𝐄𝐳𝐫𝐚 | 18+

08

Wow.

In front of me is a huge circular opening. The entire 'circle' is made up of small cliffs that dip into beautiful turquoise water. Around the opening, is the thick forest from before. Not a single sound can be heard.

"Holy..." I trail off, stepping closer to the edge to get a better look. "It's like being in paradise..." I smile in awe of the place, admiring every small detail of it. I turn around to see Ezra standing with his arms crossed, his lips slightly pulled upwards as he watches me.

"How'd you find this place?" I ask, turning back around to get another look at it.

"I ran away from home once when I was fourteen and I wanted to get as far away as possible. I ended up finding this place and I've been coming once every so often. I don't know, you reminded me about this place yesterday." He says. I nod slowly.

"You're sure the water is warm?" I ask, taking tiny steps towards the edge.

"Yes."

I peer down and instantly back up. I hear something rustle behind me.

"That's a thirty foot fall." I say, turning around. My eyes go wide when I see Ezra bare-chested, throwing his gray shirt to the side and running his hand through his hair. Since he isn't looking at me, I look at the tattoos trailing down his arm and partly on his chest. My eyes trail down to his defined abdomen and the V-line leading- woah stop right there.

He looks up at me and I instantly pretend like I wasn't just checking him out.

"You just have to go for it," he takes a deep breath and starts running towards the edge and in a second, he's disappeared from my view. I run over to the edge and hear his body splash into the water. He emerges from the water and shakes his head like a dog to get his hair out of his face.

"Don't bellyflop!" He yells, treading the water below. Holy shit I'm going to die. And yet I find myself slipping my clothing off. Hopefully my bikini will hold...

I go to the edge and curl my toes around it. look down and see Ezra smiling up at me, encouragingly.

Three...two...one-

No.

"I can't!" I yell, biting at the skin of my fingers.

"Come on, it's fun!"

"How do we get back out afterwards?!" I shout, leaning over a bit to see what we're dealing with here.

"We don't! We just sit here and die!" He yells back. My heart drops. "Kidding! I'm kidding! We climb up that cliff over there and walk around the stone part!" He explains.

"Okay! Okay, I'll do it!" I shout. I can do it...I want to do it so bad but at the same time I'm holding myself back. I know it's dangerous, but that's why I want to do it.

"Can you count?!" I shout.

"Three!" My heart speeds up, thumping in my throat.

"Two!" My body fills with adrenaline.

"ONE!" And at that, I take a deep breath and throw myself.

I scream as I fall thirty feet into nothingness, I feel the air glide last me, my hair trailing behind me, but I'm at ease when I land in the water. The water surrounds me in every direction, at first it's cold, sending a shock through me, but I quickly get used to it. I shoot up from the water and wipe it out of my eyes.

"Holy shit!" I shout.

"Look! We're both alive!" Ezra says. I spin around and see a log near me. I swim over to it and climb on, straddling it with my legs on each side.

"That was...intense." I chuckle as Ezra swims over to me. He lifts himself with ease and sits on the log as well. But instead of working out, the log spins and tips both of us over.

I gasp, coming up and grab onto the wood for safety.

"Fat ass." I grumble. He laughs and hoists himself back on. Then he holds a hand out to me and pulls me up without tipping the log over. I have to stop myself from admiring his muscular figure. He shakes his hair again, getting me all wet. So in return, I reach into the water and splash it at him. He does the same until we both are blinded by it. I laugh and wipe the water off again.

"Race you to the cliff." He says almost like a whisper.

"Huh?" I ask, but he's already halfway there. I quickly stand and before I have time to fall, I dive into the water and catch up with Ez. It's only seconds between the time we both shoot up from the water.

"I win!" I lie, coughing up water.

"Liar!" He shouts, laughing shortly after. It's moments like this that my heart is at ease. I mean, don't get the wrong idea, I don't love him. No. I only met him yesterday. But I like him more than most people that I've met. I just feel like he understands me, and he tolerates my random ass comments so that's a plus.

He lifts himself onto the ledge and holds out a hand for me. I shoo it away.

"I can manage..." I rasp out, trying to lift myself like he had. Since I haven't been working out, because on a normal day I could definitely do this, I have to swing my leg over and bust my knees to get up on my feet.

"I did it." I tease him.

"And you did it so gracefully." He teases back, knowing damn well I looked like a camel. Or something like that. Anywho.
We climb up the nature made 'steps' and get back on the cliff where we started. We both stand at the edge. I'm so tempted to just...

I unconsciously give him a push with my hand and he loses his balance. I'm about to cackle in victory when he reaches out last second and grabs my arm, pulling me down with him.

I scream as loud as I can as I go barreling through the air like a bowling ball and land in the water inches away from where Ez did. I'm about to be relieved that I didn't land on him when I feel a stinging pain in my thigh. Oh yeah...I landed on my thigh. I don't even know how that's physically possible but I can do some pretty cool things. Like juggle four oranges while walking on a tightrope. Just kidding.

I shoot out of the water and gasp for air.

"LORD," I groan, fumbling with the ache at my thigh. If I were a dolphin right now, I wouldn't be having a problem. I read an article saying that dolphins are the smartest animal alive, that's why they're my favorite animal.

"Whats wrong?" Ez asks, swimming over to me.

"Nothing, I'm good." I force out. If I don't acknowledge it, it'll go away. I hope.

"Okay..." Ezra mutters.

"We're doing that again. Race you!"

word count: 1230
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hellooooo! We're already at chapter 8!!!!! Awesome. Anywho. It's getting late here so Imma update for y'all tomorrow. Hope ur doing great! Have a good night/day/evening/morning!
Stay safe<3
-S