I went back and buried myself under the covers for the third time and fell asleep well until nine in the morning. Everyone had had their breakfasts by then and when I came down for my own breakfast I was greeted by an excited unison of ‘happy birthday’s. Again.
Everyone seemed to give me special attention today and I was surrounded by everyone, all of them talking to me at once and telling me about their plans for me. I smiled at everyone and before I knew it, all of my favorites were doled out in front of me. Keith stood quietly in the corner, watching me with an amused smile. I grinned back at him.
I could sense he wanted to say something to me, probably wish me on my birthday but he held himself back for some reason.
After I was finished with breakfast, I walked into the kitchen to talk to Keith. When he looked up and saw me there, he about jumped down from the counter he was sitting on and rushed to me. But before he could say anything to me, he was cut off by high heels clacking on the shiny tiled floor.
“Oh my God, Juliet! What’re you doing here? You should go get dressed!” An enthusiastic Amelia’s voice startled me.
“Get ready for what?” I asked as I saw her.
“I told you we were going to go cliff diving. Wouldn’t want to break the tradition now, would we?”
“What?!”
“Well, come to think of that. You already broke the tradition one time, on your nineteenth birthday but let’s forget about it. Now come on,” Amelia grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the kitchen. I momentarily forgot about Keith. When I looked back he looked sad but gave me a smile and waved at me.
“Amelia,” I tugged at her hand once I was sure no one was around to eavesdrop. “I can’t go cliff diving!”
“Sure you can. So what if the real Juliet’s not here? We’ll have to make do with you.”
“No, you don’t understand. I can’t go cliff diving. I don’t know how to! The idea is already scaring the crap out of me.”
“Don’t worry, it was just for the show. I don’t expect you to really cliff dive.”
I sighed in relief. “Did Juliet like cliff diving?”
“Yeah, she was absolutely crazy about such thrilling activities and I guess she rubbed off on Heather and I too. But her parents only allow her to do that on her birthday.”
“Wow. Did she have a death wish on her birthdays?”
“Something like that.” Amelia snickered.
“When did this all start? Up until what I’ve heard of her, she doesn’t sound like someone who’s too much into such death activities.”
Amelia chuckled and shook her head. “It’s a funny story. She’s absolutely crazy about the Twilight movies and used to watch them every now and then. So once on her birthday, she was watching New Moon and got this stupid idea to go cliff diving, just like in the movie.”
“Really? Unbelievable.”
“Yeah, and then after an hour or two of incessant begging, her parents finally allowed her to go with us, a dozen bodyguards and a few lifeguards.”
“How old was she when you all started this ‘tradition’?”
“Thirteen.”
“Oh. She’s something else really.”
“Now come on. Get into your bikini!”
I groaned and grudgingly trudged upstairs.
After I had changed into a sky blue two piece bikini and thrown a crop top and a pair of shorts over it, I met Amelia in the driveway where two cars were waiting for the three of us.
But when I got there, I was unpleasantly surprised when I learned that there were four people.
“Why is? he? coming with us?” I asked Amelia when I saw Ethan get into the car with Heather.
“Heather invited him to our cliff diving. Not telling anyone apparently.”
“But this is your tradition right? It would be wrong of Ethan to intrude.”
“Well, we never set such rules,” Amelia shrugged.
“But it would mean that I would have to cliff dive too!” I whined.
Amelia sighed exaggeratedly. “Relax. You’ll be fine. Cliff diving is not as scary as it seems.”
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered as the car started moving towards my impending doom.
Once the vehicle stopped, I swallowed nervously and hesitatingly got out of the car.
Beyond the bit of land, I couldn’t see anything but skies above and mountains in the distance.
The air was cool but I was sweating. I was that scared. I was never a fan of such extreme activities.
“Juliet, come on,” Amelia beckoned me towards her seeing as I hadn’t moved from where I was at the other side of the car.
“Amelia, I’m not sure if I can do this.” My stomach was knotting up and I really wanted to be anywhere but here.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll make sure you do it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Juliet used to push Heather off the cliff where we were little because she was too scared to jump.”
“Thanks. That was comforting,” I said sarcastically. “Let me tell you something. If you or Heather are planning to push me then I’m out of here.”
“No no no! I didn’t mean that.”
“You better not.” I grumbled.
“Amelia, Juliet. What are you guys doing over there? Come here,” Heather said.
“Let’s go.” Amelia said, grabbing my hand and dragging me along with her.
Heather was busy clicking photos with Ethan and then tapping away on her phone for a long time.
“What is she doing?”
“Posting on social media so that half of the world knows that she’s here cliff diving with her boyfriend,” Amelia rolls her eyes at Heather.
“For a couple, they don’t behave like one. Where is the mushy, lovey-dovey stuff in their relationship. I mean I have seen them kiss a few times but that was only in public. In private, they just act like friends.”
“Well they were kind of friends before they started dating,” she said simply, shrugging. We reached them and Heather finally stopped her activities on her phone.
“So, who’s first?” Heather asked, handing her phone to one of the bodyguards who came with us.
“How about the birthday girl?” Ethan asked.
“Or not. How about you?” I glared at him.
Ethan shrugged and smiled. “Okay.”
I hadn’t expected that. I thought he would make sure that I was the one who jumped first.
He turned around, his back muscles rippling. I stared at them for too long because the next second, they were gone. He was gone.
I gasped as I realized he had really jumped.
I quickly ran to the edge of the cliff and almost lost my footing, kneeling on the ground. The cliff was high. And from this height, the water looked dangerous.
I couldn’t see him anywhere. The ripples formed in the water were the only evidence that he had jumped.
After a few moments, I saw his head emerge out of the water. I breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked up at us.
“Are you okay?” I shouted.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked, stretching his arms in a questioning manner. “Your turn now, birthday girl.”
No way. After what I just witnessed, I knew I couldn’t do it.
I got up from my kneeling position, shaking my head.
“I can’t do this. Heather, Amelia please,” I looked at them pleadingly.
Heather put a hand on her hip. “Sorry, Julie but you have no choice.”
“Then why did you bring him here, knowing that I can’t do it?”
“I didn’t know that. And I don’t really need to answer you. So jump or I’ll push you. You choose.” Heather crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot against the ground. She was clearly impatient and just wanted me to get on with it.
I looked at Amelia for help but she just stared at me apologetically.
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll jump. Just give me some time.”
“Hey, did you guys leave me or what?” I heard Ethan’s voice yell over at us and I turned around.
Okay. I could do this, even though I highly doubt I could without breaking a few bones. I remind myself that it could have been a worse thing but it wasn’t so I just had to deal with it.
I stood there for about five minutes but still couldn’t pluck up the courage to actually jump.
“Are you sure you guys don’t want to go in first? I mean, I wouldn’t mind, actually I’ll be-”
My next words were lost in the wind, the wind that knocked the air out of me as a result of someone, I was quite positive was Heather, pushed me our of the blue. I was screaming my lungs out the entire time.
Falling felt feather light. The things before my eyes changed fast to the point where I didn’t know which one was water and which one was sky. Everywhere I looked, I could just see blue.
And then I met the water, falling with such a force that it hurt. And then everything around me was water.