The Summer Before he Left

Chapter 17: Drew

           The past two days have been more then I could have asked for. I am having some of the best times of my life. I don't know I'm going to handle not being able to see her. Today I have a whole day planned on the lake. I haven't been out there in a long time it seams like, even though it's only been a couple of days. I'm getting deprived of being on the lake. Going away doesn't mean I'll miss my girl, it means missing my home at the lake. Oh well, I want to see new places anyway. Maybe I'll like it in Georgia. Or Afghanistan. Ha. I'm just kidding about the last one.

            That morning I went over to her house at 9 for our morning workout. She met me outside. When I got out of the truck she walked over to me with a expression that told me something isn't good.

           "What's wrong?" I asked.

           "Do I make it that obvious?" she said cracking a smile. "Well my parents told me I have to stay home today to get some "rest". They think I've had a little to much time with you already I guess? I don't know it's stupid, but I will be able to go tomorrow."

           "Dang it, and today is a great day to ski." I said, "But I bet it will still be good tomorrow too."

           "Ooo day on the lake tomorrow. Kind of scared, because it's my first time skiing and all."

          "It's not scary at all! Man up! It will be fine!" I said laughing.

           "I mean, I guess."

           "So wait, can we still run and everything?" I asked her.

            "Oh yeah my parents said I can run with you but after words I can't go do weights. But at least we can run." she said sounding pleased to be able to run with me.

         We started our run. In the middle of our run she told me to follow her, so I did. We took a turn that we usually don't. It was a trail, it was a hiking trail not a running trail but oh well. She led me down the narrow path cutting through the trees. We kept going the same direction, then made a sharp left and finally came to an opening. She brought me to the side of a cliff and under it was a drop into the lake. The side of the cliff was blocked off by railings.

          She smirked at me in a way that said 'You know what's coming'.

         "You're crazy! I'm not jumping off this!" I exclaimed taking a step back.

         "Oh, yes you are!" she grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the railing but I pulled back. "Ugh, why not?" she asked whining.

         "Because I can't." I said pleading and still pulling against her.

        "But, but, but why! I came all the way down here! And I'm not going to jump without you!" she exclaimed.

         "But you don't understand. I can't jump. If I could, I would." I said sadly and still pulling back.

          "Wait... Are you afraid of heights?" she asked sounding surprised. I shook my head embarrassed. "Even better. Because so am I and that's why I'm doing it. I want to conquer a fear of mine and I want you to do it with me. So now will you go? We can do this together."

          I hesitated. Why does she make me do stupid things... "I guess. But you owe me big."

          She smiled and I let her pull me over the fence and we climbed over the rail. I gripped her hand more tightly at we approached the edge. I didn't dare to look down, I knew if I did I would back out and I don't want to let her down, I have to do this. My heart started racing and I started to breath harder.

        "You know we still have our running clothes on and everything. These are my good shoes!" I pleaded.

        "Man up son!" She yelled back I could feel her shaking, she was just as afraid as I was but was better at hiding her fear. "Okay. Okay. Here we go. We jump on 3. Okay?"

         "Okay." I said quietly.

          "One..... two....." the suspense rose and I started freaking out "..........two and a half....." oh lord.... "three." I took one last breath and jumped. We were still glued to each others hands the whole way down. We both yelled at the top of our lungs. I was such a rush, the drop seamed to take longer then I expected which was scary. Very scary. At once we hit the water. Our hands released and I swam up and I kept swimming up for a few seconds. I felt like I would never get to the surface but finally I made it up. I looked around for Blair, at first I didn't see her but a second later she came up out of the water a few yards away. The waves pushed up to the shore and we got to the side of the cliff and got up on a ledge near the water.

            We looked at each other in amazement. "I can't believe we just did that." she said stunned.

             "I can't either."  I said and we started cheering and laughing together. Then we got up and started to walk along the edge back to another trail in our wet clothes. We found a path soon and walked up until we found the road. People going by stared at us but we waved and went on our way. We finally arrived at her house. We laid down in the middle of her driveway for awhile trying to air dry before she went in. But instead her mom came out of the house.

         "How?" she asked looking at us as all the other people had looked at us had.

           "Uh, we took a swim." She responded.

          "I thought you were supposed to be running?" she asked.

           "We did.. At first." I said back to her.

            "It's hard to explain." Blair said.

           "You can explain later, right now I have lots of cleaning we get to do together! Isn't that just exiting! Sorry I have to take her away from you for a day Drew." said her mom.

          "It's fine! We have plenty of other days to do things! You guys have fun cleaning, I'll go see what I can do to fix up my own house." I said back and Blair gave me a look of approval of what I said. It was well played.

          "Bye Drew!" she said.

          "Bye!" I said and got into my truck. When I got in Blair mouthed to text her. I shook my head and pulled out and we waved bye to each other.

~~~~~~~

           When I got home I actually did clean. I did the dishes, the laundry, the trash, swept the floors and dusted. I feel pretty productive. I also texted her like she said. Cleaning took me half the day. The other half I lifted some. I took a nap and I sat out on the dock hoping she would come out, she didn't. In the time I had left I played the xbox which I hadn't played in forever. I played Call of Duty, for four hours. It was pretty intense. Forgot how much I like playing that game. By the time I was done playing it was around 9:30.

           I made myself some supper and continued to text her a little bit. I was really tired so I decided to got to sleep early. I was ready for the day on the lake, I really needed to get back out there.

           Before I fell asleep I called Blair.

            "Hello?" she answered within the first ring.

            "Hey girl." I said.

            "Sup bro?" she asked.

            "Just about to go to sleep, I just wanted to call and tell you over the phone good night, so here I am."

          "Dang, you really can say the right things." she laughed.

           "I try. Well see you tomorrow at nine. Goodnight my dear, I love you."

         "Heh heh, love you too, Goodnight sir."  she responded and we hung up.  

            And that's when I realized in a month they are going to have a lot more conversations that end like that, a lot more that will be over the phone. I didn't want to think about that so I drifted off the sleep.