His Best Friend's Sister

Chapter 6

"3...2...1... Ready or not, here I come!"

"Hehehehe."

"Anastasia, I hear you. You're supposed to be quiet during hide and seek."

"Whoops, sorry Ricky!"

"That's alright, help me find your brother."

"But Ricky it's so dark, I can't see you!"

"I'm right here Anastasia, take my hand."

* 

My legs would be jelly by tomorrow, but I didn't care. I had never done anything so adventurous. I thanked my lucky stars that I was wearing running shoes, instead of booties like Robin.

"I'm going to have serious blisters tomorrow," she complained.

"Keep up," Alexander called back to her. Robin sped up to match Alexander's speed, leaving Ricky and I slightly behind.

We journeyed through a dark wooded area for a period of time, before coming across the bridge, overtop of a ravine.

"Holy, this looks like a far drop," I commented, fearfully inspecting the dark water below. The bridge was large and sturdy enough, with high barriers. But the water was dark, deep, and unsteady.

"You know I've actually jumped off this bridge," Ricky told me with an air of boastfulness.

"No way," I said.

He pulled his shoulders back and broadened his chest, with a prideful smirk. "Alex and I did it one summer after Rex dared us. Heather Marbury screamed so loud when we hit the water, she thought for sure we had landed on a rock."

I visualized that day Ricky was describing. A bunch of friends all together at Davenport bridge on a hot summer's day, swimming in the ravine. Heather and the girls probably looked incredible in their bathing suits and Ricky probably impressed several of them with his risky plunge into the water. I felt excluded at not having shared this memory with Alexander and Ricky. Stories like this reminded me of the times we used to do everything together, and how they lived in a different world than me now.

"Are you okay?" Ricky asked after some moments of silence. I mentally scolded myself for letting myself run away with my thoughts again.

"Yeah, I'm good, it's just kind of dark. Are we almost there?"

As soon as I asked, I heard Robin yell out a long "wow!" A few more feet, and we had reached the hill on the edge of town, just as Ricky had described.

I stared off into a near aerial view of our town, awestruck at the wide array of lights. As I sat down near the edge, I pinpointed specific locations - there was the Grocery Mart, and there was the Fitness Life Gym that everyone says they'll get a membership to but never actually does, there was the school – no thanks; didn't need to be reminded of its existence. I continued scanning everything my eyes could hold. Oh! There was that old mansion who everyone in the town theorizes is haunted.

"Is that place even inhabited?" Ricky asked out of the blue, referring to the mansion.

For the first time in a month, it finally felt like Ricky and I were back on the same page again, using our body language to convey what we were thinking. He had come to sit beside me, and we were sitting so close to each other that our arms brushed when we breathed. We could hear Robin harassing Alexander some distance behind us, by shoving her now-bare feet in his direction. She of course knew very well that Alexander had a particular distaste for feet.