It was in the early morning as I pulled my clothes on that I realized how badly I'd fucked up.

                I'd forgotten to send an email to the principal, and working out in the morning meant I wouldn't have time to meet with him anyways. I fixed my hair and tried to think this through.

                After school for real this time? Yea, yea, if Taliesin wanted to do anything, I'd tell him I needed a half hour to take care of some student council business. I'd just shoot the principal an email during lunch that I wanted to meet with him quickly after school about an important issue.

                I went downstairs and mom raised an eyebrow. "You're up early."

                "I'm going to school early," I said.

                She checked the time. "This early?"

                "Yes," I said, grabbing myself breakfast and sitting at the table. I wasn't ready to tell her about Taliesin yet. "I want to go work out. It helps me relieve stress."

                "Drag your father with you, will you? He could use a good run. He's getting lazy," she said.

                "I'll leave that up to you. He's your husband," I said.

                "You're no help. I don't know why we had a child if he won't even help me torture his father," mom grumbled, leaving the room.

                I finished eating, grabbed my stuff, and left the house after calling out a goodbye to my parents. I drove myself to the school, feeling wide awake despite how early it was.

                It was early enough that Taliesin's car was the only one in the student parking lot. The faculty parking lot had a few cars scattered around, and the lights in the school were already on.

                I got out of my car and Taliesin copied me. He was swinging a key around his finger as he approached me.

                "Ready to go?" he asked, catching the key in his palm and flashing it at me. "We just have to sign in when we get there."

                "Let's do it," I said.

                We entered the school. A janitor glanced over before going back to whatever he was doing, only offering a slight nod at Taliesin.

                "Friendly with the staff?" I said as we turned down a hallway.

                "I come here a lot in the mornings. Kayden usually comes with me," he said.

                "What, you didn't want to bring him this morning?" I said, trying not to sound bitter. It wasn't fair; all I knew of Kayden is what I'd heard.

                "No," Taliesin said. "I just want to bring you."

                We reached the workout room and Taliesin unlocked it. We went inside, Taliesin signing us both in before pulling his hoodie off to reveal a tank top. I rolled the sleeves of my T-shirt up, and we started stretching.

                "I'm going to do some light lifting while you run," he said when we'd finished stretching and taken a light warm-up jog around the room.

                "Works for me," I said, hopping on to one of the treadmills and setting up my speed.

                I started running, working myself up to a good pace. My feet pounding the treadmill, my breath coming in steady pants the longer I ran, my legs burning with the feel of the movement. It was enough to wipe my mind clean of all thought. My heart beat wildly against my chest as I ran, arms swinging at my sides. The world fell away and an ease settled over my body even as it grew hot and sweaty. I pulled my shirt off, tossing it to the side.

                I ran and ran, increasing my speed little by little until my legs struggled to keep up with the pace. But this is how I bettered myself. Bit by bit, I worked harder and endured more. Sweat dripped off my head, my hair plastered to my forehead with it. I was a gross mess, but I felt alive and free and careless.

                Still, I was only human, and it had been a pretty good while since I'd last worked out. So I lowered my speed until I was stopped, gripping the side of the treadmill as my body tried to reorient itself to being on solid ground. I panted as the world spun lazy circles around me.

                I felt a hand on my back, and one on my hip. Taliesin pulled me off the treadmill, keeping me steady.

                "That run would've been nothing for you a few months ago. You're getting out of shape," he teased as he lowered me onto a bench and pressed a water bottle into my hand.

                I'd forgotten he was even in the room with me. I uncapped the water and drank it, Taliesin catching my wrist before I could chug it. I forced myself to drink it slow, setting it at my feet when my throat stopped burning.

                Taliesin draped a towel over my shoulder. "You're definitely going to need to hit the showers."

                I wiped my head with the towel. "No shit. How did your workout go?"

                "Spot me after you've rested for a minute," he said, and sat next to me, rolling his shoulders. "Light weights don't do much for me."

                I let myself catch my breath before standing up and following Taliesin over to the weight bench. He stretched one last time before putting weights on the bar.

                "Hey," I said, catching his arms. "Taliesin, that's a lot of weight."

                "Yea, and?" He flexed his arm. "Just spot me, Gabe."

                He laid on the bench, gripped the bar, and took a deep breath. He lifted the weights, his arms trembling with how heavy it was. He lifted it once, brought it back down, lifted it, brought it down.

                But on the third time, I saw the pain tear across his face. He grit his teeth, forcing his arms to push the bar up, wincing as he did so.

                "Enough," I said, catching the bar and taking the weight into my hands. I guided it back to rest and looked down at Taliesin.

                He sat up, trying to hide the pain. "I wasn't done."

                "You're going to make yourself worse if you push yourself," I said. I reached out, lightly laying a hand on his shoulder. His body would never be the same. A flash of him lying in that hospital bed passed through my mind. "Stop hurting yourself, Taliesin."

                Taliesin stood up and rolled his shoulders, wincing. He wouldn't look at me, just picked up his water and started drinking.

                That frustration rose up in me. "Taliesin, I can see that you hurt yourself. Not looking at me won't hide it, you know."

                He turned to face me, looking angry. "What do you want me to say? People are sore after they work out. Your legs are probably tired. Want me to baby you? Massage your fucking thighs?"

                He turned and punched the wall, wincing again. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath.

                "You'd probably like it if I did that, actually," he said, and turned to face me again. "Yea, alright, I pushed myself too far. I wasn't trying to...I shouldn't have snapped."

                "No, you shouldn't have. Getting mad when people are worried about you doesn't accomplish anything," I said.

                He sat down, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to shift into a comfortable position. "I'll be fine. Just need a hot shower and a break."

                "Then let's go shower," I said, holding my hand out to him.

                He took it and I helped him to his feet. I grabbed my shirt and we left the gym, heading to the locker room. I'd brought spare clothes, and took them out of my bag, following Taliesin to the bathroom. There were a few small shower stalls, each with a curtain across it. We each picked a stall, and started up the water.

                "Hot water" wasn't exactly the right way to put it. "Lukewarm as shit" was more like it, but it was better than cold, so I'd take it. I let the water wash over my body, scrubbing my hands through my hair.

                I turned the shower off when I felt clean, and pulled my clothes on after drying off. I left the stall, and Taliesin stepped out of his, towel wrapped around his waist.

                "Left my clothes in my locker," he said, pushing his wet hair out of his face.

                "Wait, wait, did you leave hair gel in there too? Because if not, I'm going to make fun of you all day," I said.

                He scoffed. "Do I look like the kind of man who gets his hair wet without hair gel in easy access? Some of us don't like to have a mop on our heads all day, Gabe."

                "You're impossible. I can't believe you're such a hair diva," I said as he opened his locker and flashed the bottle of hair gel at me. But then I blushed as he gripped the edge of his towel, hastily turning around.

                Oh, come on Gabriel, we were almost adults. It was only weird if I made it weird.

                Who am I kidding? I was making it weird.

                "Didn't mean to bring out your prude side," he said, and I could hear the sound of him pulling his clothes on. "Forgot we weren't on 'strip in front of each other' terms for a minute there. I'm dressed."

                "A little...modesty?" I said, turning back around. "I don't think it's a lot to ask for."

                He was already looking in the mirror, fixing his hair back into place. "Sure, next time."

                Next time?

                I tried to push my wet hair down into some semblance of neat. It failed epically, of course, and I abandoned the attempt and just waited for Taliesin to finish fixing his hair.

                Damn him and actually having manageable hair. He tossed his stuff back into the locker and grabbed his schoolbag.

                "Ready to go?" he asked, checking the time. "We have a little before classes start."

                The locker room door opened and we both looked up in confusion. It was rare for anyone to come here in the mornings. The athletic teams had separate locker rooms, and they were usually the only ones here so early.

                But Kayden stepped in. "Figured you'd be in here."

                "What did Marshall do now?" Taliesin asked with an exaggerated sigh.

                "Nothing. I haven't seen him today, thank god. I was just wondering where you were," he said.

                "We worked out this morning. I needed to make sure Gabriel didn't get too out of shape without me there to nag him to the gym," Taliesin said.

                "Yes, you're quite good at nagging," Kayden said. "Also at ignoring me."

                "I did not ignore you. I fell asleep. You would fall asleep too if you had a heated blanket and a weighted blanket on you," Taliesin said.

                "Just imagining that makes me want to fall asleep," I said.

                "My point exactly," Taliesin said. "So, no, I wasn't ignoring your texts. I was just very unconscious, and no one had the consideration to wake me up."

                The three of us left the locker room together. Kids were milling about the hallways by now, stopping at their lockers or talking to their friends.

                "Tal! Kay!" Kaya ran up to us. "Oh, hi Gabriel."

                "Don't call me Kay. It's bad enough when it's Kayden and Kaya, but it's even more confusing when it's Kay and Kaya," Kayden said, scowling.

                "We can call you by your middle name," Taliesin suggested. "I think Norman suits you better anyways."

                "Sure, Leonard," Kayden said.

                "You know what? Let's just call Kaya by her middle name and you and I can keep our first names," Taliesin said. He frowned. "What is your middle name?"

                Kaya winked. "It's a secret. If I tell you, you can curse me."

                "I can do that anyways, you fucking bitch. See? Don't even know your middle name, and there goes the cursing," Taliesin said.

                "Such a filthy mouth. Was he always like this?" Kaya asked, turning to me.

                "What, rude and insufferable? Absolutely," I said.

                It wasn't entirely true, though. Taliesin had a very strong personality, but I wouldn't necessarily consider it brash. He could have tact, or at least he used to be able to. Before everything happened, Taliesin usually knew how to push the right buttons on a person to get the response he wanted without going too far. His temper had always been his downfall. That relentless, lashing anger of his that he could never seem to quite contain.

                But the way he acted now wasn't something I was completely used to. Sometimes it was hard to tell when he was joking around and when he was just being a thoughtless asshole.

                "You're all horrible to me," Taliesin said.

                "Toughen up," Kayden said.

                I spotted Nadia in the hallway and waved to her. "I'll see you in first period, Taliesin."

                He glanced at Nadia and shrugged. "She could come over here."

                "She could," I agreed. "But she's not a fan of you."

                I left him and approached Nadia. She handed me a coffee, which I accepted because that workout had exhausted me.

                "Hanging out with his friends now?" she said.

                "We came here this morning to work out, and they met up with us after," I said.

                "I'm not judging you. I just can't see you getting along with someone like Kayden," she said. "How was Taliesin?"

                "He pushed himself too far." I gripped the coffee tighter in my hands. "It's like...It's like before, Nadia. When he first got hurt and he was so frustrated. I thought he'd accepted that his body would never be the same, but he pushed himself this morning. Do you think his behavior has something to do with his injury?"

                "I doubt anything to do with his injury would've completely changed his whole behavior. But you could always try asking him," she said. At my look, she added, "You two need to communicate if you ever want to have a working relationship again, even a platonic one. You get too caught up in work, and he gets too caught up in trying to handle problems by himself."

                She put a hand on my back and we walked down the hallway to her locker. She gathered what she needed, Leigh coming up to us.

                "Did you just get out of the shower?" she asked curiously.

                "Yea," I said, shaking a few water droplets at her.

                "Hey!" she said, pushing me away. "Ugh, your hair's so thick. It's never going to dry. You're like a wet mop."

                "Thank you, very flattering," I said.

                The three of us searched the halls until we found Kace. We talked until the bell rang, and parted ways for first period.

                I watched Taliesin carefully during first period. He was rubbing at his neck and back, shifting uncomfortably. He was restless and clearly frustrated with it, his body stiff with pain.

                When the bell rang for second period though, he hid all discomfort from his face as he caught up to me in the hall. He walked normally, though his shoulders were drawn back awkwardly.

                "Back to coffee?" He shook his head. "I forgot to grab you tea this morning."

                "Just tell me the brand and I can buy and make my own," I said.

                "Where's the fun in that?" he said.

                We entered second period and he left me to go talk to the teacher. I sat next to Nadia and offered what remained of my coffee to her.

                She drank the last of it and threw out the cup, sitting back down. The bell rang and our teacher, Mr. Geary, stepped up to the front of the room with packets in his hands.

                "You'll be working on these together today," he said, moving around the room to pass them out. He reached me and Nadia, setting the packets down for us. "Would you two be okay if I put Taliesin with your group? You can say no."

                Ah, so that's what Taliesin had been talking to him about. I looked to Nadia.

                "That's fine. But if he's bothering us, we're kicking him back to his own seat," Nadia said.

                "That's completely fair. Taliesin! Come work with their group. I want to be able to move around the room and help students," Mr. Geary said.

                Taliesin got up and dragged his chair to us, sitting across from me and resting his packet on my desk. Mr. Geary moved on to finish passing out the papers.

                "Always the clever one," Nadia said. "What are you hoping for by this, Taliesin?"

                "Hoping for?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm hoping to get this assignment done."

                "You always have an ulterior motive," she said, and I saw that flash of anger on Taliesin's face. But then Nadia raised a hand in dismissal. "It's not worth a fight. Let's get this done."

                We got to work on the packet. Taliesin didn't take any jabs or try to tease us; he just worked with us to answer questions and properly label diagrams. It felt...normal.

                Before everything had happened, we used to work together a lot in this class. The three of us had worked well together. We could always get our work done fast and have the rest of the period to hang out and talk, or work on homework from other classes.

                So I wasn't surprised when we finished quickly, but I was surprised Taliesin was behaving so normally. He leaned back in his seat, flicking the completed packet at me.

                "Give those legs another workout and turn that in," he said.

                I stood up, taking his packet and Nadia's. I dropped them on Mr. Geary's desk before returning to my seat, wondering what we were supposed to do now.

                Taliesin was twisted awkwardly, probably trying to relieve the pain in his shoulders. Nadia noticed.

                "Everything okay?" she asked, her tone telling me that she expected him to brush it off or lie.

                Taliesin fell silent, looking away from us towards the window, his face unreadable. But after a few moments of silence, he surprised me.

                "I hurt myself this morning," he said. "That's all."

                It was a start.

-----------------------------------------------------

A.N.- Due to me posting faster than I can write, I have to slow updates to once a week, sorry guys! I'll probably shift the update schedule to a new chapter every Wednesday, but I'll pick up the two chapters a week schedule if I can find more writing time. I've just been super busy lately. I appreciate the patience, and hope you guys are enjoying the story!