Thank you @Tara676 for being so patient and kind with me as I fussed over the covers for this story!! You're so sweet and you helped me out so much! ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡ Although I ended up changing my mind... T_T
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"Ouch..."
The throbbing pain in the nape of my neck made me wince when I woke up. My back hurt, too, likely because I had been napping at my study desk.
Unable to think of a way to guarantee that I would wake up in time if I napped before our little rendezvous, I ended up sitting at my desk to resist the seductive beckoning of my lovely bed. Before I knew it, I had started nodding off.
I shot up in my chair and scrambled for my phone.
When the screen lit up and I was presented with the time, I let out a sigh of relief. There were still ten minutes to one. Briefly, I wondered if Nolan would have just left without me had I been late, before crossing the room to open the window.
My brain begged me to crawl into bed and under my cozy covers, but I stubbornly averted my gaze from the bed and examined my attire instead.
I had chosen to wear a dark blue hoodie over my T-shirt instead of just a long-sleeved shirt for fear of the cold air. The last thing I needed was to freeze to death in the forest.
"Hi."
I snapped my head up. Nolan was half-crouched on my windowsill with one leg in my room.
"Hey," I said.
"You look sleepy," he said, putting down his other foot on the floor.
"I napped," I admitted, brushing my fringe out of my eyes. "I'm not used to staying up so late."
"Shame you didn't sleep through the night." He unzipped the fanny pack clasped around his waist and made fast work of pulling out its contents—a large coil of rope.
I rolled my eyes. "You wish."
Nolan wrinkled his nose and looked around at his surroundings. "Wow, the lemongrass smell is strong. You didn't seem like the type to use room fragrances."
"It's not the room," I said, crossing my arms. "It's me. Organic insect repellent."
He moved towards my bed, which was fitted in the corner of my room nearest to the window. "Wow. Are you that terrified of insects?"
"I always make sure I have at least three bottles packed in my luggage before the semester starts." I shrugged. "I already told you I'd use you as a shield if I encounter any bugs."
"It's a good thing I'm not afraid of them." He squatted down at the corner of my bed and began unwinding the rope.
"We're using a rope to climb down?"
"I can't exactly steal the gym trampoline and place it outside your window so you can just jump out," he said. "So, yes."
"I ... I ..." A coherent sentence just wouldn't form in my mouth as I watched him loop the rope around one of the legs of my bed.
He paused in the middle of tying it and looked back at me. "Haven't you tried it in gym before?"
"Well, I mean, yes, but it was never anywhere near as high as four stories," I whispered. "Four stories!"
"I thought you weren't afraid of heights."
"I'm not, but it's still a long distance to fall!" I whisper-snapped.
He huffed out a silent laugh and returned his focus on the rope. "You do know that it's easier to climb down, right? It requires a lot less strength than climbing up."
"We're on the fourth floor, if you haven't realized," I said, wringing my hands.
"I heard you the first and the second time." Nolan tugged hard at the rope when he was done. "Look, I'll go down first. If you fall, I'll catch you. And that's a big if. I'm certain even you can handle it."
My mouth fell open. "Even me?! Excuse me? Don't you worry, I'll definitely be able to get down without your help!"
"I look forward to seeing that. Also, you should lower your volume. We wouldn't want a teacher to come knocking."
Glaring at him, I pressed my lips into a line. He ignored me and tossed the rest of the rope out of the window.
"You have to do it as quickly as possible. We don't want anyone seeing us. We'll be running for the wall once we get down, so be ready."
"Won't the person living on the second floor see the rope?"
He shrugged. "Their curtains are always drawn."
At Melissa's encouragement, I had tried rope-climbing last year during gym class. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but because of my poor upper arm strength it was literally a pain to climb up the rope. It was a lot easier to get back down, but I still didn't particularly enjoy doing it.
He eyed me for a moment.
"What?" I said, fidgeting under his scrutiny.
"What's in the bag?"
"Oh, this?" Relieved that he was referring to the tiny backpack I was carrying, I gave it a couple of pats. "Just my water bottle and my phone. I get thirsty easily."
"I guess you'll need it." He patted the windowsill. "I'm going down now."
A jolt of panic shot up in me. "Hold on, how am I supposed to get down on the rope in the first place? Won't I have to face backwards? What if I don't get a good grip on the rope and just fall?"
"Watch me do it and learn. If you fall, I'll catch you," he said. "Besides, it's only four stories."
"Only four stories?! Have you ever heard of fractures?"
Ignoring me, he shifted my chair right under the window. "If it helps, you can use this to give you better leverage."
Nolan gripped a part of the rope with one hand and showed it to me. "Make sure you hold on to it before you go down. I'll wave to you when you can start coming down."
I gaped as he casually leaped out of the window the way someone would jump over a hurdle in a race.
When I got to the window to peer at him, Nolan was already holding onto the rope with both hands.
"Are you seriously expecting me to jump out just like that?" I demanded, leaning over while grabbing onto the windowsill with both hands.
He looked appraisingly at me, as if considering my question. "You could try sitting on the windowsill and then launch yourself off."
Without another word, he began making his way down the rope. The effortless way he made it seem as he rapidly but smoothly lowered himself to the ground did nothing to quell my nerves. When he finally reached the ground, he waved at me and gestured to the rope. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to nod at him.
The roughness of the rope in my hand only increased the anxiety rising up in my chest. I couldn't afford to dwell on my fear if I didn't want to give up right then and call this whole thing off.
Gritting my teeth, I climbed onto my chair and cautiously sat on the windowsill. I was in the middle of gathering my courage when Nolan beckoned to me. I shut away the almost irresistible urge to yell at him for his impatience, and instead pushed myself off with my feet.
I realized I wasn't at all ready for it only when I found myself dangling mid-air, holding onto the rope with one hand. My side crashed unceremoniously against the wall, and I was so grateful that I had my hoodie on. Bruises were far better than skin abrasions. Instantly, I forced myself to grab onto the rope with my other hand.
I was not going to think about how I could fall to my death.
"Get a grip," I whispered to myself. "You're going to be just fine."
Shakily I went down the rope, using my feet to pinch the rope so that the burden of my weight wouldn't fall entirely on my arms. My hands felt like they were made of lead. Peeling one off at a time to grab the rope at a lower position seemed to take years.
I then made a mistake because I wanted to know how much farther I had left to climb.
I peered down.
The grassy ground looked light-years away. Nolan stood beneath me, watching as I clung to the rope for dear life. For some reason, he felt even further away than the ground did.
My heart went into overdrive as the clamminess of my hands increased and my grip involuntarily slackened.
This was it.
My head was going to kiss the ground when I fell, and my parents were going to kill me when I woke up from my self-inflicted five-year coma. Or maybe I wouldn't even be fortunate enough to fall into a coma.
Panic froze my arm and my fingers wouldn't obey me—I watched the distance between my hand and the rope grow larger and larger. While my body tilted backwards, the emptiness under my feet sent spikes of fear spreading throughout my entire body.
Falling felt unreal. As air rushed past my body, my stomach dropped like a particularly sharp dip in a rollercoaster ride.
I couldn't even form a scream in my mouth despite opening it.
And then I fell into something which was decidedly not the grass.
"Ow," I muttered, slowly opening my eyes that had been scrunched shut.
Nolan was looking down at me with a neutral expression.
"Are you okay?" he said.
"Yeah..." I looked around quickly, and with dawning horror I realized I was in his arms, in a princess carry.
"So much for being able to make it all the way down without needing my help, huh?"
I groaned.
"Oh, well, at least you falling right into my arms saves us the time it would've taken you to climb down the rest of it," he said, letting me down on my feet with ease.
I wanted to snap at him not to antagonize me, but the last thing we needed was to draw anyone's attention to our presence outside of our rooms. Thankfully, it was too dark for me to see his expression—I was pretty sure he was grinning, and I did not want to see that right now.
Where did he get all this strength from?! Maybe those rumors about him had some grain of truth to them.
"Thank you," I whispered. "I thought I was a goner for sure."
"I told you I'd catch you." He shrugged. "Now let's go before anyone notices us."
When he turned away, his back looked a lot broader and more reliable than I remembered.
We raced towards the same section of the wall I'd seen Nolan climb the other night, with me hot on his heels even though my lungs were begging for a reprieve.
"I like climbing the wall here," he said when we reached. "The bricks are a bit loose here so we can use them as footholds."
He hadn't even broken out into a sweat.
"Okay," I managed to get out amid all my panting. "How are you so fit?"
I only received a small smile from him before he waved at the wall. "I'll go first and wait at the top to pull you up. Unless you need me to stay here in case you fall?"
"No, I'll be fine," I said.
I was infinitely better at rock climbing, mostly because I felt less like I was dangling helplessly in the air.
Nolan made it up the wall just as swiftly and fluidly as he had the other night. Watching him do it from up close felt even stranger than it did from afar—the ease with which he did it just felt unreal. He got to the top and squatted down.
"Your turn."
"There's no way I can be as fast as that," I told him, as I placed my foot on the nearest brick that was jutting out slightly.
"Don't worry, you just need to be fast enough," he said, staring down the wall. "Step on that one next with your other leg."
He pointed to another protruding brick that was a little higher up than the one I was using. I followed his instructions. Nolan ended up guiding me through most of it, and I reached the top sooner than I thought I would make it otherwise on my own.
At the last heave where I would make it over the wall, however, I overdid it and found myself flailing in panic as my body launched forward to the other side of the wall. I was going to fall face-first into the ground and break my nose.
"Help!" I squealed.
Immediately, sturdy arms wrapped around me and pulled me back into solid warmth.
"Shh!" he hissed, his breath brushing against my ear.
I couldn't tell if my heart was pounding so hard because of the danger I had just narrowly escaped or because I was pressed up against Nolan's front.
My breathing slowed as I turned to face him, secure in the knowledge that I wasn't about to fall anytime soon. It was strange how safe I felt in his arms. He really was strong—there was no way otherwise that he could be supporting my entire weight while sitting on the wall.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Yes," I whispered and squirmed in panic.
His face was way too close.
"Stop wriggling—what are you—you're going to fall if you keep this up!"
His hold on me tightened, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted to accomplish.
"I'm fine, so you can let go of me now," I squeaked out.
"You're not even sitting properly, so if I release you right now, you're going to fall," he said, grunting. "Seriously, stop!"
In a single motion, he lifted me up and put me over his shoulder like I was a backpack, securing his arm around my waist. Then he leaped off onto the other side of the wall before I could make another sound. I felt like I was on an amusement ride, sans the proper sitting position.
He let me down once his feet hit the ground. "There. You're free."
"A little warning would have been nice!" I whispered. "I could have managed it on my own."
"You probably could have," he conceded. "It would have taken a bit more time, and I didn't want to risk staying up there any longer than we needed to."
"Fair enough," I said begrudgingly.
"Now come on, let's go," he said, walking ahead of me.
Once we stepped foot into an area dense with trees, I shuddered at how dark everything was. The forest looked completely different in the day. An owl hooted in the distance. I tensed up. That did it. I absolutely needed some light. Falling over something or coming across some animal that I couldn't see properly was an enormously real possibility, and it was one I didn't want to deal with. I slid my backpack off one shoulder to get my phone out.
The zipping noise caused Nolan to look back at me.
He stared at me as I unlocked my phone screen.
"What are you doing?"
"Turning on my flashlight—it's really dark, you know—"
One moment my phone was securely in my grasp, and the next moment my hand was empty.
"Hey! What are you doing?" I protested, tiptoeing to try to reach for my phone, which he was holding firmly out of my reach. "That's my phone!"
"Which is precisely why I took it," he said.
I could barely make out the scowl on his face, even with the help of the moonlight that had filtered into the area through the gaps between the tree canopies.
"You can't turn on the light." His low voice was tinged with exasperation. "I can't believe I have to tell you this."
"This again?" I couldn't help the exasperation that surfaced in my own. "What is it with you and flashlights?"
"We'll attract attention. And anyway, we won't need it."
"We? Speak for yourself, Nolan," I said, gawking at him. "The reason why I want it is because I need it. How are we going to be able to move around without a light source?"
He snorted. "There is some from the moon, you know. Your light is too bright."
"Well, I'm glad that it's enough for you to see," I snapped. "I can't see where I'm going!"
"Then just follow me," he said, before smacking his face with his own hand.
"I don't want to trip over tree roots or branches or anything like that."
"Fine," he said. "I'll hold your hand if you promise not to turn on that stupid light. Just stick close to me."
Spluttering, I tried not to show how flustered I was inside at his offer. "I-I don't need handholding! I just want my flashlight!"
"What, are you still worried you'll fall? Haven't I proven to you that I can catch you?"
"That's not the point!" But he was right, and I knew it. Nolan had earned that trust twice in a short span of time tonight by catching me twice.
I couldn't believe how reliable he was in my eyes now.
"I'll give your phone back once you take my hand," he said, extending his hand to me. "If you'd rather use the flashlight, we should call this deal off. I'm not compromising on the flashlight. I'll help you back to your dorm if you want."
"No." The word escaped my lips instantly, and I jutted my chin out. "I'm not going back."
I grabbed his hand with a little more force than was necessary, but Nolan said nothing. Instead, he handed me back my phone and turned around to continue leading the way.
It was comforting the way his hand wrapped around mine firmly, especially since my hand felt small in his.
If only my eccentric pulse would stop racing.
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AN: Don't try any of this at home, guys. It's dangerous! Thanks so much for reading, everyone <3 You're all the best. ILY!
[HELP! IMPORTANT!] Okay so please please help out here guys! I'm going to change my cover, but I haven't entirely set my heart which one to use yet. I was originally going to use 'Shenanigans in Spades' like in the cover some of you might have seen yesterday before I switched it out butttt I thought it over and realized it's not what the main point of the book is, so I've decided to follow what I think really suits it and what I really love. If you think any of the covers on the chapter banner looks nicer than the one I currently have up please tell me!