The Blind Date Agreement

One (part 2)

"Whoa," Daphne says as we step out of the treeline.

Whoa is right. I was so busy talking that I didn't realize we were walking at a slight uphill, but we must've driven most of the incline.

The line of trees ends where we emerge, and the rest is open ground until it suddenly ends. I'm standing too far from the edge to get an accurate view of how far up we are, but the blue water that I can see from here looks calm. It's not an ocean, we don't have one of those in Ontario, but rather a decent-sized swimming hole, surrounded by tall cliffs. On the opposite side of the quarry, far from where we are, there's a small waterfall that even I must admit is pretty. The breeze is colder here, even if it is an incredibly warm May evening, but it still brings a fresh, calming scent.

The guy from earlier is here with his friends, as well as a bunch of other people, all in swim gear, which is odd because we're nowhere near the water. People send Kalani, Emmett and I weird looks, but no one says anything like pink shorts did.

"Hey, Ralph!" Emi unlinks her arm from mine and leads us toward a tall white guy wearing an ugly open button-up shirt decorated with random shapes and patterns.

"Hey, Emi! Daphne!" he greets with a bright smile. "Glad you made it!" His eyes rake over me, Daphne, and Kalani, before resting on me. There's a gleam in his eye, and his voice seems to deepen. "Hi there. That's a bold outfit choice for cliff jumping."

"Cliff jumping?!" Kalani and I exclaim at the same time.

As if in answer to us, we hear a yell, and a few moments later, an answering splash. The people standing on top of the cliff cheer as they look down at whoever just jumped. A girl backs up a few feet before running and catapulting herself off the edge. My heart stops until I hear a splash and her calling up that she made it.

Cliff jumping? This is what I'm supposed to be doing today?

"You look a little pale, Princess," comes a deep voice I've already come to recognize. Pink shorts guy. I force myself not to notice his muscled chest, or his abs, or his arms as he reaches into a cooler and pulls out a beer.

Drinking and cliff jumping?! That doesn't seem responsible at all!

"Should you be drinking that if you're about to plummet to your death?" I ask, mentally cursing myself for breaking my promise to ignore him when I saw him.

A corner of his lip turns up. "No one's plummeting to their death."

"How far up are we?" I might not like him, but I might as well satisfy my curiosity while I'm not ignoring him.

Creeping closer to the end of the cliff, I peer down. The drop seems bottomless, and the longer I look, the farther and farther up I feel, as if the cliff is moving and stretching up toward the clouds. I scoot away from the edge immediately.

Pink Shorts pops open the tab on the beer. "Only about sixty feet, give or take."

Only sixty feet? I'm dizzy. Emmett appears beside me and places a steadying hand on my shoulder. "You alright, Carina?"

Pink Shorts looks between me and Emmett. He shakes his head, though there's a smirk plastered on his face. "Knew you didn't belong here." He turns his back on us and joins his friends, hands one of them his beer, then runs to the edge of the cliff and throws himself off it.

Before I can help myself, I race to the edge to witness his drop, and he falls more gracefully than anyone has any business doing. He performs two flips before landing in the water. Holding my breath, I count four whole painfully long Mississippi's before his head emerges, and everyone cheers.