"Soph!" I heard the unmistakable sound of my curtains being thrown open, a wide triangle of light blinding me directly in the corneas. I groaned, burying my face into my pillow. My alarm had gone off several minutes ago. I was aware that I needed to be up. But wanting and needing were very different things. Particularly today.

"Soph!" A towel hit the back of my head. My sister was not to be deterred apparently. Abby always had been a morning person. It was very annoying. "Sophia Katharine Randall get your ass up!" Yeesh. She middle named me and everything. I should probably get up. But here's the issue at hand, I really really really did not want to.

Why, you ask? Well, today was a Friday. Typically, Fridays are my favorite day of the week. But this Friday just so happened to be my personal Doomsday. It marked the final day of our training week for the job at Kona Valley. Monday had been the orientation, where'd we'd met Maia and Kai. I adored Maia. She reminded me so much of Reagan, I knew they'd be best friends if they ever met, and she was seriously helped to curb the homesickness. Kai was quiet, but funny, and seemingly unshakeable. Seriously, nothing ever appeared to faze him.

Tuesday, we learned the ins and outs of the trails, studied up on flora and fauna, that sort of thing. Tuesday was my favorite day. Memorizing information was exactly my kind of speed, and we got little journals to keep notes in. Mine was already filled with sketches of the scenery, the wildlife. Everything was just so picturesque here, perfect for drawing.

Wednesday was horses. Enough said. Though, I am proud of myself for managing to stay upright on the horse without passing out. I definitely won't be selected for those excursions, which is completely fine by me, but at least I tried.

Thursday was all about water. Kayaking, tubing, a brush up on CPR, and the importance of calculating a jump before making it. Look, I've never been an adventure girl. Never claimed to be one either. I told you about our senior white water rafting trip, right? Kayaking, well, was I deathly afraid of capsizing? Yes. Were my arms unbearably sore? Also yes. But— it did get sort of calming after a while, once you got into a nice rhythm. I did get a lot more wet than I expected though. Courtesy of one Jake Sullivan Jones. Apparently he had an affinity for splashing.

Actually, by any standards, the week had been going a hell of a lot better than I expected. Maia and Kai had taken us to their family restaurant, which was run mainly by their mother, their aunt, and their grandmother, but we were introduced to I don't even know how many cousins, siblings, and uncles.

The beaches were gorgeous, and having the twins as our personal tour guides, Jake and I had been shuttled practically all over the island at this point. It was very convenient.

Unfortunately, that was all about to end today. Because Friday, Friday was zip line day. Correction, zip line and ropes course day. Listen, I had handled it when Kara, the slightly overzealous Senior Instructor, had told us that there was a plant with the namesake "Death Fern", because so many people had fallen off of cliffs because of it. I handled it when a large toad perched itself on the nose of my kayak. Okay, I screamed, but it could've been worse. I handled it when I fell into a massive mud puddle dismounting from the horses, and about a bajillion mosquitoes ate me alive. I handled the freaking horses, for god sakes. Horses! By Sophia standards, I'd basically scaled Everest.

I could not handle zip lines. I had a crippling fear of heights, and generally putting my faith in what was essentially a wire hanging thousands of feet in the air. Valid, in my opinion. Who wouldn't be afraid of plummeting to their death?

Regardless, I had to do it. It was a required part of training. One that I had been dreading since the moment Otis announced it. Hence why I was currently refusing to abandon my bed.

"Soph, I'm so serious right now," I finally opened my eyes to find my disgruntled sister fronting down at me. Well, as disgruntled as chill, free spirit Abby can be anyways. "Get up," said Abby, yanking the covers away from me. "Poor Jake has been waiting in the car for ten minutes. I know you don't want to go, but if you're late I'll never hear the end of it from Morgan."

Ah yes. Morgan. The whole reason I had this nightmare job in the first place. Morgan worked with Abby at the yoga studio, her husband was Otis. AKA our boss.

I groaned, "Mmph." Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of bed, rushing to throw on a pair of shorts and a shirt. Thankfully, my bag was already packed and ready to go.

As I stumbled out of the room, with only one shoe on, mind you, my stomach growled. Reading my mind, Abby called out, "Breakfast on the counter, get it on your way out." Which is precisely what I did, grabbing whatever was wrapped in the paper towel between my teeth and hopping on one foot out the front door, simultaneously attempting to tie my shoe. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, and I got my confirmation of my assumption when I slid into the passenger seat, slightly out of breath.

Jake grinned, looking as though he was trying very hard not to laugh. "Good morning," he said, eyeing me with amusement. "Nice of you to join us."

I merely glared in response, taking an aggressive, huffy bite of the so-called breakfast, which I promptly spat out approximately two seconds later. I gagged, coughing slightly, "Jesus Christ— what—" I coughed again, sticking out my tongue, the acid taste lingering.

He winced, "Sorry. I was just about to warn you not to eat it."

"What was that?"

"Tofu something?" grimaced Jake, shrugging. "I don't know. I didn't ask questions. I just smiled and fed it to the cat when she wasn't looking."

I snorted in spited of myself, shaking my head as we rumbled along the highway, "She should never be allowed in a kitchen."

Jake raised an eyebrow, "I've seen you mutilate a grapefruit."

"That was one time!" I protested, trying and failing not to smile. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract me. And as usual, he was succeeding.

I had to commend him. I knew he was excited for today. He'd been excited all week, and excelling. Annoyingly, Jake was basically made for this job. Seriously, he was good at everything he tried. He'd scaled the steep trails with ease, and ridden the horse like he'd grown up on a ranch. I don't even want to talk about how smoothly he picked up the kayak. I was still a little mad at him for all the splashing. Kind of...It would be irritating if it wasn't also so endearing. And very very oddly attractive. Which I was definitely not dwelling on. Definitely.

But, as the now familiar main building for KVE came into view, I felt my stomach turn over itself. Jake opened his door, but I didn't even undo my seatbelt.

There was a rap on my window, "Sophia."

"I'm coming," I grumbled, shouldering my backpack. I saw the harnesses and helmets being loaded into the vans up ahead, and reached for my necklace.

I felt Jake's eyes on me. "It's gonna be okay," he said, nudging my arm slightly.

"I'm fine," I insisted, deflecting what I knew was a very skeptical expression on his end. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, then untucked it, "I'm not nervous." Crap.

Jake pressed his lips together, "Evidently."

After that I decided to put my hair up. The less body language of mine that Jake could read, the better.

"Hey!" Maia fanatically flagged us down from one of the vans. "I saved you seats!"

Kai, who was seated next to her, frowned, "We. We saved you seats."

"Who fought off Ruby and Stacey?" Maia retorted. "Was it you, Kai? Was it?"

If I wasn't so fixated on my impending death, I would have laughed. I slid next to Maia, silently wishing that the van's engine would stall and we wouldn't be able to zip line at all.

"Excited?" asked Maia, the van taking sharp turns that sent red dust clouds into the air. She was. But Maia was always excited.

"Super excited," I forced what I hoped was a believable smile, fiddling with my necklace again.

"Liar," Jake mouthed, and I elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!"

When we arrived at the zip line drop off point, after an exceedingly sweaty and lengthy hike through the jungle, Kara was waiting for us.

Kara was in her forties, we all assumed, graying hair in a perpetual braid down her back. She was the Senior Instructor, basically Otis's second in command. It was a little odd, seeing as most of the guides here were at youngest, seventeen, and at oldest, somewhere in their twenties. I mean, Kara was at least fifteen years senior to Otis, her boss, but to each their own.

I listened intently as Kara, Anthony, and Silas demonstrated how to safely secure a harness, and how a helmet should fit. I was not going to miss a second of this. Potentially, my livelihood depended on it. They didn't have us sign all those release forms and waivers for nothing, did they? Silently, I calculated how long it would be before I'd have to step off of that rickety platform.

There were six instructors in total, (guides who'd been working for longer than three tour seasons), Kara, Anthony, Silas, Briar, Bailey, and Asher. Maia had a theory that Briar and Bailey were in a relationship, and she might be right. There were seven guides, including Kai, Maia, me and Jake. Two of the other guides were also newbies, Ruby and her little sister, Stacey, from Utah. Stacey was another event high school graduate. The last guide, Aspen, had arrived midway through the week, but that was alright because he'd worked last summer according to Maia and Kai. He was twenty, like Ruby.

I watched as Bailey clipped the last piece of their harness into place, beginning to hand them out to the rest of us. Anthony placed a bright orange helmet into my hands and my chest seized.

Somehow, I managed to get into the harness, my heart pounding faster and faster as a line began to form behind the platform.

"Want to go first, Jake?" asked Silas. Silas had very quickly become Jake's number one fan. Apparently, he'd also played football in high school, and he was very similarly outdoors inclined.

Jake wavered for a minute. I knew he wanted to go first. I could tell. It was exactly the sort of thing he loved.

He glanced back at me. "No," he shook his head. "That's alright. Maia can go." Quietly, he slipped into line behind me. AKA, the absolute back of the line, seeing as I was last.

"You didn't have to do that," I muttered under my breath, embarrassed.

"Who said I did it for you, Randall?" he replied with a smirk. "How very self centered of you."

"Are you trying to distract me again?"

Jake let out a dramatic gasp, "I wouldn't dare." He paused, smirking for a second time, "Is it working?"

It was. Although less and less as the line grew shorter. I didn't answer, for fear that if I opened my mouth I would spontaneously vomit.

Soon enough we were the only two left on the opposite side of the ravine. I swallowed hard, my feet firmly planted. I couldn't move.

"Sophia—"

"I know," I cut him off, gingerly stepping up to the platform. I made the mistake of looking down, and I staggered backward. The ground seemed eons away, my fear swallowing me whole. I felt dizzy, near blacking out. I couldn't do this. What made me think I could do this?

"Sophia—"

"Just— just—" I couldn't breathe. I grasped at my throat, seeing spots. "I can't—"

"Sophia—"

He had to stop. I couldn't— "Jake, I can't—"

"Sophia," he repeated insistently. "I'm here." And he was. I could feel his breath by my cheek, and a strong arm around my waist, grounding me. I heard a click, and realized he'd clipped me to the wire.

"Don't let go!" I cried out, nearly hyperventilating. I was clutching his arms so tightly, I wondered if it hurt. I could feel my nails digging into his skin. It must hurt. He wasn't pulling away, though. My heart pounded in my head, blood rushing to my face. My chest felt tight, like all the air had been squeezed out of it, replaced by a paralyzing fear.

"Okay," he nodded fervently. I only gripped his arms tighter. "Okay!" he yelped, and I winced. I didn't want to hurt him. "Okay," he murmured, close to my ear, "I'm not letting go."

My stomach swooped horrifically, and I screwed my eyes shut. Looking at the significant drop down to the dense forest below was not helping. "Promise?" There was a wobble in my voice when I said it, and I hated it. I sounded like a baby. I felt like a baby. Don't cry. I willed myself silently. Do not cry, Sophia. You are a grown ass woman. You are eighteen years old, damn it. Act like it!

"I promise, Randall," Jake assured me in a soft soothing tone. "I've got you." Pink flooded my cheeks. God, this was embarrassing. I had never been more humiliated in my entire life. I tried to muster a smile. I didn't want to be pitied. Especially not by Jake. Apparently, I was utterly unconvincing because he added, "Look at me. Don't look at the ground. Look at me, Sophia."

I forced my eyes open, drawing my chin up so my gaze matched his. My stomach dipped again, an unfamiliar, fluttery sensation that I could not attribute to the height. In fact, I was horrifyingly certain that it had everything to do with the warm, brown eyes locked with mine. He held steady, a gentle but fierce intensity behind them as he murmured, "That's it. It's just you and me. Just keep looking at me. Okay?"

I gulped, whispering, "Okay." Something like a smile passed over Jake's face then, and my heart raced. "Okay," I repeated, steadier this time. "Now what?"

"Do you trust me?"

"I just met you."

"That wasn't the question."

I held his gaze, "Yes. I trust you."

"Then...you have to step off the platform," said Jake. I could already feel his grip loosing around my waist, and I started to panic again. "Just one little step." Easy for him to say.

I immediately began to protest, "I—"

"You can do it," Jake interrupted. "I know you can."

"Jake—"

"Sophia."

I sucked in a deep breath, steeling myself. And before I could chicken out again, I took a step. I didn't open my eyes until I felt myself slowing, my feet one again hitting solid ground. Asher unclipped me, slapping me a high five as I stumbled to join Maia and Kai. I couldn't feel my legs. I couldn't feel anything really. I'd done it. I'd really done it. I, Sophia Katharine Randall, had really and truly zip lined.

An echoing whoop broke me from my daze, as Jake came whizzing down the line, grinning like a maniac. He made it look so simple. He dismounted in one fluid motion, running a self assured hand through his brown curls, the gold woven through them shining in the sun.

"Show off," I rolled my eyes as Kai clapped him on the back, but I was smiling. How could I not after everything he'd just done for me?

"Y'all ready for the next one?" Briar called from the front of the pack, moving the group along.

I choked, "Next one?"

"There's three," Kai informed me. "And two ropes courses."

"You did it once. You can do it again," Jake said from behind me, with absolute confidence. He bumped my shoulder with his, teasing, "Maybe this time you can open your eyes."