Nobody Wins

“Teej, can I take this blindfold off now? I feel like I’m going to fall.” I whined while stumbling on the pavement I couldn’t see.

“Shhhh, stop complaining, we’re almost there.” He laughed.

“Ok, take the blindfold off.” I was afraid but I did what he said, and gasped with horror as I did.

“Ohhh, no. No. No.NOOOOO!” I narrowed my eyes at him. He laced our fingers together and pulled me along.

“Seriously, I would feel terrible if I were to puke on you or you ‘accidently’ broke something and we wouldn’t be allowed up.” I said nonchalantly.

“Don’t threaten me,” He chuckled as we went through a security checkpoint.

“Hello, welcome to the St. Louis Arch. How many tickets would you like today?” the man behind the desk happily asked.

“Two please,” T.J said nudging me in the ribs. I thought about bolting and looked towards the exit.

“Don’t even think about it,” T.J whispered. Well plan A was out. Shit.

I could handle spiders and snakes but the one thing that scared me more than death was heights. I could feel my stomach churning, my breakfast was about to make a reappearance.

“Don’t be so nervous,” T.J smiled while giving my hand a squeeze.

“You’re enjoying this,” I mumbled as we were lead into the bubble that would take us to the top.
----------------------------------

Two hours later I was lying on a couch in T.J’s apartment completely exhausted. As soon as we hit the top of that dreaded building I went into panic mode. T.J tried to calm me down which worked until I decided I wanted to look out of the tiny rectangular windows at the top. Thankfully it wasn’t a busy day so we were pretty much alone when I was hyperventilating on the floor. Eventually I was calm enough to make it back to his truck and to his apartment.

“How are you feeling?” T.J asked while handing me a glass of water and Tylenol.

“Fine, I’m just really tired.” I lied. I felt like I had been repeatedly driven over by semi truck.

“Wow what happened to you? You look like shit.” Carlie questioned when she and Perry walked through the door.

T.J groaned, “It was my fault. I took her to the Arch.”

Perry smacked him in the back of the head and Carlie raised an eyebrow, “did she not tell you of her insane fear of heights?”

“Well yes but-”He was cut off by me, “He didn’t listen, obviously.”

“Are you ever going to let this go?” T.J grumbled.

“Nope, never,” I smiled as I got up to my glass away there was a knock at the door, “I’ll get it.”

I opened the door and the smile immediately fell from my face, my chest got tight, and my hands balled into fists.

“Hey Sam.” An all too familiar voice said.