the largest, ugliest shirts he'd ever seen.

He saw the signs of perspiration under her armpits. Her thighs were also swallowed up.

She had interrupted his place of peace.

Was this the girl who Sarah was talking about? No, she was going to have to go.

This was his place, his gym.

Moving toward the running machine closest to her, he started at a steady walk.

"What the fvck are you doing here?" he asked.

She tripped, and caught herself by holding onto either side of the machine, turning to look at him.

Her eyes were so dark as she stared at him. Noah forced himself to look right back at her.

There was always something ... inviting about her eyes.

During high school, he'd noticed how dark they were, and how they stared at something, trying to figure it out.

They were beautiful eyes.

"What the fvck are you doing here?" she asked back

"I've been coming to this gym for the past year. What is your reason?" he replied with scrutiny.

"You don't own the gym. You can't stop people from coming here." she retorted

"Are you here with a gang of girls? Did they put you up to this?" Noah looked around, wondering if at any moment one of his ex-conquests was suddenly going to pop out and make an appearance.

"I can't believe your ego. I don't have to take this. There are other rooms." She pressed several buttons, and left the room.

His peace had been ruined because he didn't trust her.

Turning off his machine, he followed her, finding her standing in the weight room. She looked like a fish out of water, exactly as Sarah had described her.

"Do you have a clue what you're doing?"

"God, do you own this room as well?" She walked back into the main hall, and there were several people walking toward them.

Grabbing her hand, he pushed her into one of the private sauna rooms.

"What the fvck are you doing?"

"You don't have a clue what you're doing here, so tell me who put you up to this."

"No one?"

"You just happened to be at Bruce's gym out of pure coincidence." he asked suspiciously

"No, and I don't have to tell you."

"I'll make your life hell at school!" he threatened

She glared. "I dare you, and I'll make sure every single girl knows you're here on a Saturday."

They both stared at each other, neither of them showing signs of winning.

Noan knew it would be bad for him if the girls knew about this.

"I'm here because it's the only place I get peace and quiet. You must have heard what Jessica did?"

"I heard about the scene. Who hasn't?"

"Exactly. I come here so I can work out and be left alone. Now, I've told you why, you tell me?"

He was now calm, knowing she had him at a critical point.

She sighed. "I just want to point out that you interrupted my training time, not the other way around. You could have run anywhere else, and I wouldn't care."

"Fine, just tell me." he almost pleaded.

"I'm doing it as a surprise to my mom."

"I don't get it." he said with a confused look on his face.

"Look at me. I know you all call me fat, cow, whale, chubby. I embarrass my mom, so here I am, trying to make her proud." she replied quickly and looked away

He'd heard all the names she'd been called, and he'd laughed at a couple of them.

But really he didn't see a problem with her weight. So she was a couple of pounds heavier than people would like, so what?

He happened to like her tits. There were many times during gym at school where he'd stared as her tits bounced.

Out of all of the girls in high school, she had the biggest rack.

Damn.

Now his gaze landed on her breasts.

"Seriously? My eyes are up here, you creep." she fired and he looked up immediately.

.

"You don't have a clue what you're doing." Noah argued

"So? I'll figure it out, and come college, there will be a dazzling new me, and there will be no sobbing in sight."

"What you're trying to do is lose weight. Where is your trainer? What are your starting points? What about your diet? There's a lot more to losing weight than just getting on a treadmill, and hoping for the best. You want to be the best that you can be, then you need some help." he persisted

"I don't want to make this complicated, okay? This was just about doing something in private with no one knowing, and now you know."

"Believe it or not, I won't blab." he said with a solemn expression

"Sure you won't."

Her sarcasm was grating on his nerves.

This couldn't be happening. Her perfectly ordered plan of losing weight without anyone knowing was about to be completely ruined.

Elsa forced back the tears as she stared back at the star of her high school.

This sucked.

"I won't. I'm not a fvcking liar." he swore

"Don't swear at me."

They had never spoken more than a handful of words at each other during their time in high school.

"How do I know you're not going to tell everyone?" he queried

"You keep my appearance here quiet, and I won't tell."

"Fine. I can do that."

"Good. Can I go now, or are you going to lecture me about something else?" she asked.

"No, you can go." He released her arm,

and she made her way back toward the treadmill.

The buzz she was getting had disappeared.

The entire encounter with Noah had ruined what she wanted to achieve.

She had done an hour, and that was better than nothing.

Leaving the treadmill, she made her way into the changing room. Instead of sticking around to change, she grabbed her stuff, and headed out into the parking lot.

Sarah was chipper, asking how she got on.

Elsa did her best to smile, and say thank you, but all she wanted to do was escape. Maybe get a large tub of ice cream on the way back.

"Elsa, wait."

She tensed up, glancing behind her to see Noah rushing toward her. This was the last thing she needed.

"What is it?" she asked, turning to look at him.

He ran up to her, and she refused to be drawn to his rock hard body. This was not her. She wanted something more than a pretty face to look at.

"You're serious about losing weight? This wasn't some joke to find out where I was?"

He queried.

"How can you even walk with an ego that size? Yes, this was about me, and what I wanted to do for my mother. It wasn't about you." she replied, now getting irritated

"I'll help you."

Elsa jerked back. "What?"

"Look, I know what I'm doing, and you clearly don't. This will be awesome for me to put on my college application."

She shook her head. "No, that's not going to happen. There's no way in hell that I'm going to be-"

"I'll do it anonymously. I can take pictures without your head, or anything that will give you away."

"You can do that?" she asked, curious.

"There are a great many people who like their privacy. I can help you with this."

"And you look awesome for college?"

"It's a win-win for both of us. You lose weight, I get a good education." he offered

She bit her lip, hating and liking it at the same time.

The last thing she wanted to be doing was allowing Noah to be near her. He wasn't an awful guy, but other than being a jock, she didn't know anything about him.

"So what do you say?"

"No one can know about this. Not your friends, or family."

"It's a secret." he promised

"Completely top secret." she added

"Okay, so completely top secret, let's go to my place," he said, walking away from her car.

"What?"

She jerked back and he chuckled

"My place. Let's get started. How long were you on the treadmill?"

"I don't know. I don't want to go to your house."

He turned toward her. "Do you want me to go to yours?"

"No."

"Then where do you expect us to get started?"

"What's wrong in there?"

"No, we've got some preliminary stuff to get done. We do it in there, it's got to be done through Bruce's books."

She groaned. "No, I don't want any record of what we're about to do."

"Then stop being a pain in the arse, and get in my car." he explained with a little frown.

"What about my car?" she asked.

"You don't want anyone to know about this, right?"

"Duh."

"Well duh, right back at you. Your car in my driveway is going to have a lot of people curious, asking questions. Do you want them asking shit about this?"

Once again she was stumped.

"You're right."

"You know, for a smart girl, it doesn't show."

She glared at him but couldn't find a reason to tell him otherwise.

Climbing into the front seat of his car, she held her bag tightly to her, and stayed silent as he pulled out of the parking lot.

She hated awkward silences, and she felt utterly tense.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said.

"Oh, I know. I could probably squash you anyway."

"Okay, rule one, do not put yourself down like that."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't want any fat jokes, or comments when you're with me."

She frowned. "I get called them at school. In fact I've been called a lot worse, by you and your friends."

"Actually, not by me. I don't get involved with that crap. My friends, that's their deal, not mine. I don't put anyone down. I don't believe in that. In fact I actually believe in karma."

"Karma?"

"Yeah, if I start putting you down for your weight or whatnot, then later in life I'm going to be hit by something that's going to make my life suck. So, I live in a nice little bubble, and it works for me."

"Wow, a jock who is weird, who knew?" she asked. "What do you tell your friends?"

"About what?"

"About where you work out? I thought you guys were supposed to train together or something. You know, compete for how big your dicks are."

"Oh, look at you, knowing what a dick is," he teased, and she rolled her eyes. "You do know what one is?"

"Shut up, Noah."

"You're not a very nice girl."

"I'm a little out of my comfort zone."

"You don't think I am? I intended to relax today, do some weights, some running, maybe some laps in the pool-"

"You consider that relaxing?"

"What do you consider relaxing then?" He glanced over at her.

"Seriously?"

"You say that a lot."

"I know."

"So what do you think is relaxing?" he asked.

"I don't know, anything that is not working out?" She looked over at him.

"Nope, that's not me, I'm afraid. I find sitting around doing nothing stressful."

"You don't have to do nothing. What about a walk in the park? Or maybe going swimming?"

"I would have gone for a swim. We both have different ideas about relaxing."

"There's also my personal favorite, being a slob."

His knuckles were white as they held the steering wheel. She sat back in his seat and watched the scenery go by.

"Jessica doesn't know you're here?" she asked, filling the silence.

"We're not together anymore."

"You're not?"

"Jessica is lying. I'm not with her since before her little outburst a year ago in the gym."

"Wow, a whole year. You still hang out with her."

"She's part of the cheerleading squad, I don't have a choice. What about you, nerd, do you have any guy troubles?"

"Nope, I'm lucky that way." She messed with the flap on her bag, and as she did, she couldn't believe that she was sitting in Noah's car, on the way to his house.

This went against every single rule that she'd ever known.

"You're the first girl to think not having a guy is lucky. You're weird."

"Don't be mean."

"Come on, there's not some guy you want to make out with, get married and have loads of little babies?"

"Ew, gross, no, there is not." Who was this guy?

"Have you ever made out with a guy?"

"No!"

"That answers all of those questions."

"What questions?"

"If you've never made out with a guy then you've never done anything else. You're a virgin."

"Shut up!" she yelled

She couldn't believe this was even up for discussion. Actually, it wasn't. She wasn't going to get drawn into that conversation, not now, not ever.

He chuckled. "You're so funny."

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"It wasn't that hard."