Chapter 53

• I bend double, stomach twisting itself inside out, and dry wretch as my body tries to vomit out the contents of my early breakfast. A washing machine motion makes me spasm as I gag once or twice. Sweating profusely, limbs shaking with exertion, and heart working so hard, I think I’m having a heart attack, and it’s about to explode through my chest. I can feel my pulse inside my ears and in my throat while I use my hands on my knees to brace my body and gasp for breath to fill my laboring lungs. I feel like I’m on the verge of dying.
• “Here, drink some water, and it’ll pass. Take a breather.” Colton holds out a cold bottle towards me, foggy with condensation and straight from the ice bucket, at eye level, and I can’t even muster up the ability to reach out and take it. I cough up phlegm, my throat burning painfully, and exhale wheezily in some sort of response. I can’t believe how unfit I am.
• “It’ll get easier; you’re just at the start of building stamina.” He carries on, placing the bottle on the grass below me near my feet within my eye line, and sinks onto his haunches to gaze up at me, tilting his face and smiling handsomely. A bead of sweat runs from my messy ponytail down past my ear and somehow travels across my cheek to drip off the tip of my nose. I can feel more running down the center of my spine, between my shoulder blades, and I shudder.