"Come 'ed, Char. Why don't you jump in?" The sound of a complete and utter imbecile ringed in Harry's ears, the utter stupidity of it all made his ears hot and his stomach churn.
"Don't do it, Charlotte. You're gonna get yourself killed." He intervened, keeping a watchful eye on the girl who looked out amongst unknown, rolling waves below her.
A bundle of nerves were lodged in his throat, and he sat straight-backed on the edge of Mickey's retractable pool chair in case she tried to jump.
"It's fine, Harry. It's not that bad." The girl shrugged him off, a small smirk played on her lips as she glanced back towards them both.
Charlotte's smirk faltered as she looked to Harry, making it known to him that the act did, indeed, frighten her. It was one of the only indications that made it known to him that she was in fact human and not an emotionless droid.
But, that facial expression was gone as soon as it came. The cloudy uncertainty that swirled around in her eyes like the fall air was then replaced with a beady look of determination. She looked back towards the seas, the only thing separating her from them being air.
She hated heights, he knew that.
One drunken night, she'd told him about how her cousin fell off the top of a Ferris wheel when he was twelve, and was condemned to a wheelchair indefinitely.
So, it was a wonder to him, as to why she was going to do it. It was a dare, but the fact that she would follow through, to the extent that she could possibly inflict pain on herself, seemed foolish to him.
Suddenly, she moved impossibly closer to the edge of the cliff. She let a foot dangle off the edge of the cliff, testing. Harry sprung out of the uncomfortable chair, preparing himself to grab her.
Harry looked to Michael--who was often given the nickname Mickey do to the fact that his face was pinched and looked mouse-like in structure--to see him staring at the daring girl, a bemused grin plastered to the smug face he wanted to hit. He wondered why this man was smiling, even amused, at such a thing. Perhaps, it was the fact that he had nothing better to do than to watch somebody else's life fall apart so he didn't have to watch his own.
He wanted to push him over the edge in that moment.
"Don't do it." Harry dictated, his heart pounding in his chest as he walked closer to Charlotte. His mouth felt like cotton as he watched her legs tiptoe impossibly closer.
In a whimsical voice, she spoke,"If I die, tell my parents that I'm sorry that I wasn't a honor roll student. Or, you could tell them my death was all Mickey's fault."
She chuckled at the end of her sentence; he found no humor in her statement.
"Hey, it's not my fault. You're the one who chose dare." Micheal raised his hands in defense for himself. It was pitiful.
She hummed and glanced back to Michael.
"Anyway, Harry, do you want the honors of pushing me, or shall I do it myself?"
"There's no way in hell I'm going to let you do this."
He watched as her arms lifted up into the air, like a majestic bird preparing for flight. Her hair blew away from her face and the ocean currents below crashed about violently as they hit the rocky cliff. He would've admired her beauty if she weren't about to do something stupendously reckless again.
"See you at the bottom, boys." She announced, her voice almost getting lost to the air.
Then, she was gone.
