Race for Romance

Beth hit the wall after running for about ninety minutes. She had been feeling surprisingly at ease, jogging at a steady pace, her feet pounding the ground and the wind rushing against her cheeks. Then, suddenly, a wave of exhaustion hit her.

She was beginning to wonder why she had even entered this stupid race. It had seemed a good idea to impress Sol, who she sat next to in Biology, but apart from a few brief chats, nothing much had become of it. He hadn’t asked her to train with him or even offered to pick her up that morning.

Beth felt dizzy. Would it matter if she didn’t finish? He probably wouldn’t even notice. She had seen him briefly at the starting line but he was a faster runner and had quickly put some distance between them.

As she rounded the corner she caught sight of the Spinnaker Tower – that meant that she was nearly at the finish line. Spectators lined the pavement and were cheering and waving flags. “Come on, you can do this!” She told herself. So what if Sol barely noticed her? She should do this for herself and be proud of it too.

As she crossed the finish line, the crowd cheered and Beth raised her arms high in triumph. Jogging off the road, she fell down on the soft grass and lay looking up at the autumn sky when she heard her name.

“Well done Beth! I just saw you finish – you made pretty good time.”

Beth sat up, shielding the sun from her eyes. It was him, Sol.

“Uh, thanks!” She replied, “I can’t believe I did it to be honest!”

He smiled at her, “So, want to go and grab a drink somewhere then?”

He didn’t need to ask twice.

299 words

(Note: The words in bold were required for "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" )