The Swinging Bridge

Lets start from the beginning...

"How am I going to get out of this mess?" Elizabeth thought silently to herself. To fully understand the context of this statement I will rewind to about two weeks ago. It was 5:30pm and the packed bus came to a sudden halt. Who knew that South Africa could be so busy? It was the first day of a nine month long gap year for Elizabeth Ann Fitzgerald. She was fresh out of high school and looking for an adventure.

"There is an accident up ahead" said the group leader. Elizabeth is trained in CPR and started to rise to go help, when a hand grabbed the back of her arm and pulled her back into her seat. The hand belonged to her boyfriend Andrew. He took a gap year with Elizabeth because he was tired of school and loved the outdoors. That and the fact that he didn't want her to be in a foreign country alone. He was very laid back most of the time, but once in a while his protective side came out.

Andrew was the only reason she had been allowed to go on the trip. She was only 17 and her mother wasn't exactly supportive of her decision to put school off. She thought Elizabeth was naive and couldn't take care for herself. Both of her parents are highly successful lawyers and tried to shield her from the world. Andrew however was very street smart and her parents trusted him completely. So when they found out that he was going, they finally signed the paperwork.

"Where do you think you are going?" he questioned even though he already knew the answer. "I'm going to see if they need any help", she replied. Andrew just gave her a look that he always gave her when he didn't approve. She knew that she wasn't going anywhere. He was on the debate team all through high school and he always won. There was no point in trying to argue with him. He was always thinking two steps ahead of her.