Page 79 of Racing Hearts

“We, uh, have to practice handoffs. Coach’s orders. Since this is my first time running the 4x400 again, he wants me to do a few to make sure I’m ready.”

“But you don’t even hand off to me. Why would we practice? You hand off to…” Ellie swallowed hard. Just the thought of her made Ellie want to cry. “Sierra.”

Juniper chuckled. “You really think I want to practice with her?”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a problem with her anymore. Just a few days ago, you were offering to help me get her back.”

“Idon’thave a problem with her. I just feel like it would be awkward to be alone with her. What the hell would we talk about?” Juniper brought her hands up in a praying motion and gave Ellie an angelic smile. “Please. It won’t take long. I promise when we get back, I’ll let you wallow in self-pity the rest of the night.”

“I wasn’t wall—” Ellie stopped herself, because there was no point in lying to Juniper. “Fine. Let’s do it.”

A few minutes later, they were at the track. As they got close to it, Juniper pointed and shook her head. “What’s all that shit? Did someone get trash on the track?”

Ellie looked where she was pointing and found that there was what looked to be paper littered around the length of the track.What the hell?That hadn’t been there a little while ago.

Juniper sighed dramatically. “We’re going to have to clean that up. I have to go to the bathroom though, so you’ll have to get started without me.”

Juniper skipped away, leaving Ellie with no choice but to clean up the mess by herself. She walked over to the track and was confused when she found the first piece of paper was taped down.What the hell?

She was about to leave it in case it was supposed to be there for whatever reason, but she noticed her name written across the top.Again… What the hell?

When she picked it up off of the ground, she looked around to try to see if someone was playing a joke on her, but there was no one else there. As she read the note, she had an idea of what might be happening, but she tried to keep herselffrom getting too excited. Apparently, her heart didn’t get the memo since it practically beat out of her chest as she scanned the words.

Ellie,

When I was thinking about where to go to college, I was drawn to West End because of the amazing track program, but also because of this one girl on the team. She ran the same event as me and was ridiculously fast. She was also super hot, but I tried not to think into that too much. I wanted to know her. I wanted to compete with her. She was my hero.

<3

There was no name on the note, but Ellie had no trouble figuring out who it was from. She walked about fifty feet until she was part way around the first turn of the track, where there was another note waiting for her.

We both know how that turned out for me. When I arrived, I kind of thought she was a bit of a bitch. A lot of that had to do with me. You see, I was going through a lot and wasn’t myself. My heart was broken into a million pieces, and I honestly didn’t know if I would ever feel okay again.

Ellie smiled as she walked to the next note that was located at the end of the first hundred meters. Her smile grew even bigger when she picked it up and read what it said.

As the semester went on, I hated that girl more and more. I couldn’t exactly figure out why, but she got under my skin so bad. To make matters worse, everyonce in a while, she actually acted like she wanted to talk to me. How crazy, right? :-p

The rest of the notes were also spaced about fifty feet apart and with each one, Ellie’s smile grew more and more, and her heart filled with more love for the woman the notes were from.

At our first meet before Christmas break, my crazy moms decided to stay overnight even though they were calling for a big snowstorm. We woke up to find it had already started. To make matters worse, my dumbass twin fell and broke her ankle. It turned out she needed a doctor. As fate would have it, the doctor we went to see was the mom of my not-so-mortal enemy. What are the chances, right?

For some reason, my moms agreed to stay at the house with this girl and her moms (they were probably excited to hang out with other gay people). I was not happy about it. I tried my best to ignore her, but she wasn’t having it.

The more I hung out with her, the more I wanted to spend all my time with her. I also couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her. Ugh. Terrible, huh? I had no idea why this girl was having this effect on me, but one thing was for sure—my heart didn’t hurt as much as it had before.

Then one night it happened. We kissed. It was the best kiss of my entire life. That wasn’t the best part of the night though. The best part was falling asleep wrapped in her arms. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so safe and protected. I tried again to runaway from her, but she wouldn’t let me. She had my heart and there was nothing I could do about it, but give in and enjoy the ride.

They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes. I always thought that was because they would disappoint you. It turns out, you shouldn’t meet your heroes, because you just might end up falling in love with them.

Tears came to Ellie’s eyes as she read the last words of the final note over and over again. She kept expecting them to change, as if she had imagined they were there. But they weren’t going away. Was it possible that Sierra was just as in love with Ellie as Ellie was with her?

“It’s true,” Sierra’s voice said from behind her. Ellie turned to find Sierra with a nervous smile on her face. “I’m head over heels in love with you, Ellie. I never should have run away from you, and I promise to never do it again. Well, except maybe on the track.”

Ellie laughed through her tears. “In your dreams, rookie.”

Sierra laughed along with her, tears in her eyes as well. “You’re my dream. You didn’t just repair my broken heart. You made it more full than it’s ever been before. I didn’t know I could love someone this much until I met you. I just hope I didn’t mess everything up. Please tell me I’m not too late.”

Ellie closed the remaining distance between her and Sierra and took Sierra in her arms. “You could never be too late. I’d wait for you forever. That’s what you do when you love someone this much.”

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