Violet's Delight

Chapter 9: The Track

~Marco's POV~

I am the jealous type.

That's all I have to say, goodbye.

No, but for real, when I saw Noah and Violet walking in the gym together, laughing together, something inside me raged.

It was the same feeling I get when I'm in the middle of a fight.

They were so visibly comfortable with each other. Like, when did they even meet? At lunch? Why and how? Why were they so buddy-buddy? They were so obviously flirting it made my stomach do backflips to look at their shoulder shove dynamic.

I mean, there's nothing to be jealous of, right? She has the right to flirt with whoever she wants. We're not together. But it's so weird to think about how she shot down all my moves to get closer to her, then she meets Noah. That didn't look like her shooting him down. And that's what made me jealous. Jealous that Noah's baby blue eyes could melt any girl's defenses. Even Violet's. But that didn't make any sense to me.

"Slow down!" Kai called from behind me.

We had started running on the track for what Mr. Bostik calls, "Monday, Funday, Runday." We run a mile every Monday.

I complied and started walking. We just had to finish under 12 minutes and we would be marked a perfect score and by the pace I started running at, let's just say I had some time to spare.

Kai had caught up to me and started walking beside me.

"Okay. Just spit it out. I saw the way you looked at Noah and Violet. Just say whatever you're thinking because if you keep clenching your jaw that tight, you're going to break your teeth soon," Kai stated.

I unclenched my jaw.

"You saw what I saw. It was... weird. A girl, actually no one for that matter, has never made Noah laugh like that before. And with Violet, from what I've seen, the only reason she would let anyone touch her is because she would use that force against them to tackle them to the ground," I explained.

"Yeah. It was weird," Kai admitted. "I also don't get why Noah left in such a hurry and in such a depressed mood then when we see him ten minutes later he's all sunshines and rainbows like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders."

"That's an interesting comparison. Now that I think about it, he's looked like he's had that 'weight' on his shoulders since school began. I guessed that he was keeping a secret from us, but I thought he would tell us when he was ready. I think he tried to tell us at lunch today," I explained to Kai.

"...Yeah," Kai agreed, deep in thought.

We had started approaching the beginning of the loop by then when Noah and Violet jogged up to stand beside Coach Bostik. Violet was standing directly beside Noah and wow she was short. She had to trade in her runway high heels for sneakers and now she was at her natural height. Noah was only two inches shorter than me and she was a midget compared to him, her head only just passing above his shoulder.

She'd be even shorter beside me.

"You have 8 minutes left. Go run," was all Coach said.

Noah and Violet shared a glance. Then a smile broke out on Noah's face as he said, "Race ya!" and started to run.

"Oh, you're so on!" she called after him as she started running to catch up to him.

"Well, would you look at that?" Kai whistled beside me. That was an appropriate response.

Violet was short, but she was strong. She was also super fast. She caught up to him with ease and passed him with a strong steady running pace.

"Eat my dust, blondie!" she called with a foxish grin farther away from him.