“You’re always so careless,” Kalani starts, and I can tell both girls are gearing up for a fight, so I step between them.
“It’s fine. Really.” I turn to Emi. “It was an innocent mistake, it’s okay. I’m sure we’ll still have fun. Right, Kalani?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at a tree behind me.
“I should’ve just told you guys what we were doing, but Emi was so excited and wanted it to be a surprise,” Daphne says in her soft voice.
Daphne is almost completely the opposite of Emi, looks-wise and even personality-wise. Daphne’s super pale and embraces her freckles and her red hair, preferring to let it fall to her waist in its natural waves. She’s sweet and innocent, whereas Emi rocks the punk vibe with her leather jacket and nose ring. Emi wears her dark hair shaved close to her head except on the top, where she’s left it longer to flip over to the side; she dyes it a different color every couple months. This month’s color is purple, and it suits her perfectly.
“It’s all right, Daphne,” Emmett says, his eyes kind as he smiles at her. “Why don’t we go see what we’re doing?”
Grabbing a jacket for when the sun goes down, I close my car door and walk a few steps toward Emi, but my useless stilettos make my legs buckle like a baby deer trying to take its first steps. Kalani laughs, and I don’t even bother to shoot her a glare. With a huff, I hastily undo the straps of my shoes, take them off, and chuck them into the trunk of my car. Better to walk barefoot than twist my ankle.
Emi slips her arm through mine and starts leading us deeper into the trees, following the same path the snooty guys took. Daphne’s on her other side, and Emmett and Kalani follow us.
“That guy was totally eye-fucking you,” Emi states, leaning in conspiratorially.
For a split second, I think she’s talking about Emmett, and then I realize she meant the arrogant hot guy. I shove her with our linked arms, surprised she noticed him at all since she took her sweet time getting out of the car. “Pink swim shorts? He was not.”
“He totallywas.” She waggles her eyebrows. “You should ask him to come to couples’ night at Murphey’s tomorrow. Kalani sent their Instagram ad in the group chat a few minutes ago.”
A shiver runs down my spine as that guy’s face pops up in my mind. He was hot, hotter than hot in that bad boy way, but a complete asshole. I don’t even know him, but from that very brief interaction I know that I can’t stand him, and asking him on a date is the absolute last thing I want to do.
“That guy was a jerk,” I say. “And the way he called me ‘Princess’ all condescendingly? Rude.”
Emi laughs. “Don’t be so dramatic. That’s my thing.”
“I’m not being dramatic! He obviously didn’t want us here.”
“You know what your problem is, Carina?” Kalani says from behind us. “You never put yourself out there. I say give the guy a chance. We’re gonna see him again in like two minutes or whenever this trail ends. From the way he was looking at you, it’s clear he totally liked what he saw. He was undressing you with his eyes. Right, Emmett?”
Emmett nods along encouragingly, which only makes me more defensive.
“You guys are delusional. He was looking at me withhate, not lust or interest or whatever you guys think it was.Plus, why are we talking about it like it’s a thing? If we see him again, I’m ignoring him.” Even if he is annoyingly handsome and tall and has abs. That’s beside the point.
“There’s a fine line between hate and love,” Emi singsongs, pushing a tree branch out of Daphne’s way, and the view makes me forget to reply. Because we’re standing on a cliff.
“Whoa,” Emmett says as we reach the end of the path.
Whoais right. I was so busy talking that I didn’t realize we were walking slightly uphill, although we must’ve driven up most of the incline.
The line of trees stops where we emerge, and the rest is open ground until it suddenly ends. I’m standing too far from the edge to get an accurate view of how far up we are, but the blue water that I can see from here looks calm. It’s not an ocean—we don’t have one of those in Ontario—but rather a decent-sized swimming hole surrounded by tall cliffs. On the opposite side of the pool from where we are, there’s a small waterfall that even I must admit is pretty. The breeze is colder here, even if it is an incredibly warm May evening, but it still brings a fresh, calming scent.
The guy from earlier is here with his friends, as well as a bunch of other people, all in swim gear, which is odd because we’re nowhere near the water. People send Kalani, Emmett, and me weird looks, but no one says anything like Pink Shorts did.
“Hey, Ralph!” Emi unlinks her arm from mine and leads us toward a tall White guy wearing an ugly unbuttoned shirt decorated with random shapes and patterns that desecrate everything I understand about color theory and harmony.
“Hey, Emi! Daphne!” he greets with a bright smile. “Glad you made it!” His eyes rake over me, Emmett, and Kalani before resting on me. There’s a gleam in his eye, and his voice seems to deepen. “Hi there. That’s a bold outfit choice for cliff jumping.”
“Cliff jumping?!” Kalani and I exclaim at the same time.
As if in answer, we hear a yell and, a few moments later, an answering splash. The people standing on top of the cliff cheer as they look down at whoever just jumped. A girl backs up a few feet before running and catapulting herself off the edge. My heart stops until I hear a splash and her calling up that she made it.
Cliff jumping?This is what I’m supposed to be doing today?
“You look a little pale, Princess,” says a deep voice I’ve already come to recognize. Pink Shorts. I force myself not to notice his muscled chest, or his abs, or his arms as he reaches into a cooler and pulls out a beer.
Drinkingandcliff jumping? That doesn’t seem responsible at all!