Page 45 of Ex Marks the Spot
“On your second bounce up, I want you to pull it. This will release your legs?—”
“Release my legs? Isn’t that the opposite of what I need to happen?”
“Relax. You’re still connected at your harness.” He reaches around to my front and pats the system of cords and clips. “Releasing your ankle strap allows you to sit upright on the way back to the platform.”
“So I won’t die if I pull it?”
“No.”
“What if I don’t pull it? Will I die then?”
“Your blood will rush to your head, but you won’t die.”
“How can someone so young sound so sure about the fate of someone else’s life?”
He laughs. “I’m twenty-four, and I’ve been jumping since I was sixteen.”
Oh.
“What I want you to do now is find a target way out there in the distance and keep your eyes on that. I’ll count you down. When I get to one, you’ll take a big jump out toward that target.”
“Don’t push me.”
“I won’t.”
“Because if you do, I’ll kick you in the balls too.”
He laughs again. “You have my word. Okay, arms out like you’re getting ready to fly...three, two, one.”
My feet don’t move because my lungs aren’t working properly and nowI’m going to pass out on the platform and fall over the edge and I won’t be able to pull the strap?—
“No worries, champ. Let’s try that again. Arms up high and...three, two, one.”
“I’m going to die. I’ll fall out of this harness and my body will splatter into tiny pieces in the river. They won’t find all of my parts, so my parents will get a refrigerated box that’s only half full, which is way worse than getting a box that’s completely full. I can’t...I can’t do this.”
I can’t, I can’t, I?—
“Hartley,” Court says, except this time his voice is coming from right behind me. I carefully turn my head and see Oliver standing off to the side. When did they switch places?
“If you’re here to push me over, I’m going to kick you in the balls twice.”
“I’m going to touch you, but I promise I won’t push you.” Before I can protest, he brings his hands to my neck and kneads a path from the base of my head down to my shoulders and back up again.
I don’t mean to sigh like a woman who hasn’t been touched in six years, it’s just that my lungs and I aren’t on the same page right now, okay? But regardless of how good this feels, it doesn’t change the truth.
“There’s no way I can do this. We’re gonna have to take the penalty.”
“Forget about jumping for a minute.”
“Kind of impossible given my current view.”
“Then close your eyes.”
“Fine. Now what?”
“Do you remember the night you described how your muse works?”
My bedroom door opens and a pair of upside-down, denim-clad legs come into view.