Unexpected Love

Chapter 25

We drive about 30 to 45 minutes from campus to Miller's creek. We decide to swim and try bridge jumping before heading the rest of the way to Josh's place, but we all know Josh grew up doing it. When we pull up to park near the bridge we notice a few parked cars already and we all immediately notice Landon, Lance, and a few others, along with what seems like several slutty girls roaming about.

I turn to Josh and say "Babe, we can go." "Nope, were here and were sticking with the plan" he says sarcastically and climbs out of the car. I turn around to Jess and James with similar expressions of concern. I grab our towels and catch up with him. Josh previously told me that he's jumped of this bridge a million times and it's safe as long as the water is high. From what I can gather, it seems to be, since people are jumping from the overpass that seems to be about 15 feet, while the top of the overpass seems about 40 feet from the water.

Lance waves us over and Landon eyes me from his entourage. "Nice to see you here, Jenn" Landon smirks. Josh loops his arm around my waist. Well isn't that noticeable or at least pretty direct. "You jumping Jenn?" Lance asks. "I sure am." I don't trust Landon as far as I can throw him but Lance has always been friendly. I move away from Josh,walk to the edge with Lance next me, and look down "Sounds good" I say. After we seem to break past the tension, Landon and his friends go back to drinking whatever is in their red cups and messing around.

"Jess, you jumping" I ask. "Why the hell not" she responds. Jess, Josh, and I stand at the edge looking down 15 feet. James volunteers to watch and look after our stuff, yet I wonder if he's scared considering how quickly he offered for that position. "On the count of 3" Josh shouts "1...2...3" and we all jump off the bridge.

The feeling was nothing I experienced before. My stomach was in my throat and it felt exhilarating as I plunged into the water. I felt free yet again next to this guy to what seems like I'm falling for. We swim a few feet to the edge and pull ourselves and walk back to the bridge. I ignore the girl's snotty looks and expressions and keep walking where James is standing. They look completely dry so I really just want yell "yeah bitches you try it." James looks impressed with Jess and Josh congratulates me by kissing me on the cheek. We continue to do the same routine of jumping off with alternating turns so someone is always watching our stuff. But when my turn rolls around Josh refuses me to be alone on the bridge with Landon so close.

As James and Jess are walking back from the waters edge Lance shouts at me "I bet you $50 Josh that you and your girl can't jump from the top." Landon jumps in the fun "make it $100." I know they knew Josh would do it, but they were egging me on thinking I wouldn't. Before Josh can respond I shout back "show me the money." Landon, Lance, and even Josh are shocked at what I just said. Lance, Landon, and their friends meet us in the middle of the bridge and pull out cash totaling to $100. "Okay, you're on" I say.

Landon steps towards me but doesn't touch me considering Josh is right there. "Jenn, it's not the safest and we're just joking around. Josh always does stupid shit. But if you were mine I wouldn't let you do it." What the fuck creep? I'm not yours! I instantly use that as motivation and respond growling "I'm not yours Landon and don't' underestimate what I can do."

Josh tries to grab me by the wrist but I wiggle my way free and walk to the pillar to climb up. Jess and James start running over seeing what's about to happen. "Jenn, don't fucking do it" James says. "Girl, don't be stupid" Jess adds. I look over at Josh and smile "Our next adventure." He knows exactly what I'm talking about and he responds "Have you seen Braveheart...it's based on a true story." We start laughing at our inside jokes and start climbing to the top.

Lance and Landon, along with everyone else is staring at us. I stable myself and I swallow hard. When I pull myself up to the top, I look around and observe to how far I can see. "Wow, now this is freedom" I utter. I look down and regret a bit of what I just said. Josh looks over at me and with being a few feet apart we have nothing to hold us up but ourselves. "On the count of 3" he says" I smile "1..." he starts "2!!" I scream and jump in hearing Josh following behind me.

My feet hit the water hard, my lungs are burning, and it seems to take forever to climb to the surface. I will never forget how it felt to look and hit the water from so high up. I know people have done higher jumps than this but this was my first time and it never felt better.

I burst through the surface and look behind me at the all the shocked and impressed faces. I look over and Josh hastily swims over to me. He pulls me in his arms and kisses me hard. "First, adventure check" he says. I wrap my arms around his neck "Next, please" I can't help but look up and see Landon staring.

We swim to edge and walk back hand in hand. I collect our $100 from Lance and strut back to the car. Josh wraps a towel around me and pulls me into his chest. I look up and he's staring hard at Landon across the other end. "Babe, this was a great day. Let's go!" He drops his focus from Landon and the four of us get into the car.

Jess and James of course congratulate us on our "crazy jumping" and soon pass out in the back seat. Josh places his hand on my thigh and continues to move downward. "You know, I never commented on how you look in your swim suit. I'm impressed you were daring enough to get a bikini considering you never had one." I gaze in his direction "Yeah, me too, but I figured about damn time and what the hell, I'm almost 18, right?" Josh never gave me shit about my age even though no one else really did either since I never brought it up. Most of the people I was hanging out with were between 19 and 22. Who would want to hang out with an almost 18 year old anyway? But Josh always said I was born with an old soul.

"Speaking of adult? Isn't your birthday next week?" Aren't you turning 19? Josh and I were certainly younger of the group and had later birthdays than those of our grade level. Jess and James were also 19 but turning 20 later in the year. "Yes, but we don't have to do anything" He says "really, we have to" I say. "Okay but something easy.... Like just the two of us or just the four of us." "Ummm....yeah that might not work considering Jess is throwing you a huge party at the dorms. I was supposed to make it intimate between the two of us before and then have you be surprised." He starts laughing and leans over for a quick kiss as he's driving "Yeah, James already told me that I had to be there or else Jess would kill him...So I already knew. I was just hoping you would get me out of it." "Yeah, no thank you!" I say protest.

The scenery looks so familiar and comforting as we take the same road to his parent's place. Josh was right, the area he grew up in within Wyoming was entirely different from the rest. We pull into Kim's driveway and press hard to wake Jess and James up. We walk through the same garage door and into the same guest bedroom where we've in stayed before. We drop our bags off and head to the kitchen and see Kim has left another note "At mom and dad's come to dinner if you're here before 9pm." I looked at my phone which read 7pm. "Wanna clean up and head over" I ask.

I yell at Jess saying I'll meet her in the bathroom. I leave the door open and turn the shower on. I pull my hair down from a wet messy bun and I glance at myself in the mirror. I look so much better tan and my hair is showing my natural beachy waves. I'm feeling pretty good right now. I pull my attention from the mirror as Josh closes the door behind him and smiles.