YOLO

Lorrin Vondermill, Age 17

I am a daredevil. I live dangerously for the pure enjoyment of it. Nothing beats the thrill of adrenaline you get whenever you jump off a bridge, or fishtail a four wheeler, or gun a motorcycle down a sledding hill. Being reckless is fun.

I tug on my neon purple bikini, and cover it with my ripped, dark wash jean short shorts and a lacy-backed hot pink boy tank. I yank the ponytail holder out of my hair and undo the French braid because my hair is completely dry now. I shake my head so I have long chocolate brown waves falling around my shoulders. I slip on my bright green UnderArmour socks and my caramel brown cowgirl boots and smear mascara over my lashes. I make sure my bedroom door is locked, grab my black and hot pink Adidas knapsack, and climb out my window. I land on a lower section of the roof, check to make sure I see car lights from Roxie's Jeep Wrangler down the street, and jump onto the ground about ten feet below.

I hit the ground running.

When I reach the Jeep, I jump into the back because the top is off and sit on Jesse's lap because I'm always the last one to get picked up since I live the farthest away. It doesn't matter if all the seats are taken though, because as soon as we hit the dirt roads, I stand up and let the wind try to knock me off.

"Hey y'all! Whad'I miss?" I say as we take off. Roxie looks back at me.

"Nothing much; Jesse was just telling us all about when you dared him to kiss you when you were seven. You really have always been a careless little one, haven't ya?"

"Totally! You should know, though. Remember when you and I were in preschool and we climbed out the second story bathroom windows at daycare to go play on the swingset?"

Roxie, Jesse, and everyone else laughs. As soon as we turn onto Brooks Street, the first dirt road we get on, Darryl turns on the radio from his perch in the passenger seat. "Cruise" starts blasting and all five of us belt it completely off tune. I shove my bag under Roxie's seat so it won't blow away and pull myself up so I'm standing in-between Jesse and Tyler. Roxie and I are the only chicks in our school who don't mind living dangerously. Jesse, Darryl, and Tyler are just the most fun of all the Pillawood High dudes.

I scream in joy, and I know Jesse is staring at me. We are all best friends, but Jesse has had a crush on me for the past ten years; I think ever since I dared him to kiss me. Atleast he's kinda hot. Right now, he has on his dark brown cowboy boots, ripped light wash jeans, and a navy-blue-sleeved jersey tee. I laugh at loud and I battle the wind to stay on my feet as we all continue yelling the songs the whole ride to Standall River.

When we pass the sign for the river, Roxie turns her car off the road and through a narrow path her and I discovered in the woods a few summers back, when all we had for transportation was our neon green quads. Darryl turns the music off and we all scream our heads off at the joy off the bumpy ride. A falling branch from a tree comes at me out of nowhere in the dark tangle of wilderness, and I lose my balance. Right as I think I'm gonna fall out of the car, Jesse grabs my waist and pulls me down back onto his lap and we start cracking up. Roxie guns it out of the little forest and brakes all of a sudden right before we hit the water. I grab the back of her seat so I don't bang my head into Jesse's, and grab my bag from its hiding spot. Before Roxie can even unbuckle, I stand on Jesse's lap, step onto the top of Roxie's seat by her head, and jump onto the hood of the Wrangler. I strip off my boots, socks, shorts and tank as everyone climbs out of the Jeep similarly to how I did. We all stand together on the hood, throw all our extra clothes and shoes into the car, and jump into the dark water. Night swimming is one of our favorite things to do, just because we can hardly see each other and the water is almost black and the moon and the headlights are all the light we have and the radio from the car blares. We always swim in this little pond off the river. There's a huge cliff to the right of us and seaweed in the bottom that tickles our feet.

"Hey Lorrin, what's today?" Roxie asks mischievously after we are all completely soaked.

I wink at her and say in a sing-song voice, "Saaaaaaaa-tur-dayyyyyyyy!"

We high five as Roxie turns to the boys and says, "And y'all know what that means, dontchya?"

They chuckle as the realization sinks in, and Roxie and I grab each others hands and reach our arms as high as we can and yell, "Skinny dipping day!"

Every summer Saturday night that we go swimming, we always skinny dip. I don't really know why, but we just do. It's been a tradition between us all for three years now, ever since the summer after eighth grade. We are all going to be Juniors this year.

"First though, I'm gonna jump off the cliff. Anyone wanna come?" Roxie and Jesse nod their heads and we climb up to the highest point we can find. Jesse jumps right in to show off in front of us two girls. As soon as he surfaces, Roxie and I jump up and down cheering when all of a sudden, my foot slips and I am falling down, down, down towards the water.

Too close. I'm too close to the rocky wall. I scream and my head hits something hard and everything turns hazy. I blackout for a moment.

When I open my eyes again, I can't see anything specific. It all blurs and swishes around me and I realize that I am in water. And I am hurt. So hurt. Pain overwhelms my body so much that I can't even pinpoint where the main source is. I try to scream but the sound disintegrates in the liquid.

I need air.

I can't breathe and I can't figure out which way is up and I can't untangle my foot from a chunk of seaweed. Where is Jesse? I need help! I try to scream again and again but nothing works. I struggle to get the seaweed off of me but it hurts to move and I'm starting to see dots because of lack of oxygen. It feels like I've been underwater forever and I can't free myself. I fumble with it some more and eventually I can wiggle it off my foot but I can't tell which way the seaweed is coming from so I still can't tell which direction I need to swim to get air.

Air. Bubbles. Bubbles surround me and as the dots rapidly continue to blot my vision, I make out a face. Jesse's face. A panicked, desperate face and arms that are pulling me up.

But I know that he's too late.

I know that before I reach the surface, I will die.

My world is surrounded by black.