The boy had just headed into Rebel, potentially to buy some rubber shoes. Ones that were lite. Ones that felt good. Really good.

But he wouldn't necessarily buy anything at all. He was just there to explore the options.

Being located in a shopping centre, the area was beautiful people plentiful. And fortunately he was one of those.

But he was not long in the store, when a woman suddenly approached him. Did he ask for this in any way? No way. But she arrived on the scene regardless, with somewhat of a strange request.

"Hey slender boy. Want to go for a run with me?"

"What, like now?" The boy was a little taken aback.

"Yeah of course," she replied matter of factly. "Why not?"

"Well it's kind of short notice," the boy replied slowly, fumbling around for words. "And well, I'm not really ready. Not at all actually. Sorry."

The woman appeared a bit disappointed.

"Oh...okay then. But just to let you know; I'm ready whenever you are."

"Wow, you're keen! But I'm just here to shop for some shoes."

The boy carried on with his plans, but it was difficult for him to even get a chance to try some on. He just kept getting hassled by women wanting to go for a run with him. Initially he was quite flattered and all, but after a while it became quite tiresome. So he decided to approach the front counter.

"Excuse me sir, but I'm constantly being approached around here. What gives?"

"Well around here the people are quite rebellious - so what they want they always try to get."

The boy tried to explain his story to the man; that he was just here to try on shoes.

"Well I'm afraid that telling that to female runners can often be like talking to a brick wall. They just really love their running. They always seem up for it. Personally I don't really get it, but that's the way it is."

The boy returned to his task at hand, but sure enough, it wasn't long before he was approached again. This time it was the original woman.

"I'm sorry to intrude," she whispered, "but I would very much like to go running with you. I am so sure that it would be really nice. Come on. Why don't you give it a try?"

The boy finally exploded a little. "Bloody hell! Can't you see that I'm not interested? I mean, you look like a nice runner and all, but geez, I've just eaten and haven't even stretched. Besides, I'm not even dressed for the occasion. Plus I don't even know if I feel like doing it."

"How could you not feel like doing it?," came the confused reply. "I absolutely love it. I want to have a run all the time."

The boy stared at her with daggers. "Well why don't you try to see it from anothers perspective!"

The girl went silent and the boy wondered if he had over reacted.

He then decided to at least try to see things from her perspective.

"Are you training for a 1,500 metres race?," he asked the girl quietly, who was now looking down at the floor.

"No," she whispered meekly.

"Or how about a ten k then?," asked the boy more upbeatly.

She now looked at him again. "No I am not, but thanks for asking."

"So it's a marathon then is it?," persisted the boy. "Geez, you're keen."

"No," repeated the girl. "I'm not training for anything at all."

Now the boy looked extremely perplexed. He took a few breaths and got his thoughts together.

"So you don't require a reason; an actual reason - to want to run a lot?"

"Exactly."

"That's weird."

No, you're weird.

"Well we probably both are."

Both of them now broke into smirks and the tension eased.

It's still a bit hard for me to understand," continued the boy. "I ran personal bests that I was satisfied with, especially my best run for 5,000 metres. That's my baby you know."

"So what do you mean exactly?," the girl asked.

"Well I had reason to run then you see. Reason to do all of the things that would get me in the right mood to go for a run. Yes, it is still kind of fun, but well, without reason I can't be bothered getting my pants off, if you know what I mean."

"I think I do," she replied. "We are just different that's all. It's no biggie. Like even now, after all this discussion, I still want to run with you."

"Oh really!" The boy bursts into hysterics. "You, my friend, have a serious problem!"

"So we are friends then? I suppose that's...okay."

Out of the corner of her eye the girl now spotted another cute boy checking out some shoes.

"Uum, well, I'd better let you get going then," she said casually. "I hope that you find your perfect fit."

"Yeah, like Cinderella," the boy joked.

The girl approached the other boy with her similar questioning to before. And after the two had been chatting together for a few minutes, the original boy looked across, and wondered if he should have taken her up on her offer for that simply jog.