Dusk & Dawn

24- skydiving

"You have to tell me where you're taking me?," I asked Harper again as she focused on her wheel and the road ahead without sparing me a glance, just like the past forty five minutes.

"Harper!" I called again.

"You'll know when you get there." She's said this same thing every time I asked.

I shook my head and pouted as I relaxed back in my seat crossing my arms in what seemed like anxiety. Harper pulled into a parking space beside a familiar blue Audi. As soon as we parked and Harper unlocked the door, Naomi and Cleo strolled out of the blue car which was Naomi's.

I grinned as I opened the door, carefully stepping out of my seat. Naomi and Cleo pulled into my embrace separately, knowing smiles plastered to her face.

"You should at least tell me what this is, Mims? Cleo?" I turned to each of them separately but they shook their heads, reluctant to answer. I turned to Naomi again knowing it was quite easy to pressurize her into telling me.

"I swear, I have no idea what's going on. It's all Harper and Ezra, I was only told to bring Cleo along." She raised her hands in surrender. My facial muscles twitched to a smile at the mention of Ezra being a part of it, while it soon lined to a frown as to the thought of what we were really doing here then. I wondered why he didn't say anything about it when we talked the previous night.

We headed into the prestigious building with about a hundred floors named Magicnus. The attendant came to us in a posh suit as he smiled and welcomed us into the building.

He turned to Harper recognizing her before mouthing to her, "Mr cooper?"

Harper nodded to him and signed in the document he showed her. The attendant named Jim as his ask me button hinted, led us to the elevator. As we passed from one floor to the other in the transparent elevator, Harper continued to mention how one floor was a cinema, another was a restaurant, another a casino and what not.

My body vessels seemed to constrict in anxiety as we stepped out the elevator which took us over to the penthouse. He led us to an exit door which led us to the bare top of the building where Ezra stood beside an helicopter with the name of the company inscribed on it.

As soon as he saw us, he came jogging towards us and stopping as he got to me. He pulled me into his embrace feeling the temperature from my head and nodded in approval.

"Hi guys," he greeted my friends nodding at them each.

"What's going on?" I asked him and he turned back to me.

"We're about to find the secret of the universe," he smiled at me as he nodded to the attendant who then started to speak to us about what we were about to do.

Never in a million years did I think it was going to be possible. We were going skydiving, all of us and Ezra had been arranging this with my friends for a while. I didn't think I'd be scared when the other attendant wore the parachute bag for me. I had always wanted it but seeing it now, got me scared.

I mean, skydiving felt like the only thing that if I did it, I could finally let go. As the helicopter went high into the sky, my face was glued to the window staring at clouds and heavens.

"Looking for a cloud shaped like pizza?" Ezra's voice boomed in the mic as he spoke. I turned to him with a smile, my gaze flickering to how he held my shaky hands.

"You know it." I responded before taking a glance at Harper who was making videos, Naomi seemed interested in the sky as well even though she'd done this sometimes during her first year in college while Cleo was consciously praying that we made it back alive and unscathed.

I laughed at her cowardice but the fear was real. My excitement was too rooted that it blurred out my panic.

"Anytime from now," the pilot announced to us reminding us of the rules of the game. Naomi offered to go first to eliminate any doubt left in our minds and Cleo definitely remembered to scream as one of her best friends dropped from the plane.

"I am so glad this is on camera," Harper yelled after her before tucking in her phone and holding Cleo. I nodded at the reality once it was just me and Ezra left, waiting to jump. He tapped on the knuckles in my knee and looked at me with a smile.

"Want to do this together?" I asked him, staring right outside before turning back to him.

"No other way," he shrugged before planting a kiss on my forehead. He counted down to the last number and we flew out of the plane holding hands.

As we stepped into the open sky, the rush of wind pushing my hair to a part of my face in the helmet, I realized this was the solid reality that I had always longed for.

For a moment, I couldn't feel my body. My consciousness dropped as my eyes glued shut before I took a deep breath in and came back to life. My entire body shimmered in liberation and freedom from my worries and struggles.

My dance with uncertainty.

"Now!" Ezra announced and he deployed the parachute immediately after. We pulled upwards on deployment, my body weight totaling zero and the only thing I could feel was Ezra's hands that steadied me.

We looked down taking in the breathtaking view of the ground ready to catch us. Cleo was still screaming under the canopy of the parachute and we both laughed at that before Ezra pulled my face back to him.

"How do you feel?" He asked me.

"Like I'm falling in more ways than one," I responded to him and he smiled pulling me in closer as we landed on the ground. I bent my knees to absorb the impact hoping very well that I wouldn't fracture any bone at the end.

We sat on the floor laughing at how Harper and Cleo landed in the water ahead of us instead of the ground. The attendants came towards us to remove our protective gears and others helped my friends out of the water.

My gaze flickered to the sky, Ezra and my friends as I nodded and with a smile as to the secret of the universe lying within the grasp of my hands.

The secret is to find existence.

Nov 28th