The Senior Trip

Chapter 48

Asher

I watch her slip away. Part of me is relieved because the boys around us were checking her out and I didn't appreciate it one bit. But the other part of me hasn't spent a moment without her since she sat next to me on that plane and I don't like being away from her. We've created this bond since we've been lost together and I feel like I've abandoned her allowing her to just leap from the platform and free glide into the forest below. It makes me uncomfortable.

"Can we hurry this up?" I ask the worker.

"Sure," he responds.

I quickly get into the harness and let him do his job of fastening it to my body. He goes over the safety instructions, but I'm only half listening. I had listened to the whole thing already when Harper got her lesson. I just want to get to the bottom with her. It's crazy that this entire trip had been a plan to spend time making memories with Jess. I wanted to do all these wild, fun things with her and I haven't even done one. But none of that matters. Those all seems so unimportant and trivial. Who cares about getting drunk in a hotel pool or parasailing? I got lost in a foreign country and still managed to have a better adventure and make better memories than I ever could have planned for.

When we get back to the hotel, we're going to have a lot of questions to answer and a lot of reality to face. I've had Harper to myself. I've been borrowing someone else's best friend. Ezra is going to want her back. And I haven't forgotten that Finn is single now. Harper is an adult—with Ezra distracted with his own summer fling, is he really going to care if she gets involved with his brother?

"You ready?" the worker asks.

I almost answer no before I realize he isn't asking about the question I've just been thinking about. He asking about my position on the platform and if I'm ready to step over the ledge. I can see Harper's form streaming down the line in front of me. She's fearless. Never stopping as she zooms through the canopy of trees. My lips curve up.

"Yes." I answer him.

"She's fast. Better hurry," he says. He claps me on the back.

I take a giant step off the platform. My stomach drops instantly. Even though the harness catches my weight and I feel the tug of the fabric on my skin, the sensation of my heart falling and falling continues. I'm reminded of the day Harper first sat beside me. The way her presence made me almost forget the hurt I was feeling. The flutter of excitement brings me back to the night she danced at the wedding and I wanted to kiss her so badly. The wind is pushing past my face as I soar along the zip-line and my breath is stolen not for the first time this trip, and I wonder if it will be the last. I close my eyes for a minute, then open them again in search of her. I find her immediately, her arms spread wide at her sides, her head tipped back as she glides free atop the green trees. This is how I want to remember today. Falling back to earth behind her.

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