~ 46: Under The Weather - Part 1 ~

A sudden brainwave struck me and I decided to give it a shot.

"Didn't you say that your family lived near downtown?" I asked. "What if we could make it until there? I'm sure these cycles aren't the olden types that were made of iron. I think they can withstand the rain."

"They live too deep inside and in this weather, we would be caught up badly," she hummed. "This storm is not going to stop soon. And what do you want to go there for? You want to miss the marathon?"

"Well, I think I might catch a cold soon," I said, which was followed by a big sneeze. I covered my nose and sniffed, trying to block the cold air from getting into my head.

"Then how about we stay inside for a while? This is close to the end so they will probably arrive here after forty minutes from the start."

After hearing the thunder strike across the sky, we rushed inside the building. But the doormen guarding the gates stopped us.

"Please," Mel implored. "My friend here will get sick if we don't shelter ourselves from the cold."

"Well, madams, you should have thought about that before coming here," one of them stated.

"There's a marathon going on here, and you can't even shelter two wet women until the rain stops?" I said as I coughed heavily.

"The bicycles aren't allowed, ma'am," the other man said, giving the first one a death glare. "But I guess you wouldn't want to leave them outside in case they got stolen."

"Listen, madams," said the first one. "If you need to enter this place, you must be either visiting a person or staying here. We don't allow homeless souls here. You should have seen the weather forecast before setting your foot in this city."

With that, he shut the transparent doors in our faces. I was a tad bit hurt at being mistreated, just like I was in middle school. Mel looked at me with sympathy, but I just shook my head to tell her that we'll wait it out and it was no point in going back there to plead with a valid explanation.

We sat down on the top steps, trying to avoid getting wet and suffering from a severe cold. The forecast hadn't told anybody about a sudden downpour, for otherwise, the tournament organisers wouldn't have got the athletes sick and ill. They would be lawfully punished for creating such an event without caring for their health.

But thinking of the present, they should have stopped the race, even if the tracks were well-protected. The chilly weather would affect them negatively instead of providing a cooling effect to them.

I could feel the cold catching me but something warm near my chest kept it off. I touched the area and remembered the pendant that I was destined to have, reminding me of Lucas and how his health would be of my utmost concern. Not even Aidan popped into my mind at that moment. Perhaps, I was too angry at him for having tried to harm my 'brother' or I prevented my mind from thinking about him. His clear emerald green eyes were too attractive to resist.

Mel was shivering and I was coughing relentlessly, though the two of us were sharing each other's warmth. We sat in one corner of the stairs, letting people pass us without a glance, and used the cycles as a shade from getting our fronts splattered with ice and water.

"Are you very vulnerable to the cold?" Mel asked through chattering teeth. "You seem worse off than me unusually."

"When you live near the sea, you only know warmth," I replied, covering my face from the chilly wind blowing towards us. "I only went to the mountains once in a while, and I would always end up with a nice cold, hot chocolate and blanket around me. My body has no endurance to temperatures lower than the usual sea climate."

The pendant couldn't do its trick with the lack of light. I was afraid to bring it out in public as it would turn many eyes, and at the moment, I wanted no attention, even if the cycles guarded us. So we had to wait it out until the athletes came along.

By the time they had arrived, the pour had thankfully stopped and travelled off to downtown. We got on our bikes and raced to the finish line to be one of the first to witness the person who would take the half-marathon cup home. It was difficult to search for the two of them amongst the many heads despite their clear distinction from the others.

The slippery road made it difficult for us to pause and stand near vehicles. Still, we managed to reach safely on time without any safety equipment. We chatted and waited for the finish in our drenched clothes as a cool draft made us shiver.

None of the first three places belonged to the faces we knew. We could guess that the two of our known people had been within the first ten, but the ranking could only be determined by the people with the stopwatches.

Screams of joy and laughter erupted from everywhere. Nobody was allowed to approach the athletes as they were taken away to the shuttle buses for the award ceremony. We ride back on our cycles, trying to outdo the buses by speed, as well as save up the money that we would be liable to pay if the fourth hour set in.

We reached the cycle renting shop a minute before the third hour ran out. We knew our explanations wouldn't be useful so we just paid and left for the ceremony, still coughing and shivering from the somewhat unpleasant experience.

The ceremony was to start at three in the afternoon, giving plenty of time for the players to get ready. The small parade for the closing and award ceremony let us know the contingents from each university's team as they were arranged in the order of the events.

Unfortunately, we could only hunt for the payable hot food from the stalls. We got to know that each player will be given one and that none of them could ask for a box for their friends, so our thought of free food vanished.

With the food at many of the stalls being comparatively cheap, we spent out enough money so that we could much away at the warm food throughout the ceremony.