Sophie's P.O.V.
Don't fall... Don't fall... Don't fall... I was seriously regretting agreeing to climb up this wall. I just keep getting higher and higher and I didn't know how to stop. Perhaps I had acrophobia... I know I had arachnophobia, but I didn't know I had acrophobia too! I had too many phobias. And right now, it was the fear of dying. Was even was that? Die-o-phobia? Wait- why was I thinking about this? Was this how all minds felt just moments before death? It certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"Um, are you okay, Sophie?" Fitz called out from below me. "You're getting awfully high."
"I-I'm fine!" I said, trying to believe it was true. Just a few more steps... I reached out to grab a new rock ledge, but my sweaty hands slipped and I felt myself falling.
Now, I knew the logical thing was for me to do exactly as James had instructed, but when I was falling that fast, that far, logic was the last thing on my mind. Instead, I just closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain.
"AHH!" Biana screamed from below. "FITZY! DO SOMETHING!" I felt myself falling and falling and falling until I wasn't. Somehow I had stopped, yet, I didn't feel any sort of pain. I was kind of scared to open my eyes. What if something really terrible happened to me?
"You can open your eyes now," a familiar, reassuring voice said. I slowly opened my eyes and was relieved to see a pair of teal ones gazing back at me.
"Thank you," I sighed, clutching my heart. "I thought I was going to die."
"I definitely wasn't going to let that happen," Fitz replied with a smile that made my heart thump even more. I was about to say something back when Biana came running over frantically.
"EEK! OH MY GOSH- OH MY GOSH, YOU LITERALLY ALMOST DIED!" she shouted. She seemed even more panicked than I was while I was falling.
"Um, I'm okay now," I assured Biana as Fitz let me down. I stumbled a few steps but quickly regained my composure.
"I'm sorry!" Biana apologized. "I took us to a death trap! We are leaving immediately."
"Aw, do we have to?" Marella came walking up to us with Keefe. "That was literally so awesome," she added to me.
"Uh, thanks?" I responded uncertainly. "But I'd also like to leave."
"Okay, we're leaving!" Biana announced to everyone.
"Well. That was a fun ten minutes," Tam said. Linh nodded, but I don't think she understood Tam meant it sarcastically.
"It really was!" she exclaimed. "Now do we go to our next activity?"
"We sure do!" Biana answered with a smile. "I have a feeling everyone's going to like this next one! It's calm, creative, happy, yet can also be exciting."
"Sounds interesting," Dex noted. Biana looked like she was about to give more hints, but James tapped her on the shoulder at that moment, causing her to scream.
"Oh," she sighed when she saw it was only James, "it's only you."
"Yep, sorry," James replied.
"Oh, no, it's a good thing," Biana reassured. "I'm just a little jumpy right now. Sophie almost died, so..."
"Well, it isn't an exciting day unless Foster's almost died once," Keefe informed matter-of-factly and all my friends immediately agreed. I rolled my eyes - that totally wasn't true at all. I could be a perfectly safe, non-clumsy human being when I wanted to.
"Jeez, you guys are hardcore!" James exclaimed. "I wish I had some exciting friends like you guys."
"Hmm..." Linh rubbed her chin thoughtfully before her eyes lit up with an idea. She glanced at Dex with a smile and he nodded.
"Ohhh," Marella said, understanding Linh's wink, "sure!" Linh grinned widely.
"You're hereby officially invited to our wedding!" she informed James. James raised an eyebrow.
"You guys are having a wedding?"
"A double wedding," Marella corrected.
James chuckled. "Wow, an action-packed friend group having a double wedding - count me in!" Linh clapped happily and added one more name to her notebook.
"This is going to be an amazing wedding!" Linh exclaimed.
"It really is," Biana said with a happy sigh. "It'll be the first wedding I ever go to. But we'll dwell on that later. For now, it's onto the next activity!"
"Next activity?" James echoed.
"Oh yeah, my sister planned all sorts of crazy stuff for today," Fitz explained.
"Cool! Well, have a fun day," James said with a wave. We all waved back then headed out of the rock climbing studio, which really helped me feel more relaxed. I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to see a rock again. So hopefully this next activity was much, much calmer.
"Alright, it's right down the street," Biana informed us, taking the lead. She marched forward and instructed us to do the same. I felt the teeniest bit ridiculous doing so, but I suppose it was also the teeniest bit of fun.
"So, um, thanks again for saving me," I told Fitz as we marched down the street.
"No problem," Fitz assured me. "No need to repay me or anything."
I laughed. "Well, hopefully, I won't ever have to." Fitz smiled at me again and this time, since I wasn't completely scared out of my head, I blushed.
"You know, Sophie... Uh, well, I just want to tell you had a great time with you today so far," Fitz said nervously. "And I'm sure I will for the remainder of the day, too."
"Really?" I asked. "Since things can go downhill, real fast with this group. This might be the peak of our day." Fitz cocked his head to the side curiously.
"Well, will you be here for the rest of the day?" he asked. I nodded and Fitz grinned. "Then I doubt this day could ever have a bad moment." Before I had a chance to completely embarrass myself by saying something I'd regret, Biana announced we had arrived.
"We're here!" she declared. But I was too lost to even see where we were at. My mind was just filled with so many thoughts moving so fast. I mean, was it even possible to like someone as much as I liked Fitz if I'd only known them for a day or two? It seemed unreal. Fitz was straight out of a fairy tale - charming, sweet, cute... And when I was with him, he made me feel like I actually stood a chance to be with him. Almost as if he... as if he liked me back? Possibly. It was only a theory right now and I definitely shouldn't jump to conclusions. But I couldn't help myself! It'd been so long since I had known what liking someone felt like.
What loving someone felt like...