"Before you guys head off we are going to be dividing you guys into groups," said another one of the pilots, named Kevin.
I stood around, waiting as the pilots tried to discuss their plan on how to organize all of us.
“Hey, I’m Liam,” smiled the guy standing next to me.
“Oh, hey Liam,” I smiled back, attempting not to stutter.
He was attractive. Dark brown hair a little tousled and spiked up, blue eyes, clear face, and straight white teeth. Too bad I had to be the kind of girl who also had to fall in love with personalities. But maybe I could give him a chance. But he could be a jerk for all I know. I decided to play it friendly, not flirty, for now.
“So, ever done this before?” He asked.
“Nope. I didn’t realized how much I’d be freaking out, until now,” I added.
Liam laughed, “yeah, I’ll just be honest and say same here.”
“I’m Sierra by the way,” I said.
“Cool name, nice to meet you,” He started.
I think I was starting to kind of like this guy. How was it possible that a few sentences had charmed me already?
“Okay so it looks like there are three allowed to go at a time. One can jump with an instructor and the other two together, but it looks like all the other groups are full so it’ll just be you two and a trainer,” said a guy motioning to us.
Liam just glanced at me and I couldn’t tell if there was any disappointment. My pissy mood returned when I remembered what I came here to do and more importantly who I was supposed to be doing it with.
"Sure, it's no problem," smiled Liam.
Soon enough all the other groups were organized and if they didn't already know each other they were introducing themselves.
"Okay, great job folks. You can all head over to the office building directly through the glass door right over there," Tim, one of the pilots, pointed out.
In the office there was another group or two ahead of us. It looked like the line was going to be long. As I started to walk over, I noticed Liam walking next to me at my pace.
"This is pretty exciting. How are you feeling?" he asked.
“Terrified, actually. But still excited. And if you can’t already tell I’m kind of pissed because my friends ditched me,” I snapped.
“I figured you were either the attitude type or just in a bad mood, but I wasn’t sure,” he stated.
I uncrossed my arms and just kind of looked at him.
“I really don’t know what that is supposed to mean,” I told him.
Then Liam flashed a crest white smile and shook his head, "nevermind."
We all entered the glass-walled room and realized that we were going to be waiting in line for a little while. It was no surprise that Liam was right behind me in line.
"So what's your story?" he asked me. "I mean, since we're going to be skydiving together," he added.
We moved up in line and I realized we only had two people ahead of us.
"Right," I said, "well I just finished my senior year of high school, always wanted to skydive," I awkwardly crossed my arms and smiled. I left out the little details like i have a cat, i love food, i love concerts, i love the city, and all stuff like that.
"And you?" I asked.
"Ah, well I just finished my first year at Florida University. I'm majoring in business. I also took a philosophy class and learned a lot of things around the question of 'are we living or just existing?' "
"So," he continued, "I realized I want to do more than exist. There are billions of people that exist. Wouldn't it be a privledge to live?"
Without forcing anything I smiled and looked deeply into Liam's eyes. This guy was deep. A typical college guy who suddenly saw the need to take risks in life. Well, there certainly was no backing out of this whole skydiving thing now. Because in that very moment I realized, that I too, wanted to live and not just exist.
"Next person in line, please," I heard a woman saying.
I turned from Liam, giving him an apologetic smile, and moved up in line.
"Hello," said the woman. "Paperwork for you to sign," she said while handing me a few papers.
I took a pen from the little penholder and began filling out the information.
Name: Sierra Drew Cali
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: 6/15/94
Address: 12 Leon Way, Tampa Florida, 33601
Phone: 555-236-4581
The list continued and I tried to hurry because 1. I didn't want Liam to have to keep waiting in line 2. Liam was very charming and attractive and 3. I was anxious but excited to skydive.
I scibbled some other information down before handing the papers back to the woman.
"Here you go, thanks," I said with a smile.
"Looks good," she said while reviewing my work. "Next," I heard her say as I headed back.
I smiled at Liam on my way toward the back.
"I'll wait over here," I whispered to him, gesturing towards the chairs near the door.
"Okay," he replied.
I watched Liam fill out some paperwork, checked twitter on my phone, and looked at the clock. I realized I was tapping my foot and immediatey stopped. Finally, Liam was finished. I made eye contact with him and he began walking over.
"Hey," he said. "Ready to fly?"
"Yeah, yeah I am," I said while shaking the nerves away.
"Let's go," he smied.
Liam led the way and held the glass door open for me. We went to go meet with our pilot, named Albert, and he gave us our suites.
"Let's do this," he said.