50 Shades of Drake 5 and 6

Chapter Ten

    Aubrey's laughter carried over to Destiny and Carlos from the pool.

    Destiny sighed and closed her eyes, enjoying the sound of his rich laugh. "And then something like that happens," she said, almost to herself. "He does something that makes me feel like being with him is worth it, no matter what we've had to go through to get here. Even feeling that way brings on a ton of guilt for me, though."

    "You'll get through it," Carlos assured her. "We all will. And our life here is going to be amazing, girl."

    "It will be, as long as you stop trying to bust me out to my parents," she said, leaning over and swatting his bare arm.

    He laughed. "You're such an easy target, though." He set down his empty glass and held up both hands. "All right, all right...truce. I won't inform your parents about what a kinky, twisted slut their daughter has become. Not anytime soon, anyway." Bouncing up from the chair, he offered her a hand. "But what you will do, right now, is get your ass in that pool instead of being on that Black girl 'I'm-not-getting-my-hair-wet' shit."

    "That's not why I haven't gotten in," she protested, frowning up at him. "

    "Prove it," he told her.

    She took a hold of his hand, rose from the chair, and followed him over to the water's edge.

    He looked down at the water and the people playing around in it, then tilted his head back and set his eyes on the rock formations that Mrs. Richards had barely kept her husband away from. "We're not going in this way," he said slowly.

    "What?" she asked, confused.

    He pointed. "We're going in that way."

    She followed the direction he was pointing in. "You can't be serious."

    "Your dad is willing to do a cannonball, but you can't?" Carlos demanded, already leading them in the direction of the stairs that scaled the side of the rock formation.

    She stumbled along behind him. "Cannonballs aren't my thing."

    "Well, today cannonballs are going to be your thing," he informed her as he walked up the stairs. "Because it's not about jumping off of a rock and landing in water. It's about the symbolism of it all. Taking the plunge. A literal leap of faith. Liberating yourself from all of the guilt, and all of the negativity you've felt from recent events and just...allowing yourself to live."

    "I told myself that I would do that," she said.

    "And it's cute that you told yourself that," he returned. "But I think you'll be surprised at just how free you'll feel from this jump that you're going to take."

    She peered over the railing, staring down into the water. The rock formation hadn't looked quite this high, but from this viewpoint it looked like i would take forever to reach the water.

    "Don't worry," Carlos said. "I'm going to take the plunge with you. I deal with grief in a very different way. I tend to bottle it up and cover it up with humor and shit, but I'm dealing with my own stuff. You know? Both of us can just...jump, and go on to the next chapter in our lives. The chapter that allows us to be happy."

    She continued staring down at the water. The longer she looked at it, the further away it seemed.

    Carlos squeezed her hand. "Are you in?"

    She followed him to the very top of the rock formation. From here, she could see her mother and father huddled near the corner of the pool. Her mother sat with her feet in the water. Her father was in the pool, cracking jokes and trying to get her mother to laugh. Candace and Jasmine waded in the water while watching Aubrey help teach Sadie how to kick while swimming. It was difficult for Destiny to watch him with Sadie without thinking of the children she could have with him. If he's still open to having children, that is, she thought to herself, starting to rub her ring finger again.