A Little Dinged Up (gxg)

Chapter 13

               "All set here. Are you feeling good? You look tired."

               "It was just a long week, sorry."

               "Hey, no problem," I assured her. "I'm not going to film this, so we'll just jump for fun. No sense adding to the pressure."

               Her face brightened immediately. "Are you sure? I know you have to keep your fans satisfied."

               "Yeah. I'm good. I have other things I can do that don't involve wrangling you into doing crazy things. Let me go change and we'll be ready to go!" I rushed into the changing room, and took a light blue jumpsuit out of the locker I kept as a rental there, then changed into it, locking up my clothes in its place. Once I was done, I headed back out to find Ava waiting patiently for me on the bench.

               "All set now! Sorry for the wait!"

               "That was fast, no need to apologize. I guess we should knock this crazy thing out then, huh?" She motioned to the plane by the runway with a man sitting in the rear doorway. Having been here before, it looked like Gerry, one of the pilots I'd used before.

               "Yeah, let's do this."

               We walked over to the plane, and Gerry stood to greet us. "Hey Lylah! Are you and your friend ready to rock?"

               "Yep! We're ready when you are!"

               "You're the only jumpers, so we can go now," he replied, and stepped up into the old cargo plane, then headed up to the cockpit.

               I got up into the plane, and noticed one of the instructors, Roger, laying across several seats on the left side, with a small duffel bag next to him on the floor. I grabbed one of the parachutes waiting for us, and started to buckle it up, then helped Ava with hers. I took a seat on the right side of the plane and secured the seatbelts. Ava sat next to me, her knee bouncing with nerves as the plane began to move. Seconds later, the engines coughed to life, and became a dull roar as we started to bounce along towards the runway.

               Roger sat up with a stretch, and then pulled out a pair of small oxygen tanks out of the duffel and passed them over. "We're going up to 18,000 feet today, you'll need the oxygen. But you get an extra 20 seconds of freefall!" He then checked our parachutes to make sure we were all set before giving us a thumbs up. We'd be seeing a lot of those today!

               "That doesn't seem too long," Ava yelled over the sound of the engine.

               "Well, normally we just from 14,000 feet, and you get about a minute of free fall. So an extra 20 seconds may not seem like much, but it is a big bump when you realize how little time you have like that. Freefall is pretty amazing," I explained.

               She nodded in understanding, and I felt better about our little adventure. I was even more glad I wasn't filming too. This way it was two friends instead of it being just about my channel. The way things had been between us lately, I needed that. I wanted that friendship more than anything.

               "Fire up the oxygen!" Roger called over while holding the little face mask over his mouth and nose. I'd used them before, and we wouldn't need them once we jumped, but it was necessary for a few minutes while we climbed to the jump height.

               I helped Ava get her oxygen flow working, then did the same for my own. I felt the familiar nerves in my gut as we kept climbing and couldn't help but smile. It was like that trip to the top of the first hill in a roller coaster. You know you're committed, and you know you're about to tip over the top, but it isn't quite there. But the anticipation was exhilarating.

               "Are you ready?" I called over to her.

               "Ready!" She gave me a thumbs up as well, just in case I couldn't hear.

               When Gerry announced over the speaker that we were going to jump, Roger was up in a flash, hanging onto his handle while opening the rear door. "Okay ladies, time to go!"

               I turned to Ava and gave her a quick hug that she returned softly. "Just jump, I'll catch you and we'll head down together."

               She nodded quickly, then walked carefully over to the door, where the wind was howling.

               "Jump when ready!" Roger said with a thumbs up.

               Ava nodded, then hurled herself out of the doorway, shocking me a bit. I'd expected her to be scared and hesitate, but she didn't at all. Rushing over to the door, I jumped through as well, and the sound of the plane quickly disappeared as I fell through the air. I saw Ava, not too far away since I'd jumped so quickly after her and angled my path towards her as she had herself spread eagle and face down to watch the view. Once I caught up to her, I grabbed her hands with mine, and she looked up at me with a big smile. We hung there in the air for a few seconds, enjoying the peace and the thrill, and I was happy that the day was turning out so well after a week of weird vibes.

In a flash, it all changed.

Ava pivoted in the air, grabbing me, and pulling herself under me so our bodies were together in midair. She got into a position where she was gripping my parachute harness while looking into my eyes. Ava didn't say a thing, but her eyes kept flickering down to my lips, and I knew what she wanted. But why? Did she just want our first kiss to be thousands of feet in the air? My eyes flew to her lips as well, I couldn't deny the desire to kiss her as well.

And then we met in the middle, our mouths moving softly together as though there was no better place for them to ever be. Her lips were pillow soft, and her hands tangled into my flowing locks while her hair streamed around us, buffeted by the wind and making a little cave of hair around us. Honestly, I completely lost myself in the kiss, and had Ava's wrist not started beeping then I might not have stopped.

I was surprised, because my altimeter hadn't beeped, only hers. I checked my wrist, and noticed I was at 5,000 feet, which was earlier than I had planned to pull the cord. But then Ava reached up and pulled my cord for me, yanking me away from her as my chute deployed and she continued to fall. She waved once at me, as if in a goodbye, and then turned back over. A few seconds later, her chute deployed, but at a much lower altitude, so she would be landing with a big head start.

I knew she'd be gone when I got there.

I just got my goodbye kiss.