Mackenzie

Waking up is literal hell. I mentally cuss out Hannah 18 different ways before I manage to make it out of bed. How did I let her talk me into this bullshit?

My eyes feel grainy from crying, but I force myself to shove my contacts in them anyway. I blink rapidly about 500 times before they feel like they are in my eyes correctly.

"Mack?" Hannah whisper screams at me from the kitchen.

"What?" I hiss back.

"Do you want a protein bar?"

"Yeah."

We sneak out of the house as quietly as possible. I drive us to school and Hannah blasts music shockingly loud for 6:13 AM.

"If we go deaf at 33, I'm blaming you." I tell her as we step out of the car.

"Eh." Hannah says. "It's not that loud." She must be partially deaf already.

When we make it inside the student gym, we take a pause. The gym is extremely busy for it being before 7. Usually it's moderately busy, but it definitely looks extra full.

I spot Dane bench pressing, and look away quickly. Why is the baseball team here? And how has Dane suddenly appeared everywhere that I am now that I've made his acquaintance?

"Wow, working out with a view." Hannah smiles widely. "Whatever caused them to be here, I hope they never leave." She strides off to start warming up, leaving me on the edge of the gym floor, very uncomfortable.

I decide that a bike ride is appropriate, since my back will be to all the baseball boys, and I won't have to acknowledge them at all. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through tutoring Dane without ever interacting with a baseball jock, but I'm confident that I'll figure it out.

I get on the bike and start easy. Thirty minutes in, I'm panting and I hate myself. So when Dane slaps me on the back, I start wheezing.

"Savior!" Dane says, instead of saying good morning like a normal person.

"Hey." My voice is embarrassingly breathy. "Why are you here?" It comes out kind of rude, but Dane just laughs.

"There was a water leak in our gym this morning."

"Oh." It's all I can manage

"I'll work out here more often, now that I know you work out here." Dane winks at me. My stomach flips and I tell it to get a grip on itself.

Dane hops on the bike next to me, and immediately puts it past the resistance that I have it on. He makes it look fucking easy, and while one part of me absolutely hates him for it, another part is impressed.

"This is convenient, because I wanted to find you today to schedule my first tutoring session."

"Of course you did." I mutter, not wanting to show weakness in front of Dane and decrease the resistance, but also I'm barely able to speak.

"Mackenzie. It's nice to see you again." Noah gets on the bike on my other side. I'm ready to kill myself, when I look up and see Hannah looking at me, a massive smile on her face. Both Noah and Dane are looking at me, and Hannah gives me a massive thumbs up. If there was a bridge in front of me, I'd throw myself off of it. I preferred it when no hot baseball boys had taken any interest in me whatsoever.

"Hey, Noah."

"Sorry, I kind of sicced Dane on you." Noah says. I really like Noah, he'd been my partner on several class assignments my sophomore year and actually pulled his weight. He was a physics major and the man was smart as hell. I just wish he hadn't given me a glowing recommendation to Dane.

"Yeah, I gathered." I mutter.

"What she's trying to say, is thank you." Dane tells Noah. "She already got free pizza out of it and she didn't even have to do anything."

I give up and lower the resistance on the bike so that I can actually reply to Dane without gasping for breath. "Pretty sure that pizza takes a couple days off of my life every time I eat it." I tell Dane, a small smile on my face. "Not sure I should be thanking you for that."

Dane chuckles and increases the resistance on his bike. It's official, I hate him. On my other side, Noah is peering at Dane's resistance and raising his own so that he's one above him.

"I have comp sci at 10 this morning." Dane says, raising his resistance by two. Noah groans, and I hear two beeps as he raises his resistance to pass Dane again. They must be close to reaching the limit on the bikes. "And usually we have an assignment due on Wednesday."

"Alright." Now that I've caught my breath, I increase my resistance again, even though I'm nowhere near Noah and Dane's level. "When are you free today?"

"Wow, making the man start his homework early. This is going to be a change." Noah says, now beginning to sound a little bit out of breath.

"If we don't get through it today, I want time tomorrow." I turn to tell Noah. Noah has a massive grin on his face, he's clearly enjoying harassing Dane a great deal.

"Poor Dane." Dane shoots a glare at Noah. "You signed up for this, bud."

"At your recommendation!" Dane sounds exasperated.

"Well, we can't have our star pitcher getting kicked off the team for letting his grades slip. No team, no pro career." Noah laughs. "It's not my fault that you chose to major in Biology. Should have picked an easier subject." Noah hops off his bike, clearly satisfied that he's worked Dane up enough.

I look over at Dane, shocked that he's majoring in Biology. I would have expected a fluffier major, something easier. Especially for someone who was thinking of going pro. Why choose something hard at all?

"Biology?" I manage to gasp even though my lungs feel like they might be collapsing.

"I just find it really interesting." Dane says defensively. "And on the off chance that I don't get to go pro, I want a degree in something I like." I've never heard someone claim they like majoring in biology. Most of them just complain about how hard it is and get a superiority complex that their major is better than every other major that has ever existed. "Plus, girls love a guy who seems smart." He winks at me, and I roll my eyes.

"Okay, smart guy." I huff. Dane's smirk doesn't waver, and he continues to out-pedal me with disturbing ease. "When are you free today?" I ask for a second time.

"Class from 9 to 1. And we've got a practice today from 2 to 5."

"I've got class at 1, and I run a newspaper meeting at 5. I'll be done by 6 though."

"6 it is." Dane hops off the bike. "What kind of food do you like? I'll bring you dinner." Dane pulls out his phone, opens the notes, and types my name.

"Do you know that sandwich place right off of campus?" I ask.

"Oh yeah, the one with the big sign." Dane nods. "What do you want me to get you?"

After I tell him, he shoves his phone in his pocket and gives me another heart-stopping smile.

"I'll meet you at the library at 6, savior."

After Dane leaves, I lower the resistance on the bike substantially, worried that by trying to not show weakness I've actually ruined my heart.

"That was the best thing I've ever seen." Hannah drapes herself across the bike next to me. "A Mack and Baseball Player sandwich."

"Yeah." I mutter.

"What does Dane want?" Hannah stretches, using the bike to anchor herself.

"I agreed to tutor him in computer science." I tell her.

"Ooo, Mack. Spicy!" She slaps me on the back. "Gonna live out some tutoring fantasies, huh?"

"He has a girlfriend." I say, trying not to blush. Honestly, I'm not sure Hannah would be able to tell because my face is beet red from biking. "Plus, I'm not sure dumb jock is my type."

"Hot jock is everyone's type, Mack." Hannah corrects me, winking at me as well. What is everyone's deal with winking today?

"I don't think anything will happen." I tell her firmly. "I don't think he's interested in me in that way."

"Sure." Hannah says, drawing out the word. "I'll make sure the house knows you've got dibs on him anyway."

"You can't dibs people, Hannah. They have to want you back."

"Eh. Details." Hannah waves her hand. "That was the hardest I've ever seen you bike though. I'm here for it."

"Yeah." I finally let myself stop.

"I can't wait to tell Penny and Kate about this." Hannah bounces on her toes, looking like she could do another workout. I, on the other hand, would be happy to just collapse onto the floor.

"Great." I mutter, before following her into the locker room to get ready for the day.