Everyone turned and looked up.
“Shit,” Asher bit out before he took off for the path. Zeke was barely a heartbeat behind him.
“Isaac, don’t even think about it!” Zeke bellowed as he rushed up the steps. I got to my feet and stepped out of the water as everyone else was yelling. It didn’t even slow Isaac down.
Fear filled my heart, sharp and stabbing.
“He’s not going to…” I muttered as Isaac moved to the edge at the very top. “Oh, God.” Asher was only halfway up. Everyone in the quarry was watching, talking about how no one had ever jumped off the top without hurting themselves. “How dangerous is that level?”
“If you don’t land right? Bad,” Ethan said, his voice tight. I reached over and took his hand. His fingers tightened on mine.
“Brother, don’t!” Ethan shouted.
Isaac backed up to get a running jump.
“Isaac! Stop!” I shouted.
He paused, but it was only for a couple of heartbeats before he ran for the edge and jumped. He seemed to fly for forever, but it was still not long enough. He moved into the pencil position just before he hit the water, hard.
I covered my mouth as my body shook, my stomach knotted. “Oh God, no.”
Miles dove in and swam for Isaac’s entry point.
Fear tore through me. I couldn’t lose Isaac. We couldn’t lose him. Life without Isaac flashed before my eyes; no more blue hair, no more pranks, no more of that smile, no more limes… never another touch...
Tears filled my eyes as the seconds stretched into what seemed like hours.
Miles reached Isaac’s entry point just as Isaac came up.
He whooped and raised his arms.
He was fine.
The pain in my chest eased. Relief swamped me. I took several deep breaths. Ethan sat down on a rock and took deep, shuddering breaths.
I was just glad he was alive. But when he got out of the water smiling that shit-eating grin, I got pissed.
“What the fuck, Isaac?” I shouted. His eyebrows went up, his smile fading as he stepped closer.
“It was fun,” he offered.
My eyes met his. “You promised me,” I reminded him. His smile disappeared completely. “You fucking promised me! No more crazy stunts!” Anger washed through me, making me shake.
“That wasn’t—”
“You could have died,” I growled, tears falling down my face. “You promised me. And then you go and…” I shook my head. I couldn’t even deal right now. I thought I had lost him. For those seconds he was under the water, I had thought he was dead. I turned and walked back to the blanket, stuffed my things into my bag, and began pulling on my sandals.
“Red—”
My eyes snapped to his. “Don’t Red me!” I grabbed my bag. “You know how much your stunts scare me! And you fucking did it anyway!”
“It was a challenge!” he shot back.
“The third level would have been a challenge!” I pointed at the cliff. “That was a fucking stupid risk!” I strode past him with tears streaming down my face and climbed the path, passing Asher and Zeke as they came down.
“Ally?” I didn’t stop.
"Watch your footing," Zeke warned as I passed him.
“Lexie!” Isaac shouted. I ignored him, my throat tightening. I climbed into the Blazer and gunned it out of the gravel lot. I went home fuming and crying.
Jessica
Isaac surfaced.
My knees gave out. I dropped to my towel as I tried to breathe again.
That son of a bitch! My hands shook as I watched Isaac swim to the shore. Why the hell does he keep doing this shit? I pressed a shaking hand against my face as I tried to get control of myself again.
“Damn, I hoped the fucker would break something,” Jason said. Jason’s friends agreed and started talking about what should have happened as they sat down. I shot him a look.
A girl’s voice was shouting. I looked around and found Lexie shouting at Isaac about his stupid stunt. For once, I agreed with her. My eyes went to Ethan and his hunched over form as he tried to get his breath back. He looked like he was going to be sick. Didn’t Isaac realize how much he scared him with this stuff? My heart ached as Lexie shouted at Isaac again and stormed up the stairs, leaving the guys behind. At least someone finally told him to knock it off.
“And there goes the bitch,” Jason announced. The guys laughed.
“At least she was nice to look at,” Hale offered. I rolled my eyes.
“I wouldn’t mind hitting that,” Brendon added. They continued talking about Lexie’s body as I watched Isaac walk off into the trees. Someone needed to talk to him. Asher was right… I hadn’t been around the guys for a long time. Maybe…
“Hey, who are you looking at?” Jason snapped.
I turned back to him. “I was just thinking someone should talk to Isaac.”
He scowled. “Why do you fucking care?”
“How can you say that?” I snapped. “Isaac’s family.”
Jason’s eyes flashed to me. His hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist. “Oh, you want to screw him, right?” His fingers tightened on my wrist painfully. I tried to pull back, but his grip was too hard. “Don’t you?” he snapped.
“Ew. He’s family,” I reminded him.
“Bullshit.” His grip tightened.
Miles
Lexie stormed out of view at the top of the cliff. Isaac cursed and walked off into the trees. Well, that was horrible. I looked at the others.
“Who do we go after, Isaac or Ally?” Asher asked.
I thought about it. “Let Lexie go, she probably needs some time to calm down.” I turned to look the way Isaac went. “Ethan? Do you want to talk to Isaac?”
“Fuck no,” Ethan growled. I turned. He was still sitting on a rock, his face pale, taking deep breaths. “That asshole just scared the shit out of me.”
“I’ll talk to Isaac,” I decided.
The guys agreed, so I headed after Isaac.
“This shit needs to stop,” Zeke snapped.
“Let Miles deal with it,” Asher said.
I stepped into the tree line and followed the path that Isaac seemed to have taken. Isaac wasn’t one to break a promise, so what happened today? I walked for several minutes before I heard him.
“Stupid, worthless piece of shit,” Isaac growled. Wood snapped. “You can’t even fucking keep a promise. It’s not that hard! But no, you can’t even fucking remember. You just had to make her cry.”
I stepped into the clearing. Isaac was snapping down branches and throwing them into the woods. His face was red, his mouth hard, as he continued cursing at himself.
I had to be the calm one. Asher didn’t want to do it, Ethan couldn’t do it, and Zeke wanted to hit him. I had to be the calm one. “Isaac.”
He shot a look at me over his shoulder before picking up a fallen branch and bashing it against a tree trunk. I moved a bit closer and waited until he broke the branch and threw it through the trees.
“Leave me alone,” he bit out.
“I came to listen,” I reminded him. I always came to listen. It was the only way to get him to talk about what was bothering him.
“Yeah, well.” He grunted as he smashed another branch before he turned back to me. “I don’t feel like talking.”
“Alright,” I said carefully. “Then I’ll just be here.” I sat down on a log and watched Isaac work his anger out. It took time and patience.
When he was finally done, he turned around, out of breath and sweating. He spotted me, shook his head, and turned away. “I fucking made her cry,” he muttered.
“Yes, you did,” I said carefully. “You scared her pretty badly.”
He shook his head again. “I wasn’t thinking about the promise I made her.”
“What were you thinking about?” I asked gently.
Isaac shook his head and looked at the ground. “You know what. Don’t worry about it, I’ll fucking fix it,” he snapped before he moved down another path and out of sight. Knowing Isaac, I didn’t follow. It was different than our usual talks, and that bothered me. I walked back to the quarry, running scenarios through my mind.
Lexie