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"Yeah," I shout back

Unlike an scales the ladder in a matter of seconds He joins me on the platform, then takes my hand and leadsa nice--and safe Safe!--place to sit He flops down and lets his legs dangle over the edge, grinning at my very obvious reluctance to do the same

"Aw, don’t chicken out now You’ve already co of s like his As he slings an arm aroundnot to look down Or up Or anywhere, for thatattwo hundred feet to my death"

"This tower definitely isn’t two hundred feet tall"

"Well, it’s tall enough that round"

"Jeez You really need to work on your roape at him "This is supposed to be ro up on you?"

He bursts out laughing "You’re not going to throw up" But rip around my shoulder

The warmth of his body is a nice distraction frone? His natural scent? Holy Moses, if it’s his natural scent, then he needs to bottle that spicy fragrance up, call it Orgasm, and sell it to the masses

"See that pond over there?" he asks

"No" I’ve squeezed my eyes shut, so all I can see is the inside of my eyelids

He pokes me in the ribs "It would help if you opened your eyes Come on, look"

I pry er to where he’s pointing "That’s a pond? It looks like aBut in the summer, there’s actually water in there And in the winter, it freezes over and everyone comes here to skate on it" He pauses "My friends and I played hockey there when I was a kid"

"Was it safe to skate on?"

"Oh yeah, the ice is solid Nobody’s ever fallen through it, as far as I know" There’s another pause, longer, and fraught with tension "I loved coer when I was a kid Like I was skating on an ocean Then when I got older, I realized how fucking small it actually is I can skate fros always look bigger to a kid"