*huff* *puff* "Fivvve...four...three...two...ONE!" "Ok...another...60 seconds then 25 minutes after that." I sighed heavily.

That's what I always tell myself to keep me motivated but is it just me or is jogging the first few minutes always feel like a thousand pounds is weighing me down? Yea, I think I'm just not fit enough yet.

This is torture in the form of exercise to keep my body in shape. However, I still do it because I really do enjoy the after effects of it. As they say, one run a day, keeps the piggy away. I mean, who doesn't like a nice, toned body with sore aching muscles after just a teeny weeny bit of pain? Not me.

The more pain the better. Yup, I'm masochistic like that.

Looking over my left shoulder, my father is doing the highest incline on the treadmill. Although speaking at this time would most likely make my lungs burst, I still asked him the usual question, "what's...your...calorie?" Translation: How much calorie did you burn?

"101, you?" My father replied.

"79, argh…ajjajssh!” Letting out a groan-like noise, I increased my speed from 7 to 8.

Since my weight is considerably less than my father's and therefore a lot harder to drop the calories, I've made it a competition to "catch up" to him. But so far, no luck.

Ok, I'm almost done. Just five more minutes and I'm free. Five more...

When my thirty minutes on the torturing device known to mankind as a treadmill is done. I decided to take a short walk outside the gym to cool myself off. Leaving my father to rest, I went out.

Outside, there was a slight breeze and the sun was slowly setting in the horizon. Stretching, as I walked along the path while also breathing in the cool air deeply.

Opposite the gym is the basketball court and from this distance and my short-sightedness. And based on all the hooting, I could just make out a group of boys around my age playing.

In the background, there was only the sound of cars zooming past in the streets five floors below. That's as quiet as an evening on a Sunday as it could get since Sunday's are always the busiest around the facility floor of my apartment. What with mini get-togethers at the barbecue pit or parties at the banquet hall, there's always something or another going on.

Rounding past the corner, I am fast approaching the basketball court. I wonder who's playing today. Would I know anyone? Nah, most likely not. But a little eye candy won't hurt. Cue evil smirk. Walking by the tall hedges separating the basketball court and the path, there displayed about a dozen guys and from this distance some of them do seem familiar. Dang, do they have lean muscles. Yum. Hold on, do I know any of them? I really need to wear my glasses or invest in some contact lenses at this point.

Then, one of them met my eyes. Realising too late that I was blatantly staring, I quickly averted my eyes. Suddenly, the grass growing out of the path seems really interesting as I not so subtly increased my walking speed.

His face, on the other hand kept drawing itself in my mind and my face instantly blushed upon realising who he was. Oh shiet.

I was a stone's throw away from turning a corner when I heard footsteps catching up behind me. No, please don't approach me. Pleasedon'tpleasedon'tpleasedon't.

"Charlotte! Wait up!" A deep male voice, spoke up.

Then, he grabbed my forearm and I was forced to stop and turn around. Dreadfully. Gosh, this is way embarrassing. When I finally did, he spoke up again. This time a bit lower, "I knew it was you."

Currently standing right in front of me is a guy with dark brownish hair and tanned olive skin. He's tall with his height of at least 5ft 8" compared to my 5ft 4". His body is lean and athletically built with broad shoulders. That's what playing basketball does, I guess.

Going with it anyway, despite my obvious blush, I said, "hi, Tom. Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah, me and the boys are just playing a game." He said with a friendly smile. Dang, he's so hawt when he smiles.

Tom took a step closer and reached his hand out. He was about to say something when one of his "boys" called out to him.

His hand hung just a few inches from my face and instead of withdrawing it, to my surprise, he reached around to my left ear and tucked a stray strand of hair behind it. His fingers grazed the shell of my ear, making me feel hot all over again. "It was nice to talk to you after such a long time. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other." And with that he smirked and jogged back to where he came from.

***

Standing in the long ass line, I was sweating profusely. Just why do I have to be late? I hated being late. It made me flustered and sweaty. I'm currently standing in line to buy my set of textbooks on the first day of college. Yup, I'm late on the first day of school. An entire hour late.

I got the time mixed up and ended up missing the first half of the first class. Blame it on my eyes, I must be going blind. Whatever, I have to hurry up here if I don't want to be late for my next class. Thankfully, I already got Megs to save me a seat.

Handing over the money when my turn was finally up, I hurriedly grabbed the huge stack of books and saying my thanks, I was out of there faster than you can say textbooks. But as luck would have it, I was a klutz.

I am already on my way of speed walking out the foyer to get to my next class when a book slipped from my punny fingers and caused the entire stack in my arms to fall to the floor.

Abruptly stopping, I heaved a long sigh and started stooping down to collect my accounting textbook. But another hand with a darker skin tone beat me to it and I ended up grabbing that hand instead.

I yelped and quickly pulled my hand away.

"In a hurry, are we?" The owner of the hand said. Sighing, as I realised who it was, I looked up to none other than Tom.

"Yeah, I'm late." I said deadpanned.

"Hmm, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, late? Never thought that'd happen." He replied as we worked to gather up all 5 bulky books. He handed it over as I stood up and thanked him.

"So, you go to this college too, huh?" I asked.

His eyes twinkled as he said, "yea".

"Look, I'm really late so I gotta go, thanks for helping." I said turning to go. But he walked with me saying, "yeah, I'll walk you to your class."

"So, how come you're late and on the first day no less?" He asked with a smug look on his face.

"Sometimes people can be late, you know." I said vaguely.

"Right." Was all he said.

When we reached the first floor, I said, "ok, this is it. Thanks for the company." Mumbling softly, I added, "though I didn't even need it in the first place."

But I noticed a smirk on his face anyway, as he nodded and took a step back into the shadows as I walked in. I could feel his stare on my back where a warm feeling lingered.

So who exactly was Tom? Well, his actual name is Thomas Morales.

We met when we were in primary school, he was my tablemate. Back then I was a timid girl and he was just a cool, nice boy. We became really good friends and I developed a little crush on him. It wasn't that obvious or anything, at least I tried not to make it seem so.

And me being the shy girl that I was, I only talked to a few people and those people mostly consisted of those sitting nearest to me in class and my best friend, Megan, who sat right behind me. Then our friendship was so-so when the teacher decided to rearrange our sitting arrangement. He was cool and we joked around which sometimes ended up in me laughing too much. It raised suspicion to Megs and she somehow knew about my crush on him.

He's the kind of guy that's cheeky, cool, outgoing and yet mysterious. Call me dumb but I can never tell what he's thinking.

But Megs and I remained best friends even to this day. In fact, we got much closer after that. We dragged each other out shopping.

She did most of the dragging since I was such an extrovert and preferred staying at home compared to the mall. We did all kinds of silly things together.

So you could say we were inseparable.

And looking back I think hanging out with her made me learn how to express myself more and I gradually came out of my shy girl shell to the new me now. I mean she was my only real friend I had considering that I was such a timid, introverted girl and I tend to care too much about what other people thinks about me. Now? I don't even give two f*cks whether someone thought lesser of me though it does get to me sometimes.

Tom and I didn't really talk much after the switch, all we did was greet each other once in a while and that's it. Then, we graduated primary and on to secondary school we went. We happened to go to the same school although by then my crush on him had already faded to almost nothing. All I felt was a spark every now and then when I saw him walk pass.

Then, came the day I met Joshua Rice. He was on the school's basketball team as was Tom, when I saw them playing on the same court and team together one day. We were in the same class. We grew closer after bonding over a group project and we hung out a lot.

During one of our hangouts he admitted to having a crush on me but it was only one sided as I wasn't into him. We talked and we just became really good friends. Although he was quite the joker and flirty all the time, he was just a really nice guy. Then, we even went out on a date as a joke.

Long story short, I lost a bet so it was sort of a punishment for me but I'm not really complaining compared to the other dares he and Megs made me do.

Don't get me wrong. Josh is a really good looking boy with his dark hair and brown eyes that shone whenever he laughed as he looked at me but he just wasn't the right guy for me. Though, I did catch Megs sneaking glances at him when she thinks nobody's looking. I really ship them both together. I think they would make one cute couple. With Meg's dramatic personality, Josh's joker attitude and the both of them being outgoing people? They are made for each other.

Sometimes, when Josh, Megs and I hung out at his place, he'd invite some of his closer guy friends over to play video games and I'd see Tom once in awhile. He'd joke with Tom that one day, he'd really sweep me off my feet with his irresistible charm and marry me. Then have an entire basketball team of kids and he'd teach them how to play basketball. My reply is always the same with, “dream on, dude, dream on."

But then both of the goons would just smirk and burst out laughing at me. While Josh was being his usual flirty self that I was most accustomed to, sometimes I'd catch Tom staring at me or lingering on me for a second too long whenever he thought that I wasn't looking but I wasn't really sure and I sure as hell wouldn't get my hopes up. I mean my brain could be using my peripheral vision to play tricks on me. You'd know what I mean if you mistake a black plastic bag for a black cat once.

It was like Tom and I's relationship from primary never really ended. We just picked up where we left off. We joked, we teased but that's it.

Tom and I were like best buds but after hitting puberty we were never really the same anymore. We weren't as close like how I wanted us to be. I think it was the part where we were all grown up and a little bit different from the people we were a few years ago.