Freefall ✓

35 | story

Swallow your fears, wipe off your tears, let go of your darkest years. Chin up. Smile. Walk away.

—harry styles

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Impossible - James Arthur

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AUDREY

They did do a decently creative job at designing the escape room, I've got to say. Nothing out of this world, but still. You have to consider that this was a small town. If one wanted extreme thrills, they'd have to go to Chicago or somewhere of that sort.

The storyline had consisted of us being the private detectives — yes, oddly enough, the good guys —  hired to investigate an art museum theft. 

I didn't know there was a way to win or lose in an escape room — I'd always thought winning meant simply getting out of the lockup alive. Turns out, to win, you had to get out of the lockup alive in timed conditions.

I'm sure we passed the time limit but the two guys managing the event were very nice, so they gave us the prize anyway. Not that there was much to the "prize" either. Just a bracelet and a discount voucher to be spent at the H&M store from the same mall. 

We popped by the store just for the sake of it, really — we didn't bother for a serious intention of searching for something to spend the voucher on. I didn't tend to shop at H&M. 

But — funnily enough — we actually happened to stumble upon a pair of matching T-shirts for couples, that we — for the first time in our lives — didn't find cringey. On the contrary, they were quite cute.

Mine depicted an animated, seedless avocado half, with the phrase 'he completes me' floating above it. In a similar fashion, his tee had the other avocado half (the seeded one) and the phrase 'she completes me' above the smiley cartoon.

Okay, they were to the tiniest extent cheesy, but since we had the voucher we just thought: why the heck not? and bought them as a half-joke. One more thing to add to —and tick straight off from!—our bucket list, after all.

We'd changed right into them and walked through the streets like that, slap-happily absorbing the curious glances that fell our way.

After grabbing lunch at a nearby Nando's — and seeing my whole life flash before my eyes as a consequence of the highly injudicious decision to order hot sauce—, we had to part ways. Cameron had gotten notified that his car was ready to collect from the inspection — something that would've been perceived as a relief for every other person. 

Cameron, however, had all his reasons for his reaction to the news. Which wasn't quite relief. 

A few hours later, I faced the inclined attic ceiling, stretching my legs far towards the wooden headboard, phone pressed against my ear.

"We have to start thinking about what we're gonna do in that plane. It's a four-hour flight after all—

"Four?!" I presented my astonishment, through a yawn. We had been on this phone call for over an hour now, neither of us aware of long ago having stepped into the realm of the AM.

"Well, round three and a half but . . .you tired? You sound tired. Maybe we should get some sleep."

"No!" The word tore out of me, "don't hang up." I made a pouty face—and quite senselessly so, given that he couldn't see it.