18 ways to die

4 - four thousand miles

I step out of the elevator into the hotel lobby with Jace right behind me. We had just put away our bags in our separate hotel rooms and taken an hour to relax before setting off on our journey, which Jace had planned, and I know nothing about.

"Where to?" I ask.

Jace smiles and straightens his brown leather jacket. "We're in China. Where do you think we're going?"

I look at him with a furrowed brow, copying his actions with my denim jacket. "The Great Wall of China?"

"Ding, ding, ding, aren't you a smartie pants?" He walks out the hotel lobby doors into the busy street.

"'Smartie pants' huh?" I say under my breath. The wind blows around the pieces of my hair that fell out of my bun.

Jace already has a cab waiting outside for us, and quietly tells the man where we're going. In Chinese. The foreign words sound like, "Zhōngguó de chángchéng."

"Um... excuse me," I say. "When were you planning on telling me that you speak Chinese?"

"When were you planning on telling me anything about your life?" He counters.

"Touche..." I shrug.

"Alright, I have three questions for you that you have to answer." Jace turns to look me dead in the eyes.

I scoff. "Well I don't have to do anything, but okay."

"First of all, why were you in Canada when I met you if you live in New York?" He asks with a tilt of his head.

I shrug. "I'm eighteen. Not twenty one."

"So you literally crossed the border to drink?" He looks amused.

"Well... that and I was there for work."

"Ah!" He grins. "Which leads me to my next two questions."

I wait for a minute as I watch out the car window at the scenery that flashes by, then speak again. "Which are...?"

"Where do you work, and did you need to quit your job for this trip?"

I raise my eyebrows at him. "That's actually a good question."

"Geez, don't act so surprised! I'm not stupid. I mean after all, I can speak Chinese. A little."

I turn bright red. "I didn't mean-"

"I'm teasing you," he laughs. It sounds so carefree and pleasant. Too happy and sweet to be real.

"Right. Well I work for a magazine in New York, and no I didn't need to quit." I pause for a minute and bite my lip, deciding whether or not to give him more information. I decide differently than I normally would; I tell him more. "I don't have family or close friends so I never take time off for special events or whatever. I don't have the money to travel, so I never use vacation time. I have lots of cashed vacay days." The whole time I'm speaking, he's looking at my face and paying attention. Genuinely caring about the words that come from my mouth.

"That makes sense." He smiles. That smile... I pinch myself. I am not here to crush on a boy. That is not something that has ever ended well.

"Yeah."

"Is traveling all you dreamed it would be?" He asks.

"So far? Yes, actually." I play with my bracelets. "I'm genuinely having a good time."

"Perfect."

* * * * *

I smile from the top of the Great Wall, looking down the nine meter drop to the ground below. The slight wind gives me goosebumps on the exposed parts of my skin. My collarbone, the parts of my legs where there are holes in my jeans. The hour long drive was absolutely worth it. After taking out the camera that Jace gave me to use on the way here and taking a few pictures, I go find him to ask when we're going to do here.

"So are we going to jump off or?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he laughs. "Calm down there."

I frown. "Well then?"

"We're going to have a picnic." He puts a hand on my shoulder and smiles.

I give him an annoyed look. "A picnic," I say flatly. "We're going to be defying death... at a picnic."

"Well we need to start off slower before we start like, running with the bulls in pamplona or something."

"Well, yeah but seriously?" I raise my eyebrows.

He wraps an arm around my shoulders. His other hand is holding the container which I now know is filled with our food. "A picnic sitting on the edge of the wall."

A small smile creeps back onto my face. "Better."

"But we're going to need to eat fast because the security here is intense," Jace says as we walk together to a place with less people.

"Mission accepted."

* * * * * * *

"M'lady." Jace extends a hand to help me up onto the side of the wall.

I smile and roll my eyes. "Thank you, kind sir." For a moment I'm standing up straight, teetering on the side of the wall. Then I sit. On the way down, I lose my footing and jerk forward slightly. Instinctively my hand reaches out and grabs the wall to steady myself. Maybe dying isn't as easy as it looks, if your body won't let you.

"Are you okay?" Jace's eyes widen as he firmly grabs my arm.

I begin to laugh, and I don't stop until he is sitting beside me.

"What?" He asks.

I stare at him for a moment. "Nothing."

I don't tell him that I was laughing because the feeling of terror associated with heights that used to overwhelm me when I was a child doesn't seem to exist anymore. I don't tell him that his worry for me was unfounded and useless, that in the end I will be gone and he will leave and forget like everyone else.

"You're a funny little person, Asia."

"Really?" I muse. "I didn't think I was. Thought I was a bit too... dark."

"Maybe that's what makes you funny." He shrugs.

"Maybe." I pause. "Or maybe I'm not funny at all, and you're the funny one for thinking that I am."

He laughs loudly. "That doesn't sound like a good kind of funny. That sounds like the kind of funny my mother would have wrinkled her nose at, as if she was remembering a bad smell."

I laugh for a second, then bite my lip. "That's the funny your mother would have called me then."

"Why, do you smell?" He asks comically, tilting his head to the side and knitting his eyebrows together.

"No!" This time when I laugh, I don't stop myself.

"You're beautiful." Jace smiles and catches me off guard.

Now I stop laughing. "I'm not."

"You are."

"Not on the inside."

* * * * * * * *

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