Late Night Talking ~ Dodge Mason

Chapter 6

The water was cold. Or maybe it was just the impact.

Olive's body submerged into the lake below, sinking down deeper from the initial force, like a rock attracted to the bottom of the ocean. Her hair slipped out of the ponytail it was in and rose into the black abyss around her, waving like overgrown weeds in the wind. Strands ran along her face, outstretched like long fingers grabbing at her nose and wrapping themselves around her neck.

This must've been what it'd be like to be in outer space, no force to keep pulling you down, and nothing to pull you back up, only the seemingly never-ending black pit that engulfed everything.

The day before, Bishop had gone on for what seemed like hours, telling Olive and Natalie what they should look for when jumping and how to land when they hit the water. For someone who had never jumped off a cliff before, he certainly had a lot to say.

"Land feet first and keep your body straight up, it'll minimize your surface area so the impact will suck a little less."

What could Olive say? She wasn't necessarily all that experienced in cliff jumping either, so she listened to him, and as Olive figured out, the "suck a little less" bit just meant "it'll still feel like you landed on concrete, but at least you landed upright!"

Her skin stung beneath the pressure of the water, prickling her like thousands of tiny needles. Her shoes were still laced to her feet, which helped block the pressure of the initial smack of the water against the bottom of her feet, but didn't do much for the rest of her body. Her shoes from then on only acted as extra weight, pulling her deeper into the lake. Her brain finally clicked into place after getting shaken around by the fall and began to process her surroundings.

Olive began flailing her legs and arms around in a consistent pattern to propel herself up to the surface. The water pushed down against her rising body as she swam upwards. Her head emerged from the water, her wet hair now sticking down to the sides of her face as gravity began to fall back into effect.

She was met with applause and hollers as she swam in place, turning her body towards the shore. People stood along the beach waiting eagerly to see if she'd come up from the water. Some cheered out of gratitude but Olive could make an easy assumption that some of those hollers were no doubt out of surprise that she wasn't the first one dead.

The swim back to the beach was quick after that point, though. Her arms began to ache as she reached the shoreline and her legs grew tired of kicking. The feeling of the solid ground beneath her could be comparable to the feeling of drinking hot chocolate after your parents made you go play outside in the snow.

Her feet trudged against the water as its height began to fall lower and lower on her legs, splashing up against her knees. A crowd of people stood along the edge of the water, watching as she made her way to shore and cheering out of their own excitement. Olive flashed a small smile before pushing through and jogging up to where Bishop and Natalie stood.

Natalie ran forward, a large contagious smile plastered all along her face. The mere sight sent a wave of excitement crashing through Olive as the two bounded in each other's direction and threw their arms around the other's body. They jumped up and down and rocked each other around like little kids, neither able to contain their uncontrollable giggles.

"That's my little Panic pro! Are you kidding me? that was amazing!" Nat laughed as she leaned back out of Olive's hold and grasped on to Olive's arms to keep the excitement of their embrace.

"Oh my god, I could feel myself blanking out when I got to the top. I didn't know if I'd even be able to make my body jump." Olive exclaimed. She had a couple inches on Natalie, so she had to bend over slightly to meet Nat at eye level. The girls' excitement felt as if it was bouncing off each other, floating around in the little space between them.

It was then that Bishop walked up behind Natalie. "Well hey, you still did better than Ms. ' for fucks sake Diggins! Give me a minute!" He made his voice pitchy for the last part, imitating Natalie's interaction with Diggins before she jumped.

"Oh shut the hell up." Natalie immediately cut him off, not even letting him finish his sentence. She brought her elbow up and jammed it into his side, making him slouch over at the sudden impact. Natalie's face bore a proud smirk at her hit before the two immediately broke down laughing. Laughter bubbled up in Olive's stomach, begging to be released at the two's bickering. They had had their own stupid little rivalry for years, which mainly just consisted of them arguing like an old married couple. Heather and Olive were notorious for their "out-of-pocket" comments on occasion, but there was no denying the hot-headed-ness of the duo that is Bishop and Natalie.

The three were joined by various kids around them, both Natalie and Olive receiving pats on their backs and multiple "good job on not dying!" comments from their classmates. But it wasn't long until the sound of Diggins' megaphone broke through the crowd, interrupting the kids' mini celebrations. Each of their attentions was drawn back towards the cliffs.

"Ooh, hot damn, looks like we got a player trying for the High Point." Diggins stated flatly.

Olive's gaze lifted up towards the faint glow of a red flare moving along the cliffs. It was too dark and too far away to make out the person carrying it.

The crowd seemed to quiet down as the flare proceeded upward past the jump point where all the previous players had jumped from. All that could be heard were faint whispers of "what the fuck are they doing?" and "who the hell is that?"

The person didn't stop their trek up the cliff until they reached the high point. Summer and Diggins began explaining the bonuses for a jump from the High Point or Devil's Drop, but Olive wasn't listening. Her attention was taken fully up by that little red flare scaling the side of the cliff.

Its holder began to step out onto the ledge of the High Point, now facing the crowd on the beach. The light from the shore could now just barely reach them, revealing their black pants and bare chest.

Only a boy would be stupid enough to make that jump.

"Contestant number thirteen, state your name!" Diggins yelled. The tone of his voice felt much deeper this time. Maybe it was just tension filling the air around everyone that made it seem so, or maybe it was from the chill that began to crawl up Olive's spine.

However, the boy just stayed put. Not a noise was made from him as he remained grounded on the edge of the cliff, flare in hand.

Diggins looked like he was getting impatient. "State your-"

"Dodge Mason." The boy cut him off immediately. Diggins could barely get two words out.

Oh, that boy.

He threw his glowing flare down towards the water without a second thought. For a sane person, throwing the flare would probably be to deduce whether or not jumping from that point was a bad idea and if it would get you, well, fucking killed, but that wasn't what this was, Olive could tell. That boy had made his decision a long time ago, and he was jumping off the High Point.

The determination in his voice was enough to send chills down a person's spine. All he had said was his name and yet Olive's attention was completely locked on him, unable to look away as he stared down the jump like a lion to a sheep.

The flare had barely even hit the water before his body followed it off the cliff, crashing down into the swimming hole beneath him.

A/N - Well hello bros 👋 long time no see... So yeah basically I just got really lazy and kinda forgot about this which isn't very good since this is literally the 6th chapter but lol is whateva ig. I wanted this chapter to be a little longer but I kept it shorter just so I could like, release something. Ummm so I have no clue when the next chapter is gonna come out, hopefully I'll lock in and write it soon since I'm bored as balls with summer starting, but until then, I hope this will do, peace out!