Fontaine Five

ONE

          "LET'S GO CLIFF-DIVING."

The sentence leaves Nathaniel Jude's lips as a mere innocent suggestion, a harmless gust of wind. Little did we know he'd elicited a storm, ugly and black and begging us to revel and suffocate in its chaos.

I raise an eyebrow, but my lips curl upwards in spite of me. "Right now? At this time of night? You're insane, Jude."

"I'm just looking for a little fun." The glint in his eye is unfathomable, but I know what he's hinting at. My mind flashes back to smooth black granite, and I chug down the remnants of a vodka and coke.

Ellis shifts underneath me; I'm sat on his lap. "Lan's pool wasn't big enough for you?" he asks, amused. I can feel his fingers running through my damp hair.

Orlando re-enters the room, a towel looped around his neck and a six-pack in hand. "Oh, I'm sorry I don't have a diving board for you to throw yourself off of. I know my mansion isn't all it's lived up to be." He tosses a can to Jude, as sarcasm oozes off his words. "But I'm getting a little bored so, hey, why the fuck not?" He looks to Blair, who's stayed silent. "What do you say, Flores?"

She's up to her eyes in the dimly lit pool water, eerily still and staring at us in a way that makes you think she's picking you apart. We watch as she rises; runs her hands through her hair; purses her lips.

"I say you're idiots."

"Aw, don't be a spoilsport. One last summer hurrah before senior year gets underway?" The slight slur in Lan's words reminds me that our decisions aren't quite so sober right now. But they're also the only ones that amount to any kind of fun, real fun, so the rest of us are looking at her expectantly.

"Do you want to get killed?"

It's Ellis who pipes up. "No." He pauses, breath warm on my neck. "But it can't hurt to look death in the eye now and then."

The rest of us are stunned into silence for a moment, at whatever he could be insinuating. A shiver rolls up my spine. The ghost of a stranger's smile creeps up on Blair.

It's a unanimous decision.

V

We pass Yana Bay and drive up through winding dirt roads. The tall fir trees flanking us look more formidable at night somehow, lit only by a full moon and the car's headlights. A mild panic jolts through me at the thought of what we're about to do, and I let it.

"Why are you shaking?" Blair questions, sitting between Jude and I. She's looking down at my bobbing leg.

I shrug. "I'm hyped up. Aren't you?"

A bitter laugh escapes her throat. "I will be once I'm done with this." She holds the bottle of Smirnoff up to her lips, and takes a swig.

"Relying on liquid courage - chicken much?" pokes Jude, stretching his arm out across the length of the backseat.

To anyone that isn't us, Jude probably comes across as cruel to Blair with the incessant digs. He is, but that's how it's always been. Together since elementary and once joined at the hip, they knew each other before the rest of us, before Ellis came along in middle school and way before Lan and I joined freshman year at St. Fontaine. Their friendship just blossomed the wrong way - into apathy and constant jibes and a mild loathing towards each other. A typical brother-sister-type thing. The only difference is that, unlike Jude, Blair likes to dole out insults to all of us. Jude's just the lesser of two evils.

His face seemingly flickers between light and dark, what with the inconsistent moonlight filtered by forest. "I wouldn't, if I were you," he murmurs darkly. We both eye him. "Well, you don't want to be so drunk you can't swim." And then a corner of his mouth tugs upwards. "Or did you bring armbands along with the vodka?"