Chapter 19
Nineteen
Emi, Jasmine, and Maddie keep waggling their eyebrows suggestively at me, making obvious faces and head gestures toward Jay.
They not only saw the kiss but also watched as Jay grabbed my hand and pulled me toward his group of friends like all of this is completely normal, so I can’t blame them for being excited and doing a terrible job of being discreet.
To Jay’s credit, he pretends he doesn’t notice, instead continuing his conversation with Caleb and the others.
He leads the group to talk a very safe distance away from the edge of the cliff, comfortable enough for me to let my guard down.
He also picked a spot that forces us to face away from the cliff’s edge, which he did on purpose because I have a sick, self-torturing tendency to watch people jump off the ledge and hold my breath until I hear them break the surface.
Emi dramatically mouths something to me from where she sits directly in my line of sight with the girls.
I tune out whatever Caleb’s saying and silently mouth back, What?
She repeats it again, her mouth opening wider with every word she silently enunciates, but I have no idea what she’s saying.
I shake my head and mouth, What? again.
She does the exact same thing, and I blink at her.
She does it once again, more over-the-top and dramatic this time, and I can tell my blank look exasperates her, because she sighs and loudly exclaims, “I said, you guys are totally going to bang!”
Jay, Caleb, and the other guys all turn to Emi. Jasmine and Maddie slap their hands over their faces and erupt into giggles. Emi only smiles innocently as I glare at her, then she looks at the guys and says, “What? We were all thinking it!”
My face burns bright red as the guys laugh, and Caleb playfully elbows Jay and joins in the suggestive eyebrow waggling.
Despite being slightly embarrassed, I can’t help but join in with their laughing and good-natured jesting.
At least everyone is laughing with us about this and not at me about the viral video I’m sure they’ve all seen.
In fact, no one has even brought up the video or the incident or called me Pukey McBarfface.
I smile up at Jay, who’s laughing as he tells everyone to grow up. I’m sure he has something to do with everyone treating me normally, and I relax when I realize I haven’t thought about the incident at all since getting here.
Jay looks at me as the conversation drifts onto something else.
“I’m sorry about Emi,” I say, “but honestly, I’m surprised she didn’t just say it out loud in the first place.”
“Don’t apologize for her. It is kind of your fault for not knowing how to read lips. It was only a matter of time before she got fed up,” Jay jokes, and I shove him. God, he is so annoying.
Why do I love it?
Someone takes off at a run and launches themself off the cliff, and I track them with my eyes until they disappear. Jay notices, taking a step to his left to cut off my view of the cliff.
“You’re here, and you’re in your swimsuit.” He gestures to the strap of my bikini top peeking out from my sundress. “Why don’t you jump?”
Jump? Like off the cliff? Like plummet sixty feet down to certain death in merciless water and hope I avoid any rocks? “Are you joking? You know I’m scared of heights.”
“We can jump together. I’ll hold your hand the whole time. Or we can jump from a smaller one. I promise it’s fun.”
Maybe for him, Mr. I-do-backflips-while-jumping-off-a-cliff-with-more-grace-and-agility-than-a-man-should-be-allowed-to-possess.
“Umm, I don’t think so.”
Jay lifts an eyebrow. “You just said you liked me because I pushed you to be yourself.”
I have to hide my smile because it’s so wild to be talking so openly with Jay like this. It’s the same as we’ve always done, being open and honest about everything, but now with the added knowledge that we like each other.
“Yeah,” I say, “and myself is someone who’s scared of heights and would never jump off that edge, even if I was wrapped around you like a koala while in a bubble and wearing protective padding while also being supported by a bungee cord.”
He laughs like he didn’t expect anything else. “Okay, then why don’t we walk down the cliff to swim? It’s a lot slower than jumping, but it’s hot out here, and we’ve got a few more hours of sunlight.”
Jay’s already shirtless, so I’ve got a great view, but the two of us splashing around, having fun while I get to watch water rivulets run down his sculpted chest and abs? Yes, please.
A slim arm lands around my shoulders. “Did I hear we’re going swimming?” Emi asks. “Thank fuck, because I did not think through my outfit choice for today. I am sweating.”
I shake her arm off me because it corroborates her statement. “Yeah, I can feel it.”
She puts her hand on her chest and haughtily sticks her chin in the air.
“The sacrifices I make for fashion.” She hooks both hands on the waistband of her leather shorts and says to me, “If you’re planning on walking down the cliff you better get going, because I’m jumping, and if you’re still here by the time I’m undressed, you’re coming with. ”
I know she doesn’t mean it, but I waste no time whipping off my sundress, shoving it and my purse at Emi, grabbing Jay’s hand, and hauling ass out of there.
Emi’s laughter follows us as Jay allows me to pull him to the path I saw other people coming from, and my own smile answers.
It’s just so much fun being here, with Emi, with Jay, with everyone else.
Who’d have thought the miserable way I started the day would morph into this?
Emi is so much fun, and I’ve missed hanging around with her and goofing off and taking a break from the real world. I’ve missed her.
When we finally get to the bottom, I slip off my flip-flops and splash into the water with Jay. It’s slightly too cold to be refreshing, but we adjust in no time, swimming over to the other people already in the water.
From down here, the edge of the cliff where everyone jumps from looks monstrous, and even though I’m at the bottom, looking up and thinking about the distance makes me want to puke up my spaghetti dinner.
As I’m looking up, focusing on taking deep breaths so Jay doesn’t get a meatball surprise, Emi’s head pops into view from the top.
“Carina!” she calls, her voice traveling down on the wind. “Are you ready for this?”
“No!” I call up, but it’s too late. Emi’s head is gone, replaced with her full body being catapulted off the edge and going airborne.
I hold my breath and forget to tread water as Emi, clad only in her bra and cheeky black underwear, soars through the air, screaming the whole time.
She splashes into the water a safe distance away from where the rest of us are swimming, and I count five whole Mississippis until a flash of purple hair cuts through the surface of the water, followed by the rest of Emi.
“You can breathe now, Princess,” a voice says in my ear, and my lungs listen, taking a big gulp of air. The world around me resumes, and people are cheering, though I have no idea when they started. Jay’s behind me, and his arms are wrapped around me, holding me up in the water.
“You know,” he continues, “I thought you watching people jump from the top was dangerous, because you kept kneeling over the edge to see them land, but I think it’s actually more dangerous for you to watch them from here.
Did you know you actually stopped treading water that whole time? You’re a drowning hazard.”
He’s joking, but if he wasn’t holding me up, I’m not sure I’d have noticed I wasn’t swimming until I was swallowing mouthfuls of water.
“It’s not my fault!” I defend myself, treading water on my own again. Jay’s grip loosens, but he doesn’t release me, and I turn so I’m facing him.
I’m in his arms, basically semi-naked, pressed up against his bare and very delicious-looking chest. As I imagined before, there are indeed rivulets of water running down the crevices of his sculpted chest muscles, and it’s just as glorious as I thought it would be.
For a moment, I picture myself licking the path they left, but then I force my gaze to his amused eyes.
As steadily as I can, I say, “Jumping off a cliff that height, or any height, should not be allowed! You guys are outrageous.”
He must know where my mind went, because a mischievous look passes over his face.
He pulls me closer to him, and I wrap my legs around his waist. He effortlessly treads water for the two of us.
“Outrageous isn’t the worst thing you’ve ever called me,” he says, his eyes trained on my lips.
“Though, I can think of some other adjectives you can call me.”
He lowers his head, and just when his lips skim mine, a splash of cold water forces us apart.
“So, Jay,” Emi says, a shit-eating grin on her face like she can’t contain her own amusement, “what are your intentions toward my best friend Carina?”
I groan and splash her, retribution for when she did it first. “Don’t make it awkward, Emi.”
Caleb swims over to us. He must have jumped after Emi when Jay was distracting me. “Is this the best friend interrogation?” he asks with a roguish smile. “Carina, before I get to it, I just have to ask . . . are you sure you want to be with Jalen? Do you even know just how annoying he really is—”
Jay cuts him off with a playful tackle, and they splash around in the water.
I laugh with Emi as more people join us.
I lose track of how much time passes, enjoying the sun, water, and everyone’s company.
I forget all about school and Kalani and the dates and the stuff everyone’s saying about me and my status as Pukey McBarfface, the loser who pays people to date me.
Before I know it, the sun is starting to set, and we climb out and hike back up to dry off before it completely disappears in the horizon.