A/N: Happy 3 Million Simp Sibelius Day!! Congratulations. 20210130.\
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"Hi everyone, my name is Brett and I'm one of the instructors here. I hope you are all excited we're gonna go sky-diving today!!"
Eddy was excited but also very nervous.
"Hey, what's your name?"
"Hi, I'm Eddy."
"Are you doing the single diving course or are you here for the tandem jump?"
"Tandem."
"Anyone else doing a tandem jump today ? No? So the rest of you guys are all doing the diving course? Okay you guys can move into that shed and meet your instructor, he'll be waiting for your guys. And I'll see you when you do your jump in the afternoon, yeah?"
Once the others left, Brett turned to Eddy.
"Okay cool. So Eddy, we can go up on the first flight while the others do their course. We will probably meet another 3 or so single divers when we get on the plane. They're all experienced divers and they'll just do their own thing. Meanwhile, there'll be two of us looking after you, myself and that's my brother Brad. He'll be your buddy so you'll be strapped to him for the tandem jump."
Eddy turned around and saw a young guy that looked exactly like Brett.
"Hey, Eddy."
"Hi.. Brad...??"
Eddy looked at Brad, then back at Brett. Then back at Brad again.
Brett smirked at Eddy's confused look and he stepped up and wrapped his arm around Brad and squished his cheek onto his.
"Yes, we are twins."
Eddy's eyes widened.
"Oh wow. You guys look so much alike."
Brett smiled.
"Oh, but I'm the cuter one. Just kidding!"
Brett hugged his brother and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Agh quit it, Bro."
"Okay okay, sorry, enough of that. Anyway, good conditions today, we should have a great jump. Eddy, you paid for the video footage as well so I'm wearing the helmet with the go-pro on it and will film ya."
Brett went to the shelf and grabbed the helmet with a small action camera attached to the top of it.
The small aircraft roared and Eddy's ears hurt from the blasting noise.
Eddy was seated on the aircraft bench with his back strapped to Brad's front. It was as if Brad had Eddy in a baby sling with Eddy facing forward, except Eddy was larger than Brad. It looked more like Brad was strapped onto Eddy's back.
Brett sat on a single seat on the opposite side of the small aircraft. He turned to face Eddy and shouted.
"We're stable at fourteen thousand feet !! We let the single jumpers go first !!"
Eddy nodded. Brett turned around, got out of his seat and confidently approached the aeroplane door and casually yanked it open as if he wanted to get a drink out of a fridge. Eddy couldn't imagine the noise could get worse but it did. And the blast of wind that entered the aircraft was terrifying. Brett gave the thumbs up and the 3 single divers lined up and one by one, with a pat on their backs from Brett, just simply jumped out of the aircraft. Eddy watched the surreal scene in horror.
Once Brett checked the 3 divers were nicely spread out, he turned back inside the aircraft, faced Eddy and shouted as he pointed to his chest with his thumb.
" I'm going first and I'll see you and Brad midway, okay !?!?"
Eddy was so nervous he had no comprehension of what Brett said but he nodded. Brett smiled again as he reapproached the bench where Eddy and Brad were seated. As Brett remained standing, he stepped closer and reached his arm out towards Eddy. Eddy thought Brett was going to grab his shoulder and nervously gazed up at Brett but instead Brett's arm reached beyond Eddy's shoulders and grabbed the shoulder of his brother Brad who was seated behind Eddy. Brett nuzzled up against Brad, the brothers gently touched their foreheads together as they shouted to each other;
"Have a good jump Brad!!"
"You too, bro!!"
Brad turned on the go-pro camera that was attached to Brett's helmet and gave him the thumbs up.
Eddy saw Brett casually step back to the opening of the aircraft. Facing Eddy and his brother, Brett spread his arms to hold the railings on each side of the door frame. He leaned back into the empty space outside the aircraft. He only had two fingers from each of his hands holding the railing. He gave Eddy and Brad one last smile and then he must have let go of the railings because in the next instant he was gone.
Eddy was so mortified his eyes watered.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god"
"Hey Eddy, you okay?"
"Oh my god"
Brad gave a firm pat on Eddy's shoulder.
"Breathe for me, you're gonna be okay. I'm with you."
"..okay.."
"Alrighty, let's go."
Brad nudged Eddy along to the aircraft door. Brad swung Eddy out of the aircraft and he was now dangling outside the aircraft off Brad's chest straps. Eddy looked to the side and saw Brad's hands holding onto the handlebars of the aeroplane doorway.
Then Brad let go.
And they both fell. The force of gravity was in full swing, pulling them to the centre of the earth, hard and fast. And faster and faster.
It was the initial drop that was the most mind-blowing. Eddy thought he screamed but wasn't sure. Whatever he was trying to say was incomprehensible anyway.
The wind was still roaring around his ears and the sense of dropping he felt from the descent was so strong, he felt his cheeks flapping. But within 7-10 seconds since leaving the aeroplane, they must have reached terminal velocity or the maximum speed they could reach, since the sensation Eddy was experiencing changed from that of falling to flying. Eddy remembered being told that he would still be falling at a speed of approximately 200km/h (124 miles per hour) at terminal velocity and quickly tried to forget about the numbers as it boggled his mind even more.
And just then, so out of nowhere, Brett appeared. In a belly-to-the-ground position, as Eddy and Brad were, Brett looked like he just casually flew over to meet them without any regard of all 3 of them actually plummeting towards the ground below. He skillfully manoeuvred his way with surprising precision and as he gazed into Eddy's eyes he tilted his head. Eddy didn't know why but he responded the same way as Brett and tilted his head to the opposite direction, to which Brett smiled and ever so gently manoeuvred himself closer, gliding in and kissed Eddy's parted lips. This wasn't a hasty collision nor was it a quick brush, it was a slow, tender and carefully planted kiss, with just a slither of his tongue tracing the inside of Eddy's upper lip and a gentle nibble to his lower. Brad shouted at his brother.
"Time!"
Eddy felt Brett was lingering and was reluctantly pulling way as he flashed a smile to Eddy, then an apologetic grin to his brother, followed by a headfirst dive and again he disappeared from Eddy's field of vision in an instant. Startled, Eddy looked down and saw Brett's parachute opening, then shortly after Brad must have pulled the chords of their parachute as Eddy suddenly felt an enormous pull on his upper legs where his harness pulled him upwards as their parachute opened.
Once the parachute was opened and they were gliding downwards, the roaring of the wind had eased somewhat.
"Hey, how're you going Eddy??"
"Wow, that was one massive adrenaline rush...! I thought I was going to die of a heart attack when we started the dive."
"Yeah, that initial drop is something else. When that gravity almost just pulls you out of your skin, hey."
"Yeah.."
"Okay.. time to land, Eddy I need you to tuck your legs in."
Brad pulled the chord hard and Eddy felt another upward pull by the parachute before he felt the ground on his feet. The next second Brad crashed into him from behind and they both fell onto the ground.
"Yo, Eddy, you okay ??"
Eddy wasn't sure whether that voice was Brett's or Brad's but since it came from the front of him he assumed that it was Brett's.
"Yeah Brett..."
He heard clasps click and velco pulled apart and he suddenly felt lighter as Brad detached himself from Eddy and stood up. Eddy then felt an arm go under both of his armpits and was pulled up to his feet by both brothers.
"Thanks... wow.. that was fantastic...!"
Brett smiled.
"Glad you enjoyed it."
Eddy then remembered what happened and blushed.
"Oh my god, what the heck was that thing that you did up there??"
Brett gave a shy smile.
"It was a kiss."
"Oh my god I know what it was, I meant.. how did you do that!?"
"Oh, it's not that hard to do manoeuvrers like that."
"Oh, so you do it all the time, huh."
Brett grinned.
"Truthfully? It's usually to the cheek. But you tilted your head to a perfect angle and I got carried away. Um.. sorry."
Before Eddy could respond to Brett's bashful apology, Brad called out to Brett in an exasperated tone;
"Bro, that was somewhat a close one.. you lingered too long, man."
"I know, sorry. I got a bit carried away.
Anyway, Eddy, I've got it all on video do you wanna see it ?"
The three of them looked at the video on an iPad screen. It was all captured. Eddy's terrified look on the aeroplane before the jump. Eddy and Brad starting their freefall - A small speck dropping out of the aircraft, followed by an ear-piercing scream... Eddy cringed as he heard his voice 2 octaves higher than usual, he didn't know he could vocalise a sound like that. If it was anything, at least it showed how sound travelled slower than light..! Or perhaps it was simply his slow reaction time, either way, it showed how terrified he was!
Then the camera gradually zoomed into Eddy's face, except there was no zoom button, it was the start of Brett manoeuvring closer to him. The camera showed a close-up of Eddy, tilting his head, and in the next instant Eddy's face disappeared from the camera frame and only showed part of Brad's face – grinning, cringing, then eyes opened wide as he shouted "Time!".
The camera moved back to show Eddy's blushed, stunned and dazed face, followed by an instantaneous drop. Then finally it captured the clumsy landing of Eddy and Brad falling over and getting partially covered by the fabric of the parachute, giggles of Brett as he jogged over, removed the fabric and a close up of Eddy's upper body when Brett grabbed him under his arms to help him up. Their conversation was recorded as well;
"Yo, Eddy, you okay ??"
"Yeah Brett..."
"Thanks... wow.. that was fantastic...!"
"Glad you enjoyed it."
"Oh my god, what the heck was that thing that you did up there??"
"It was a kiss."
"Oh my god I know what it was, I meant.. how did you do that!?"
"Oh, it's not that hard to do manoeuvrers like that."
"Oh, so you do it all the time, huh."
"Truthfully? It's usually to the cheek. But you tilted your head to a perfect angle and I got carried away. Um.. sorry."
"Bro, that was somewhat a close one.. you lingered too long, man."
"I know, sorry. I got a bit carried away.
Anyway, Eddy, I've got it all on video do you wanna see it ?"
Brad's hand reached over to turn off the camera and the video ended.
"I'll put this on our website for you to download. The last 6 digits of your phone number's the download password, okay ?"
"Okay... thank you guys, it was great."
Brett spoke up.
"Hey, Eddy, I'll walk you to your car."
"Um... look Eddy, I'm sorry about before. I had an instinct that you may not mind but I apologise if I shouldn't have."
"It's okay. Your instincts were right, I didn't mind. It was actually quite nice."
"..It was ?"
"Yeah. Such a shame you said it was an easy move to do. Sounded like you do it all the time. I was feeling kinda special till you said that."
"No, I swear, that was my first time. You can ask Brad, I bet he thought I was just pecking you on your cheek. Well, probably more like a long smooch on your cheek because I took more time than I should've.
Look, Brad does the filming when the tandem divers are girls. I mean, I can kiss girls too but Brad doesn't like pecking on guys. Oh and I don't peck all the guys either.. I just have a much better radar than Brad and I seem to be able to pick out the ones that don't mind... "
Eddy shifted uncomfortably.
"...Are you talking about something you might call a ...gaydar?"
"Something like that. Or I like to call it a radar for those with more exotic tastes. Y'know, those who are slightly non-textbook. Gay, bi, pansexual, whatever. I don't want to get punched in the face by planting unwelcomed smooches on people.
"I see..."
"So.. Did I guess right? I'm not saying you're gay or bi or whatever, I'm saying you were open to the idea, which is probably why you subconsciously matched my head tilt."
"Hmm... interesting.. I think I learnt something about myself quite profound."
"..So, Eddy, can I call you?"
Eddy smiled.
"Sure. I'm open to that idea..."