Please Don't Go

“I can’t do this,” Halie screamed, sounding much less enthusiastic than she did when she thought of the idea. I’ve never been bungee jumping she had said, her eyes wild with adventure, can we please? That would be so much fun.

I knew now, just like I knew when she first brought it up, that she was completely regretting her decision.

We were standing on a bridge over top of a lake, and as I looked down at the water I couldn’t remember why I had ever agreed to do this. A man stood behind both of us and tightened the harnesses that were strapped to our bodies, but somehow that didn’t make me feel any safer. I looked over at Halie, her face reflecting the way that I was feeling, and I closed my eyes for a moment.

“We can do this,” I said to her, raising my voice so it was audible over the wind around us. She grabbed my hands and squeezed them – I could feel her shaking – so I pulled her close to my body and hugged her. She sighed before pulling away.

“We can do this,” she repeated and looked over at the man who was waiting for us to collect ourselves. “We’re ready”.

We walked over to the edge of the bridge, the wind rushing past our faces, as we listened to the man’s instructions. He checked out harnesses one more time to make sure were secure, and we faced each other and intertwined our hands. Halie’s eyes were closed but mine were trained on her as I took a deep breath to steady my shaking hands.

Three, two, one

And we jumped, screams escaping from both of our bodies as we barreled down towards the water, snapping back up right before we hit it. I could hear a mixture of laughter and screaming coming from the girl who was holding on to me for dear life, and I couldn’t help but smile.