Bar Red's Redemption ✔

c h a p t e r. 34

"It's precisely in despair that you find the most intense pleasure, especially if you are already powerfully conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament."
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

chapter 34

"Are you sure it's safe?" Bar asks, clutching onto his little goddess like a lifeline as he stares at the water below them.

"Yes, Oly, I promise." Clementine laughed, edging towards the cliff's edge. "Perfectly s-safe."

"No," Bar drags them backward. "Nope. Not fucking happening."

Around them, their friends laughed, the rest of them already having jumped off the small cliff that was on Clementine's massive property and into the deep water below.

It was a place Clementine called Mermaid's Creek because right next to the giant, almost a lake sized pond was a small creek that her grandmother had sworn until the day she died that there had been a mermaid splashing around somewhere in that water.

Which, Clementine had told Bar, had been nice to believe as a kid but fairytales died a long time ago for her.

When the group of friends first got there, everyone changed into their swimsuits from the privacy that the forest around them provided and then started to have fun.

Eli had just jumped right off the edge, having been to Mermaid's Creek many times before but the rest took their time.

That was, however, until Law basically threw Gus off the edge, and, in retaliation, Fen pushed the nerd into the water but ended up falling, too.

Clementine was happy to wait for Bar to jump so she could go down with him but the brute was rather frozen.

He didn't like open water much and he didn't like the fact that if the goddess landed over rocks, she could be hurt.

So while the rest of their friends swam before going up the path that lead back to the cliff, Clementine had spent that time convincing Bar that it was safe.

Which, of course, he didn't believe.

"Come on, Oly!" Clementine whined, digging her feet into the ground making Bar stop. "I've been c-coming here since I learned how to swim and not once have I been hurt! There are no rocks I can land on. There's n-no sharks or piranhas or anything else you could possibly worry about!"

"If we die," Bar points to her. "You better come back as a ghost, like I am, so we can haunt people together."

"We're not going to die," Clementine sighed out.

"Promise me."

"This is ridiculous!"

"Ghosts or no deal."

"Fine," The little goddess rolled her eyes. "I promise I'll come back as a ghost and haunt people with you for eternity if I die."

"Okay," Bar locked pinky fingers with Clementine, both of them kissing their thumbs before moving hands to make a heart. "Let's go jump off a cliff."

"Spoken like a true poet!" Gus called out, shrieking when Fen pushed him into the water for the comment and he lands with a loud splash.

Bar, having stepped right to where the land ends with Clementine next to him, looks for his best friend.

Gus comes up panting for air and Bar tenses.

Was he okay? Did he need his inhaler? Did--

"Come join me, daddy!" The goof laughs out, hitting the water with a closed fist. "I promise to play nice when wet!"

"You're disgusting!" Bar called down to his best friend. "And I'm not your goddamn daddy."