Kind of bad and a little late, sorry. ~ First: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/854964808/ Previous: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/878603600/ Next: Working on it! ~ Age rating: 11+ (basically just as long as you're a mature reader) ~ “You about done there, Kaitlyn? Because I have something else to show you.” I had been so enthralled by the view that I could forget that Em had been right behind me. While her voice was teasing, she had seemed pleased by my interest in the place she had showed me. “Almost,” I had responded, trying to capture every bit of it in my memory before we left. “You know, I can always bring you back here again tomorrow. Unless—”her eyes glinted as she had said it— “you don’t need me anymore. Which is fine.” I knew she was toying with me, but it still stung a little. Me not needing Em? She was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Or maybe the worst, in hindsight, after what had happened because of us later. But at the time, I did not know that. Em walked down a narrow path between the bushes, all the grass trampled by the footsteps so that they led down a certain way. I followed her footsteps as we walked in silence; the only sounds were the chirping of birds and the crunching of leaves and twigs beneath our feet. *** We had stopped at another cliff, but this one was more out of the way than the last. It lacked the stunning view and was much closer to the ground, though beneath it was an overgrown thicket of shrubs. “Are you afraid of heights?” Em had asked mischievously, glancing between me and the edge of the cliff. I had rubbed my fingers on the seams of my gray shirt and admitted, “A little. Only if I look down, I guess.” I didn’t like to admit weakness to Em because she always was so much braver than I was. It was one of the things I liked about her. She was so characteristically brave, and she made me braver too. “Just don’t look down, then.” Em had stepped a little closer to the edge, and for some reason, I gravitated toward her. “We’ll jump on the count of three.” I had stopped right in my tracks right then. “‘Jump’?” I had repeated, both terrified and in awe at the same time. “Like, jump off the cliff? Is it safe?” She had given me a funny look before saying slowly, “If it helps, I’ve done it before, and I’m perfectly fine.” She had pushed her flamelike hair over her shoulders and wrapped it up in a neat little bun. “You’re crazy,” I had told her simply, to which she had just flashed a smile. “Yet you’re still with me.” She laughed, and ordinarily I would have felt myself shrink beneath my skin, knowing that she was laughing at me, but with Em, it felt normal. “Okay,” I said, trying to get a hold of myself, taking a deep breath as an attempt to slow my rapid heartbeat. I had taken the tiniest peek down over the drop, my toes nearly touching the point where the rock met the air, and stepped back, shaking my head. “I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” “Sure, you can.” When she had smiled at me again, it wasn’t her usual smirk but rather something that I think was meant to be reassuring. And it was. But her playful teasing had returned just as quickly as it left. “You know, I can always push you instead.” I felt her hands on my back and flinched. For a second, I had forgotten that it was Em and not Mother about to punish me for something else that I had done wrong. “Sorry, I…” My cheeks had heated up with shame, but Em had mistaken it for fear. “How about we just jump together?” I had nodded, and she offered me her hand. I grabbed it and clung onto tightly as we fell from the cliff into the bushes, tumbling down, the air rushing against our skin. Once I had gotten over the thrill of the jump, it was wonderful. It was like flying, and as we fell through the winds whipping through the leaves and branches, I laughed with Em. It felt like I was finally free.
