They thought he was a real psycho, the kind that would go postal and shoot up the school. Of course we knew better and that his crazy eyes were just an act, and the way he went off on people was just his way of blowing off steam. They kept an eye on him though, and after one of the copycat bomb threats they got even more suspicious.

He was a runner, that's for sure. He ran, and he ran fast. We all knew what he was running from. Technically we were all running from the same thing. His friends would sit on the sides of the tracks smoking cigarettes and clocking him, usually as far away from the flimsy bleachers as possible. He probably would've shot us all if he didn't have his running. Everyday in the late afternoon he would go out and run. Afterwards he'd come off the tracks panting with his head down and head for the showers, not looking at anyone. The one time he wouldn't look you directly in the eye.

He wasn't particularly close to anyone but he had a lot of friends. The way he ran you knew something more was going on in his head. I sat with his friends that I didn't know and listened with them to the quiet thumping and slapping of his sneakers on the astroturf that must've matched his heartbeat. It would get louder and quieter each time he came around. And even though his chuck taylors would slowly get looser and unlaced, he didn't stop. Everyone secretly wondered about him, though the faculty were the only one's to ever say anything.

He lasted until April. In the afternoon, we went to see him run, as usual, and he didn't stop, he didn't even slow down. He just kept going around the track, beating out the pain in his chest. We waited for him to collapse from dehydration, but even that didn't stop him. After sundown, we had turned on our headlights so he could see the track lines. Eventually the rest of us just went home to watch old reruns on tv.

It wasn't til a month later when we realized no one had seen him out on the tracks since then. Eventually we just figured he ran away. I guess he never stopped running.