Edge of Darkness {J.K.}

Prologue

Have you ever felt the entire world stop around you? The concept of time is completely erased, and you're alone with your thoughts and the one thing you're focused on. Anything else going on around you is irrelevant. He froze time the first time I saw him, the first time he looked at me and smiled the smile I'd fall head over heals for. Maybe I already had in that moment.

"Earth to Mia," Tara waved her hand in front of my face and scrunched her nose. "You're blatantly staring at that guy. It's totally obvious."

I laughed nervously, "I don't know what you're talking about. I was just spacing out for a second."

She raised her eyebrows, clearly seeing through my bullshit response. "That's Jake. He moved here from Michigan I think. You should go talk to him."

I glanced over again. He stood with a group of guys I'd known for forever at the edge of the cliff, laughing and looking as if he'd known them for as long as I had. It was tradition for our group of friends to go cliff diving the second it got warm enough, which was usually around March in Florida where we lived. I guess one of the guys had invited him along. I realized I was letting the fact that he was shirtless distract me from my conversation with Tara.

"I can't," I shook my head. But I knew what was coming. Tara was exhaustingly persistent when it came to stuff like this. "I'll just be awkward and weird and probably ruin it."

"You can."She grabbed ahold of both of my shoulders. "You're funny and smart and hot. You can literally have any guy you want. You've turned down, like, every guy in the school. And some girls, even."

She wasn't wrong about the turning people down. I wasn't big on the whole dating thing, especially the high school dating thing. It seemed utterly pointless to me. You'd eventually go to different colleges and break up if you even lasted until graduation, anyways. That's just how it went. And, not to mention, my standards were too high for my own good. That was just something I couldn't help. I didn't get crushes, and I didn't go on dates. But the way he looked with that wavy brown fair falling at his shoulders and bare torso dripping with water from the quarry made me feel something I'd never felt. The way he moved and smiled and laughed made me feel nauseous but in the best way possible. I guess this is what people mean when they talk about butterflies in your stomach.

Now Tara was behind me, slightly pushing me in his direction. "You got this," she said with one final shove. And then, for some, reason I was walking towards him completely terrified but excited at the same time. I met his eyes as I approached the guys, sending chills and goosebumps over my bare body covered only by a bikini.

I'd almost made it to him when someone attacked me from behind, lifting my body completely off the ground. "You're going in!" Michael roared, tightening his grip so my flailing body couldn't escape him.

"Put me down, Michael! I'm serious!" I yelled, pounding on his body with my fists. Everyone knew I was terrified of jumping. Every year, I'd wait for everyone to jump and then meet them at the bottom a different route to swim. Heights were not my thing. "I'm going to kill you!"

"No way, sister, not this year. It's senior fucking year, and you're jumping," he insisted and maintained his grip on my body that I had no hope of escaping. I had virtually no muscle, and he was an all-state football player that I was no match for. I could almost hear my heart pounding in my chest.

I heard a few people argue with a "come on, man" and a "just put her down", but within seconds I was plummeting off of the cliff and into the quarry. I rose out of the water spitting and coughing, trying to catch my breath back. I heard another splash behind me. Someone had jumped in after me, probably Danny. I wiped my eyes and turned around, but it wasn't Danny. It was Jake. My body felt weak at the sight of him, and I hoped I'd be able to keep myself afloat.

He swam over to me, "Hey, are you okay?"

I continued coughing and nodded. I'm not even sure I would be able to form words if I could.

"That was pretty shitty of him. I just wanted to make sure you didn't drown or something before I got to meet you," he smirked as he glided through the water, now even closer to me.

We were about a foot apart now. I could see each individual droplet of water on his glowing skin. He was properly beautiful. I had to stop myself from just staring.

"I can swim," I clarified, "I'm just afraid of heights." I fiddled nervously with the strings of my bikini bottoms under the water.

"I'm Jake, by the way," he said, pushing his wet hair back behind his ears.

"I'm Mia. You just transferred here?" I asked although I already knew from Tara. I was drawing a blank on all of my conversational skills.

He nodded. "Barely three months before graduation senior year. It wasn't ideal. But you guys all seem really cool, so that's making it bearable." His eyes shot to the guys up on the cliff and then back to me.

I wondered why he had to move from his last school, but I didn't ask. "Well, we're glad to have you." Something told me I'd be seeing a lot more of him, and I wanted to, but I had not even close to any idea how deeply I would fall into him and he into me. And maybe the entire thing was a mistake, a blip, an accident that would have saved me a lot of hurting if it'd never happened and an 'us' never existed. Or maybe it was absolutely and undeniably exactly what was meant for the both of us.