Book One In The Ahh-Ness Of Things Series: April & Donnie were once inseparable, but now almost six years have passed since she left NYC. What if April O'Neil could set the record straight, once & for all! The only girl down enough to chill with the...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He left me standing on the ledge with that. It was such a low shot & he knew I would take it however, in troves. I am a mutant; in my own right. I should speak up for other mutants & not give into the privilege of my "pass card". Yet, he was was calling me out for not having any right to say I understood the trauma of prejudice. I would never really know what it was like for them. For my own family. I had never really thought about the reality of mutant life, only the reality of being among mutants. I had robbed myself of the opportunity to fight for my own flesh & blood. I had never had to have that learning experience; sitting in a lobby like Leo & his lover, where all eyes were on me, judging us. Where just existing out in the open, put you in danger. I only knew the fear of others finding me out. Finding us out, but we had been spared that.
He disappeared behind the waterfall, through the secret passage way that led down to a rope swing. Just as he'd said; the rope was severed. This was such a magical place once. He had brought me here, the first time, to impress me. Hoping the emotional impact of such a sight would induce feelings of appreciation for him & his world. That I might want to stay. Life circles back again again. He was bringing me here now, as I was prepared to leave, all over again.
"Hold to me, I'll carry you down."
I looked over down the sheer drop to the pool below. The water tumbled down with such force, the pool below was an explosion of spray against the rocks.
"I can't piggy back, I'm still weak, Donnie. How do you want me to do this?"
He held his arm out & smiled in a charmingly sad gesture.
"I'm not weak. Don't you trust me?"
I hesitantly put my hands in his. It wasn't that I didn't trust him; it was his passive aggressive attitude. One minute he seemed to despise me & the next; he was almost romantic. He pulled me to him, close where my head came just to his collar bone, & he leveraged my fingers into the breast plate of his shell. I couldn't wrap my legs all the way around him, for the width of his shell, so he wrapped his free arm tightly around me. We shimmed like this onto an incredibly narrow lip in the rock. He was careful to make distance between my back & the wall, as I was left to hang on to him as we made our descent. I had never gotten used to the guys unbelievable control over their bodies. They were like master acrobats & contortionists. He was carrying us both down a straight drop with just one hand, & his feet holding fast to impossible crevices; really nothing more than indentions in the wall. He only lost his footing once, from the increasingly wet surface. We sung out about two or three feet, & I hung to his shell for dear life, trying to grab at him with my legs until I realized I was throwing him off balance.
