You & I: Autumn Cupid

Chapter 3: Left Hanging

Oh boy. Sometimes I wonder how I've gotten myself into these things. I'm standing with the boys fifty feet in the air, trying not to fall off the obstacles. Sure, we're standing on a platform now, but I know what's coming next. We're gonna have to cross these obstacles until we all fall off. Nathan starts the intro, but I don't really pay any attention. I'm too busy wondering how any of us aren't going to fall on this first one.

"James, you're up first. You got this." Nathan pats James on the shoulder.

"What? Gabe's right next to it!" James counters, trying to convince Gabe to go first.

They all start talking at once before it's decided Gabe will go. I'm excited, but also staying close to James. I know he's afraid of heights.

I tune back into their conversation so I hear James ask, "What did you learn in safety school?"

Gabe's response has me trying, and failing to suppress my laughter. "I learned everything but safety."

The first obstacle is blue barrels that were once used to hold chemicals secured by rope. We're starting on the hardest course. Of course we are. They're gonna be slippery because of the rain we had recently.

"Can I hold onto this?" Gabe asks, gesturing to his harness.

"No."

"At all?"

"No."

"Well it was good seeing you guys in this video. I'll be gone here in a minute."

Of course James has to speak up. "You thought James was gone for awhile, Gabe's gone forever."

I smile and kiss him on the cheek. He was gone so he could see family. Apparently Gabe's going to fall and be gone forever.

Gabe confirms my worst fears. "Oh, it's slippery. These shoes. They don't have grip."

I lift my foot up and check the soles of my shoes. They have some grip left to them. Let's hope it's enough.

"Oh, I used the wrong shoes today," James speaks up, also looking at the bottoms of his shoes.

"I'm going to slip. If I do not use this, I will slip," Gabe reasons with Nathan. He grabs the harness and takes giant steps to cross the barrels safely to the other side. "I cheated. I can't be out the first."

"Yo, there's no way you can do that with no hands," James tells Nathan.

"You're up next." Nathan gestures to the barrels, ready to watch James fall or cheat his way across.

"It's slippery," I hear Gabe say from the opposite platform, "on the shoes."

I look over at Gabe and he's pulling a rope to bring some kayak-looking thing over to him. Meanwhile, James is working himself up to stepping out on the barrels. We all look over at Gabe, and he's flying through the air on his kayak.

"He's flying! He's flying!" Nathan shouts.

He stops moving a few feet from the platform. "I stopped."

"You ran out of magical fairy dust," James theorizes, which leads to laughter from the rest of us.

"Is that my fuel? Is that what I run of of? I'm not a unicorn, you know."

"So here's the deal," Nathan starts. "If anyone falls off the course, they actually have to jump off the course. There's no way to get down. I'm not kidding."

"Yay," I mumble under my breath. I don't wanna fall off, but rappelling down seems like it would be awesome to do. While Nathan talks, James is setting himself up to cross the barrels. "You got this Sugar," I whisper in his ear.