"Lanes!" Finn shouts on the other side of the door. He's been pounding on my door for at least five whole minutes. I had just decided to not answer the door. Thank god it was 10am on a weekday and all of my neighbors were at work. Finally, I pulled myself off the couch and let him in.
"Ready to go?" He asks, helping himself to the batch of muffins I had made that morning. Muffins I had made but was too nervous to eat.
"No," I groan, I truly didn't want to do this. I just didn't know if I was more nervous to see Noah or that Finn was going to make me climb to my own death.
I follow Finn out to his car begrudgingly, he unlocks the doors and slides in. I'm not quite ready to pull on the handle so he rolls down the window and hands me an energy drink. He knows it's a weakness of mine and I grab the drink before climbing in his Cadillac myself.
"Where's this place at?" I ask, popping the top and taking a long drink of the energy fuel. Actually, this is probably going to make me even more anxious, but whatever it's delicious.
"Bradyville, so you have plenty of time to overthink," Finn smiles over at me and pulls onto the interstate. Bradyville was probably 45 minutes from downtown. This tiny town in the mountains in east Jesus nowhere. I wonder if Noah lives there and drives that far to come play every Friday.
Nope, no I don't wonder anything about that infuriatingly arrogant asshole.
A Perfect Circle plays softly from his speakers, Maynard's voice has always had a way of calming me down. Finn was a bassist, but it didn't stop him from singing along with me to the entirety of Thirteenth Step, our favorite album.
Before long we are getting off the interstate, winding down no lane roads with miles and miles of trees surrounding us, only occasionally do we pass by any houses. Finn takes a turn and we pass by a sign that is childishly named, Go Ape. I roll my eyes at Finn
"Noah is actually a really funny guy, I don't know why you don't like him," he said, pulling to a stop deep in the trees that towered too high above our heads. He didn't know why I didn't get along with his narcissistic cohort? Why didn't he see it?
I grab my phone and get out of the car, craning my neck to look at the canopy of trees towering above us. I could hear a few people talking around us, but the traffic from the road was silent. I take a few pictures around before having Finn take my photo in front of the welcome sign.
I was still snapping pictures when Noah snuck up on us, Finn and Noah hug quickly. He's wearing joggers and a black t-shirt, a harness strapped to his waist.
"Are you ready to get up there, Delaney?" I hate the way he says my name, his voice is soft and comforting almost. I hate it.
"No, I'm going to stay on the ground and watch," I smirk. I didn't tell Finn my plan on the way here and he looks at me bewildered now.
"Lanes, you are going up there," Finn says firmly.
"No, I already told ya'll I wasn't going," Noah chuckles at me as I say that. "Why are you laughing?"
"You accent is cute," Noah smirks at me, something about the look in his eyes was challenging.
"I don't have an accent," I scoff, I did and I knew I did.
"I didn't take you for a chicken though," I swing my head around to glare at him. I saw Finn's eyes grow and clap him in the shoulder to subtly drag him away from me.
"I am not a chicken! I can't help that you are crazy and want to get yourself killed!" I could hear the shrill shriek in my voice, but I tried to reign my anger in. Who did this guy think he was? Calling me a chicken? He didn't even know anything about me.
"If you aren't a chicken, I dare you to go up with us," Noah challenges, his brown eyes dancing with mischief.
"Fine," I say, my voice firm, but my hands were shaking. From fear or the energy drink I didn't know.
I follow Noah and Finn to get into a harness and put on a helmet. Noah set a helmet on my head and I tightened the straps and snapped the buckle in place. Once he had finished tightening a harness around Finn he brought one over to me. My hands shook as I lifted it to his shoulder for support as I stepped into the black fabric that would help me or kill me.
"Calm down, darling," Noah says smoothly, in his calm tenor.
"Don't call me darlin, its condescending," my high, southern accent sounded way less eloquent than his did.
"Not where I'm from, it's a sign of endearment," Noah informs me and finishes buckling the straps. I suck in a breath when his hands graze some of the skin on my stomach where my tank top has risen up.
Noah turns to both of us, explaining he would be going up first. He suggested I go second and Finn go last. I'm not sure if he suggested I go second so I wouldn't bail or because it was better weight distribution. Probably the former.
When Noah was halfway up the wooden pegs that were nailed to the trunk of a thick tree he called over his shoulder for me to head up. Noah had instructed us to wait for everyone on the first platform. Climbing up the tree was not bad, even standing on the small platform wasn't terrible.
Noah was saying things to encourage me all the way until I was standing beside him. He had even muttered a good job with a wink when I stood up, but we were only twenty feet off the ground. The first couple of tasks weren't so bad either. The first was a simple suspension bridge with wide slots. Another was a simple, short zipline type thing, but we were getting higher and higher. When Finn joined us on the last platform Noah began explaining that we would be stepping onto wooden pegs and that we would have to swing to the next one.
"No, I'm going back down," I said firmly. I had already done more than I had planned to.
"No, you aren't, you are going to woman up and swing from that peg to that peg," Noah challenged. I huffed and put my hands on my hips, I was not going.
Noah went across with ease, but when it was my turn I tried to step out onto the first swing. The air rushed out of my lungs, and my heart began to race. I fell to the platform and clutched my chest. Finn was yelling at me, asking what was wrong but I couldn't get words out, and I couldn't get a breath in. Suddenly Noah was back, his large hand on my back. I want to yell at him to back up, to stop touching me but I couldn't get any air in my lungs. Spots danced at the edge of my vision.
"Delaney, you are having a panic attack, focus on the sound of my voice. You can breathe despite what your brain is telling you. Take a breath in," he demands as he studies me. I manage to take a breath. "Good girl, now exhale." I let a breath out, and my vision is starting to return. I force a few more puffs of air in and out and the moment passed after what seemed like an hour.
"Fuck," I rasped, really being able to breathe and gasping for air now. Noah pats my back and helps me stand up. "Can I go back down now?"
Noah chuckles, "I'm going to need you to have an actual heart attack before I allow you to quit, don't be a quitter, Delaney."
"I'm going to stay right with you, I'll help you across," Noah coaxes in a softer voice. I nod at him, because I am not a quitter.
Noah moves to the first peg, it is large enough for him to be on one side with me on the other, and reaches out for my hand. I step out on to the peg, I glance to the ground and Noah yells at me not do that. He moves to the second and waits on me. On the third he moves ahead and lets me move on my own. I can sense Finn right behind me and knew I was okay. I finally step onto the platform. I feel like I could do anything, I look down, we had to be fifty or sixty feet off the ground now.
Noah kept leading us higher into the trees, my muscles ached and I dreaded having to trek back down this course. He kept both me and Finn moving forward with words of encouragement. The last platform stopped at an actual zipline, that would take us to the ground.
"I think I'll just redo the whole course, but backwards," I turn and start back.
"No, there's another group behind us, you will be fine. This is nothing, Delaney, come on," Noah says, continuing to hype me up. Saying words that meant absolutely nothing to me, because there was no way I would be careening to my own death.
"Are we going down together?" I noted that there was two lines side by side.
"I can go with you, or Finn can, I'll even let you hold my hand," He smirks. I roll my eyes, and muttered a fuck you before deciding that I didn't need their help. And my momma didn't raise a little bitch.
I walk over to the man to be hooked up to the zip line. Finn took his place next to me, winking and also getting suited up to leave at the same time as me. I could feel my heart pounding against my chest, and my vision blurring slightly at the thought but I was standing on the platform. I just had to let go now. Just. Let. Go.
And I did, and suddenly I was flying. I wasn't nervous anymore, I felt free. I was flying through these trees and nothing could touch me. I was on top of the world. I don't know why I was even nervous in the first place. And then it was over. I was standing on the platform at the bottom and a girl was unhooking me.
Wild laughter bubbled up in my throat as Finn finished up and pulled me into a hug and spun me around.
"Lanes! You just fucking did that!" he laughs in my ear, and I hold onto him tighter. Noah was standing behind us now, smirking at me. I sent him a thankful smile and he nodded at me.
"Can we get a group shot?" I ask, and realized Noah might take it the wrong way, "for the blog of course."
"Does this mean I'm getting a good review?" Noah grins, and pulls the flesh of his bottom lip in between his forefinger and thumb to fight the smirk that I know was coming on.
I shrug at him, and he laughs out loud. Noah, Finn and I stand in front of the sign, holding our helmets up triumphantly. I had done this really scary thing, and I over came it.
"Thank you for inviting me, Noah," I tell him, reluctant to give him any kind of compliment. But I was thankful for this experience, even if I had been terrified in the beginning.
"Does this mean we are friends now?" He smirks down at me.
"Absolutely not," I reply and slide into Finn's car.
By the time Finn drops me off at my apartment, it's already after 5. I know Caleb will be at home waiting on me.
"Where have you been?" he asks as I drop a kiss onto his cheek.
"Hey to you too," I roll my eyes at him, but he kept looking at me seriously. "I told you I was going to check out a business for the blog."
"This late? It's already five," he continues, Caleb is used to me doing my "job" while he's at work so I can spend all of my time with him.
"It was farther outside of Nashville than I had anticipated, it was all the way in Bradyville and the event took a long time," I sigh. "I'm going to take a shower and start working on the post."
I don't wait for a response, I'm already irritated at his greeting. Would it kill him to ask me how my day was? I slip into the shower, letting the hot water pound against my back, washing the day away. I change into a sweater and comfy shorts and sit in front of my computer, ready to start writing.
I had only been working an hour before Caleb sticks his head in my room. "What are we doing for dinner?" he asks.
"I want to get this finished, can you just order something?" I reply, not looking up from the computer.
"I could, but I would rather have your cooking," he says, then with fake sincerity, "but you don't have to cook if you don't want to."
"Alright, just give me a few more minutes," I sigh, and finish working on the paragraph I was typing out.
Caleb is watching a football game on the TV when I make my way into the kitchen. I chop up vegatables for a salad, tossing the greens in a vinaigrette and set it aside. I pop two potatoes in the microwave and pull out a cast iron skillet. I heat up the pan, throwing some butter in the pan to brown. I pluck herbs from a plant in the windowsill and toss it and a couple of cloves of garlic into the pan. I sear two steaks before putting the pan in the oven. Caleb doesn't offer any help, and when I tell him the food is done he makes himself a plate and goes back to the couch. I take my own plate back to my office to continue working.
Everything I do is for Caleb, everything. Today had been for myself, and I wanted more.