Chapter Eighteen:

Something I really missed was my own bed.

Yes, I missed my family, friends, school, hometown. But something I couldn't get over was my bed. As crazy as it sounded, I probably missed my bed the most.

I spent all last night tossing and turning over the large double single bed that I was meant to sleep on. The mattress was probably the softest one you'd find at your local Ikea or maybe Myer, but it was just so soft.

As I laid down in it, my body instantly sunk a few centimetres down because of how soft and thick it was. The linen that had been draped on the bed smelled of expensive soap and also had a sense of Resdue smell towards it.

When I thought about it as well, I wasn't sure what Resdue smell would actually classify. There wasn't a familiar smell that you'd just go, oh this smells like The Resdue. But when you smell it, you kind of just know.

The pillow my head laid against was probably the most fluffiest pillow as well. Like the mattress, my head sunk against it.

But no matter how much I tried to sleep I just couldn't. I couldn't sleep being surrounded by everything The Resdue has given. Maybe it was of what happened that night, but I think it was because of the overwhelmingness of how I'm not at home, but stuck here.

After tossing and turning for what seemed hours, the clock ticking away, timing how long. I ended up ripping the blankets off the bed and curled into a ball on the floor. It was far more comfortable than the bed I kept sinking in.

I slept, facing the window with the curtains draped slightly apart, the beautiful moon light sweeping into the room. If anything, what I loved most was the moonlight. It felt peaceful and calming and I knew that if I were to lie on a grass field under the moonlight, I could instantly fall asleep, cold or not.

I did know for a fact that at one point during the night I had awoken Carter from his deep sleep. He had awoken to the frustrating groans of me, and the pounding of my fists against my pillow, frustrated on how it was too fluffy and that I couldn't sleep in something like it.

I only got a good three hours of sleep before awakening to the sound of others in the hallway and Carter's loud rummaging as he searched for something in his bag.

It turned out that he thought I had already left the room since my bed was empty, but found me asleep on the floor, mid way of taking his pants off. He was then quick to change and I made sure I turned around onto my right side facing the window with the sun beaming in.

After getting past the first awkward ten minutes of what had happened, I hid in the bathrooms and spent as long as possible in there. Making sure to stay in the shower as long as necessary and changing as slow as possible.

By the time I made it back to our room, Carter was changed into training gear and he had told me that he was going to pick up a quick breakfast before fleeing to the Gym. He invited for me to come along and I had agreed.

This was why I was now in the Gym again with Carter, spotting him as he lifted some weights that he found in the back corner. I wasn't really sure why he had decided for me to spot him. If the weights fell on him I probably wouldn't be much help.

"Two . . . One . . ." He then grunted and pushed the heavy weights as high as he could before I reached out with my arms and guided his to where the weights were meant to sit.

Relived from the heavy weights, he sat up letting out a loud breath and drew his hand across his forehead where is hair was plastered with sweat. The light blue sweater he had on had sweat marks on it as well, specifically around his chest area, his back, and under his arm where his armpits were.

From where I stood behind the bar where the weights sat behind him, I could smell the stench of his sweat and to be honest it really stunk. I fought the urge to grip my nose tightly and wave the air in front of me to his direction.

He looked over to me, still taking deep breaths but had amusement laced in his eyes as he stared at me. His face shown that he knew exactly what I was thinking and it made me think I probably should've concealed my facial expression of his stench since he began to laugh.

"You could at least seem like I didn't stink that much," he said giving me a knowing glance. I faintly felt my cheeks heat slightly. It wasn't from being embarrassed or shy, but for him to point out exactly what I was thinking and it didn't help that what I was thinking wasn't as nice.

I smiled at him bashfully and murmured a quite apology before pointing behind me. "Go have a shower."

His head faced down and I thought I may had offended him too much, but then I saw his chest shaking and I knew he was laughing. He stood up nodding and grabbed his towel which was hung over the variety of weights you could choose from.

There was actually a large variety of weights here considering it wasn't the weights room. Weights varied from small five kilogram ones which was the size of your average dinner plate all the way to larger fifty kilogram ones which was as round as a car tire.

He began to walk away but not before calling out a bye over his shoulder and telling me he'd see me later before sauntering out. Girl's heads turning as he walked off. You'd think they were training, but if you took a second at them, you'd find them standing beneath the bars arms raised as if they were about to began pull-ups.

Except that they never touched the bar in anyway and they had not a bit of sweat coating them. Their clothes weren't even appropriate for training. One was wearing a chest tight dress which then flowed just past her thighs and some appropriate tights underneath which helped hide what she was wearing. A first quick glance would be you seeing some girl in a long t-shirt and tights for training, but she was smart about it.

Another one beside her was wearing at least an inch high boots which reached her mid shin. That wasn't really training worthy. The other girls with them was wearing similar clothes and like each other, none of them were discreet on checking out the guys who ran on treadmills or rode electrical bikes.

While people would laugh and think how desperate these girls are, they were actually entertaining to watch. And most of all, they gave me a sense of normalcy. I've gone to gyms before, especially the one found in our school, and girls were always like this. I never realised how much I missed watching them make fools of themselves, but nonetheless making everything seem normal.

As Carter left the air conditioned gym, I decided I wanted to get a workout of my own done. Glancing around at the various equipment I could use, I decided to use the treadmill which was my favourite one.

Heading to the back corner where the treadmills laid in a row across the back, the electronic bikes was adjacent to them, lined right next to it, but on the far back left wall. So the designers decided to put all the electronically functioned equipment in one corner of the room.

Some might find that it is a quite good set up for everyone, but if anything it was bad. When you trained with others around, since we were all in such close proximity, it constantly stunk with perspiration. It even seemed that a layer of heat would hang around you since so many people were training and giving out body heat at the same time. Hence why there were air conditioners though.

Starting like I did two days ago as I stepped onto the treadmill I had chose, isolated from the group of guys, four and up down from my right, I placed the jacket I had brought onto the floor along with my towel and deodorant.

I set the treadmill on a slow pace to begin with. The grounding beneath me began to shift slightly and as it pushed me back, I began to step forwards until I was doing a slow paced walk.

I wanted to get a good session out of the machine and really work my muscles, so the way you were suppose to do that was by literally dragging out the whole workout from really slow to really fast. From how long I usually drag it out I could be training for an hour to hour and a half.

So as I began my long work out, I placed my hands on the hand holds in front of me for the slow part of my training and entertained myself by watching the girls by the bars on the other side of the room, watching the guys a few down from me.

The guys running on the treadmills and some on the electrical bikes were actually worth to look at. After taking a look for myself because of how much those girls were making a big deal out of it. I looked over to see four of the running, shirts off and wearing short tights.

The four of them were all completely different builds. One of them on the bikes to me was clearly one to build up his leg muscles. I could tell my how rock hard his calves were and that his thighs were clearly defined. He didn't really have hard build on his arms which just proved my point.

The one beside him focused on the upper parts of him consisting of his torso and arms. His arms bulky and rippling as he held onto the hand grips of the electronic bike, panting as he made his legs move. He clearly is trying to improve his leg muscles to be as up notch as his arms.

The other two guys on the treadmills, a few down from me were more runners by the look of how they were barely puffed out after being on the machines for a while. They were builded in all areas and definitely had the stamina for hard courses.

With the four guys, the two on the treadmills which were built, but not as muscly as the other two would actually be the biggest threats in the competition.

Although the guy who had all the leg muscles were bulky and looked as if he could run a marathon easily. I knew he wasn't a fighter, if it came down to him and someone else, it was most likely be the other guy because looking at him more clearly now, his arms had barely any muscle and that would be his downfall.

The guy next to him which was improving his leg muscles could be seen as a threat, but not as much. As he is all bulky with muscle, that was all he most likely was. All muscle for show, but not sure on use. In a fight or death match he may throw a killer punch, but cause he was so bulky, he wouldn't be able to beat someone who was more petite and had the speed other than muscle.

Now, with the other two guys on the treadmills. They may not look like much, slight muscle everywhere and compared to the other two guys may seem little and maybe even ridiculous. You could tell by watching them that they'd have the speed. People usually decide the fate of fights based on looks and amount of muscles, but that is completely rubbish.

The muscles are usually for show to scare off others, but face someone who is slightly built compared to them and has amazing stamina, you'd know who'd win. This is really helpful to know in case you'd even come into a fight and if I ever needed to use it, I'd really thank my brother, cousins, dad, and the self defence classes I took when I was younger and mum being paranoid I could be jumped cause I was a girl.

As I continued to observe the four guys in their body shapes and most likely predicted fighting chances, and maybe admiring how they looked. I was snapped out of it as someone suddenly walked up and chucked a bottle of water and a towel onto the floor beside me and stepped onto the treadmill right beside me, in front of my vision of the four guys.

He put his head down to face the machine and adjusted the settings of it before starting and unliking starting slow, he started in a fast paced jog. I was currently on a fast paced jog after being here for over half an hour, but starting in one? He was going to easily burn himself out.

As I looked closer at him in confusion and debated whether I should tell him that he'd burn out easily. Something about him was familiar, and my suspicions were confirmed when he snapped his head suddenly and looked at me.

I should've recognised him straightaway by his jet black shoulder length hair and how it fell in front of his face as he leaned forward. But for some reason I didn't which I really wanted to beat myself up for because now I probably looked like some idiot staring and I didn't really want anything to happen between me, him and his sister.

His pale green eyes bored into mine as I stared and his eyes flickered with recognition himself before he raised an eyebrow, his face impassive otherwise, the look of recognition on his face long gone.

"What?" He asked almost aggressively and I was quick to look away and mind my own business.

Almost as if satisfied I didn't reply he continued to run beside me and it was like that for a few minutes. Almost awkward silence, the only sound between the two of us was the the constant slap of our feet on the machine as we half ran half jogged.

As the air around us was quiet with nothing being said, I was tempted to ask why he had chosen the machine next to mine. I may be over analysing, but he seemed like he was one to keep to himself and not really socialise and there was clearly many treadmills that were free of people around. So why pick the one next to mine?

We continued to run, my pace slightly picking up faster as the machine sped up was when he decided he'd like to hold some conversations with me.

"You must be suicidal," he commented nonchalantly as if we have been friends forever and we were having a casual conversation.

I whipped my head over to look at him as if to see what he meant, but he just stared ahead in front of him at nothing in particular. Like he never said anything and I almost thought that I had imagined him saying anything to me. But I knew that he did.

The only thing I could think of when he mentioned that I happened to be suicidal was what happened during the knowledge test.

"You must be too," I retorted and he scoffed and turned his head from where he was staring off at and made eye contact with me. "If I didn't say anything you'd of been eliminated yourself. If anything you should be thanking me. You owe me."

I had never felt as shocked in my life. He looked at me with that knowing look on his face which was one you'd associate with a know-it-all indicating that they knew more than you.

He expected me to say thank you too him since he saved my life. I had thought that he had said anything to back up the poor guy as he was being sent to his death. He wasn't doing it for him. But more for me and save me when I was completely fine which what I was doing.

"I never asked you to help me," I said in defiance. "I didn't need help, he did, not me."

But Jaylen shook his head, as if shrugging off or dismissing my reply to him. "If I didn't say anything, they would've been happy taking you too. That I said something . . ." He shrugged as he continued running, sweat trekking down his back where he lacked a shirt. "They couldn't take two of us. So. You. Owe. Me."

After he said that he turned forwards and continued to run on the fast pace he was on. He made himself look like he had never spoken to me. Like I had no worth and that speaking to me already like he already had was bad enough.

I didn't know what to feel. He had said and claimed that he had spoken up in that room just before the second test, not because of the guy who was framed and was going to be eliminated, but to save my but. He had spoken because he had known that they had no problem eliminating me as well and that they couldn't take all of us. And no doubt he had enjoyed being a smart-ass to them as well as trying to help me.

Turning to look back at him, still confused on what to feel, sweat trickling down the side of my face and my shirt sticky against me. My legs ached from moving for so long and I just wanted to collapse and let the machine beneath push me away.

As I stared at Jaylen running on his machine, his jet black hair tucked behind his ears, a sweat sheen covering his chest and back. I made sure too look away soon enough as well. This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid.

Having been claimed that I was to owe someone is something you did not want. I wasn't even a hundred percent sure that I really needed to owe him. It's not like I had ever asked for it, but he still gave it. Having to owe someone felt like I had a gigantic arrow at the top of my head with a sign atop of it saying freebie for Jaylen Myers, and no doubt his sister would most likely count as well.

And with the Myers siblings, I didn't want to be caught in anything with them. It may be seen as judging harshly, but from that first day on that bus, I had felt something off about them. It was like that feeling you'd feel about someone. They wouldn't have to do anything or say anything, but you just feel that way.

That's what I felt instantly about them, especially his sister. And my point was only proven when his sister first addressed me. The way she spoke and acted had instantly made my bad feeling grown worse. And whether her brother Jaylen was exactly like her or not. It felt almost like a packaged deal. Like brother like sister.

After today and how he instantly claimed what he had, I could get that he was helping me and that I was completely grateful for that and realized what he had said was right. I'd never admit that to him. Never admit it to the guy who acted cold hearted and acted like a total dick, but knew that whatever this owing thing was, was going to bite me in the ass. Because let's face it. I would make sure that I will owe him since he had helped me without me realizing it or not until he mentioned it.

I didn't say anything to him after that and he never said anything either. I soon finished my workout and I ashamedly admit that I purposely went quicker then usual because I didn't want to be near him any longer.

As I went to walk away after grabbing my stuff, I sped through the room but not without hearing Jaylen scream out behind me that he'd talk to me soon. And I couldn't help count down how long soon was.