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At last, Eden joined me on the other side of the bridge. I turned to her with a small smile. 

"Don't even start," she said to me, as she held up a hand. 

"I wasn't about to. While you were doing...that," I said, referring to Eden's somewhat amusing journey across the bridge, "I was looking around. We have to collect these," I continued, when she met my gaze with a curious expression. I held my hand up, where I held a little golden acorn. "Golden acorns. If you look at that sign over there," I said, pointing to it. Eden followed my gaze and squinted a little, so she could read it, "It says there's about five of them that we need to find. So, we have one. I wonder where the others are." 

"Five of them?" Eden asked. Her expression was hilarious. I had to force myself not to laugh. 

"Yeah," I replied, forcing the corners of my mouth to quit curling up. 

"That could take me all day," she said. 

For someone that usually seemed to have so much self-confidence, she wasn't demonstrating it now. 

"No, it couldn't," I said, "Because you're going to go first," I said, as I nodded to the rope swing nearby. 

A muscle in Eden's jaw twitched, as she looked in the direction that I had inclined my head towards. 

I really did have to question Mr. King's authority again, now. How he had thought that Eden and I would ever be a good pair was really beyond my understanding. 

"How is me going first going to change anything at all?" Eden asked, with some anxiety creeping into her voice. 

"Well, if you move too slow, I can give you a little push forward," I said, with a grin. 

Eden's eyes shone with astonishment, then. 

"Fine," she said and jumped forward onto the rope swing sooner than I could say anything else. 

Damn. Was that really all it took? 

She swung a few times, until she had the courage to let go on the other side, so she could stand upon the wooden platform again. 

I then jumped forward onto the rope swing, once it had come back for me, and quickly hopped off on the other side. 

"Come on, let's go," I said, as Eden stared at me with amazed eyes. 

"How do you make everything sound so easy?" I heard her whisper, as I passed by her. 

My mouth twitched but I didn't say anything in response to her question. 

It was rare that I ever got an opportunity to show off in front of her- show that I was capable. 

I wasn't sure why it even mattered all that much, but I sure was enjoying every moment of this. 

Soon enough, I spotted something shiny out of the corner of my eye and discovered that one of the golden acorns was hidden under one of the planks on the next bridge. 

I reached down to grab it, while Eden gasped behind me. 

After I had secured the golden acorn in my grip, I turned back to meet her gaze. 

"Stop looking so worried. I'm not going to die," I said. 

Eden immediately composed her face again. 

"I wasn't worrying about that," she said to me. "I don't have a clue what you're talking about." 

"Let's carry on, then. We need to find all of these," I said, as I placed the two golden acorns in my pocket for safekeeping. 

We were going to perfect this challenge. I would make sure of it. 

"I don't know if I can go on," Eden said, as we reached the next part of the challenge- we had to hop between platforms now- sort of like airborne stepping stones. 

"Don't be so dramatic, Edie," I said to her, "Now is not the time to be indecisive." 

She didn't look so sure, but she nodded, as she jumped onto the first one and successfully landed. 

"You'll need to move onto the next one, if I'm to follow you," I said. 

"Don't push me, Beatrice," Eden said, with a combination of exasperation and worry in her voice. 

"I won't, if you hurry the hell up," I said. 

I heard her sigh, but she managed to jump onto the next one, too, so I could then follow behind her. 

As I stood behind her, I heard her whisper under her breath. 

"This kind of crap only happens to me," she said. 

"There are people dying, Eden," I reminded her. 

"Yeah. I think I might be next on the list," she added. 

"Well, let's hope not," I said. 

She turned to me and her eyes narrowed. 

"God, I hate you," she said. 

"Oh, you hate me, now? That's new information. I thought you just really, really didn't like me," I retorted. 

Eden said nothing to that, as she hopped onto the next platform. 

I jumped forward too, so I was only a platform behind her. 

There was only one more to go, now, until we reached the other side. 

"I can't," she said and I could hear the anxiety in her voice. 

"Hey, yes you can. You're Eden Thorne. You look life in the face and you slap it," I said. 

She whipped around and raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Weird metaphor," she said, "But thanks, I think," she continued. 

After that, she managed to make it to the last platform. She jumped one final time and made it to the other side. 

I made it across, too, and then realised something alarming when I caught sight of Eden's face again. 

Tears were trailing down her cheeks. 

She was crying. 

And I suddenly had a realisation. 

"Wait a second," I said. 

Eden glanced up at me. 

"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" I asked her. 

"No," she said. 

Her voice was not in the least bit convincing. 

"You are," I said. 

Eden cried some more. 

"Eden," I said, a little more softly this time. 

I felt tempted to reach out and comfort her but I doubted she would ever let me do that. 

Wait a second- why would I even want to do that? 

In this situation, only to get her to stop crying. 

"Eden, look at what you did! We made it," I told her. 

Eden wiped her tears away and managed a smile, as she glanced back to find we had reached the third acorn. 

Eden and Bea (LGBT+)Where stories live. Discover now