— jump with me —
May 1st, 2018
"UM, NO THANKS," Giselle said as she turned down a shot glass held out to her, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the music and chatter of partygoers around her. "I'm not a big fan of alcohol."
"You sure?" Ajay's friend, Yvonne Morrison, said as she retracted her arm.
"Yeah, she's already mental enough without alcohol in her system," Ajay joked, throwing an arm around her shoulders, tugging her closer to him on the log they sat on by the bonfire.
"Oh, shut up," Giselle said, elbowing him playfully. "You know, you're really annoying when you're drunk."
"I'm not drunk," Ajay said, before shooting his hand out and taking the shot glass from Yvonne. He quickly downed it, grimacing afterwards. "Now I'm drunk."
Yvonne laughed to herself. "It doesn't work that fast, you muppet." She stood up from her chair next to Ajay and Giselle's log. "I'm going to go find a water. Anyone need anything?"
"We're fine," Ajay said, Giselle agreeing.
"I like her," Giselle said once Yvonne was out of earshot. "She's nice."
Ajay nodded, watching Yvonne's retreating figure. "I told you that you would like her. Yvonne's been my best mate since primary school."
"Hmm. I'm surprised your nana didn't try to pawn you off to her," Giselle joked.
"Nah, it's never been like that with us," Ajay said before grinning. "Though, Nana did try."
"Of course she would." Giselle's attention got snagged by a body scaling the large wall of rock that overlooked the swimming hole off to their right, her eyebrows shooting up when the figure reached the top. "Woah. Is he gonna jump?" she asked.
Ajay nodded, right as the man reared back to get a running start and leapt off of the small cliff, cannonballing into the water below. The crowd of drunk young adults cheered when he surfaced, and another brave soul began to climb the wall all over again.
"The reason why people are just now getting ballsy enough to jump is because they're all sloshed," Ajay told her.
"Have you ever done it?"
Ajay laughed. "Absolutely not. No amount of alcohol could ever get me up that rock."
Giselle smiled, standing up and grabbing his hand. "Come on, let's go do it."
Ajay's eyes bulged out of his head as she tugged him up. "You must be mad if you think I'm going to climb that!" he protested.
"Oh, you have to!" Giselle begged. "It'll be fun!"
"But we didn't bring swimming suits."
"So what? Clothes dry."
"Yeah, well . . . it's still too dangerous." The light from the bonfire bounced off his scared face, making Giselle laugh at his expression.
"Come on, don't be a wimp," she teased.
He frowned. "It's not wimpy to want to be able to live."
"You're not going to die."
"You don't know that!"
"If you fall, you'll fall into the water. Seriously, you'll be fine."
Ajay paused, looking up at the rocky wall in contemplation, his eyes tracking a climber as they made their way upwards.
"Let's make a wager," Giselle suggested. "If you go up with me, I'll . . ." she trailed off, thinking.
"Give me a kiss," Ajay shocked her by saying.
Giselle's eyes shot to him in surprise. "What?" she breathed out.
Ajay went red, slapping a hand over his face in embarrassment. "Oh, bloody hell. Ignore that, please. It was the alcohol speaking."
Giselle smirked as he continued to blush furiously, avoiding her eyes. She leaned forward, pushing his hand away from his face. "A kiss it is," she told him, earning a wide-eyed expression from him.
"Really?" he rasped out. "I was only joking, you don't have to—"
"One kiss," Giselle confirmed. "Take it or leave it."
Ajay looked back to the wall once more before nodding and taking Giselle's hand in his, leading her towards it, murmuring something that sounded awfully like, "don't screw this up, Ajay, don't screw this up."
They waited in the small line of young adults waiting to climb up, completely quiet as they still held hands. Giselle could feel a small blanket of awkwardness settle over them.
Would she really kiss him? Did she even want to kiss him?
She thought on it, realizing that her answer was yes. She was attracted to him. He made her laugh. He made her smile. He made her forget.
A relationship with him sounded pleasant. The only thing stopping her was back in the woods behind Hester's house.
Maybe a kiss would be a bad idea . . .
Ajay started climbing first, looking as if he was a seasoned rock climber that wasn't just freaking out only minutes earlier. No, he looked confident and determined, like he wanted that kiss.
Giselle started up the wall next to him, climbing with the same determination, though she was hesitant to make it to the top.
Ajay reached the top first, swinging his leg up and over to settle on the flat ground. He helped Giselle up next, placing his hands at her waist to pull her up.
Somehow, the action ended with Giselle sprawled across his chest as Ajay laid back on the ground, propping himself up with his elbows.
They locked eyes.
And then Ajay was kissing her, and Giselle was letting him.
He rolled over so that she was under him, his hand coming up to cup her cheek as his lips glided over hers.
Giselle smiled against him, pulling him closer to her as she savored the moment, which dragged on to a several moments, then minutes.
"Uh, this is not the place to be doing that," someone said next to them after a while.
The pair broke apart, blushing when they caught sight of a young man in swim trunks before them.
"Oh, sorry, mate," Ajay apologized, scrambling to get off of Giselle and help her up.
The man shrugged before taking a few steps away from the ledge in order to get a running start and jump off of the cliff.
Ajay and Giselle laughed once he was gone, the awkwardness shedding away from them.
"Blimey, Giselle, I can't believe that just happened!" Ajay said with a big grin on his face.
"What? That a guy totally interrupted our make-out session?"
"No, the make-out session itself," ajay told her, shaking his head to himself in amazement. "I've been wanting to kiss you since I first saw you," he admitted. "You're beautiful, you know that?"
Giselle beamed, having to look away from his intense gaze.
"Giselle," Ajay said softly, cradling her cheek with his hand. "What exactly does this mean for us?"
"I . . . I'm not sure yet," Giselle answered honestly.
He nodded. "Well, we can figure it out later. Now, let's do this." He glanced down at the cliff before he took several steps back, holding out his hand. "Jump with me?"
Giselle smiled and took his hand, coming to stand at his side. "Ready?" Ajay nodded. "Alright. On three, okay? One. Two. Three!"
As Giselle leapt off of the cliff, hand in hand with Ajay, she realized something.
She deserved happiness, and she wasn't going to let her ability to spontaneously time travel get in the way of that.
Even if every time he touched her, a small part of her wished he were Will.
But surely she would get over that.
Wouldn't she?
• • • • • • • • • • •
Word count: 1,228 words.
Question: Do you like slow burns?
I loveeee a good slow burn. I really can't stand books where the characters get together too soon and stay together throughout the book. While some books can pull it off well and still keep my interest, the majority just bore me.
Like, I want a will-they-won't-they that keeps me on my toes with some drama.
My friend is actually the opposite. He HATES that this is a slow burn, like he is so mad that Will and Giselle aren't together already, and got annoyed when Steven Sandoval entered the mix—and I know that when he reads this chapter he's going to be fuming about Ajay. I can practically hear him now—
"Ajay needs to go, I don't like him."
"She should be with Will."
"When are you going to make her and Will be together? It needs to happen soon!"
"MAKE THEM KISS!"
I just don't get how he likes a quick and sweet drama-free romance. Unfortunately for him, this book gets way more drama-filled, which is how I like it. 😉 Sorry not sorry!
PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT TO MAKE ME SMILE!!!