The Easy Part of Impossible - Sarah Tomp Page 0,81

lips. She kissed his neck, his cheek, and finally, his mouth. He tasted like something sweet and rich, but mostly, best of all, him.

Thirty-Eight

Later, after Cotton had left, and her parents came home, Ria took the evidence of his surgery work outside to the garbage can.

The night air felt cool and damp. It smelled like a campfire. She looked up at the stars and was hit with a faint wave of vertigo, but too quickly her body adjusted to the new point of view. She was stuck firmly on the ground.

Damn, that dive in the quarry had given her an adrenaline rush. It had been wild and reckless. And fun, too. It made her miss the raw part of diving. The thrill of not knowing balanced with faith in her body.

A video clip had already been posted online and liked repeatedly. Maggie’s jump was there too, but separate. As if they hadn’t been together. In the video, Ria stood at the edge of the quarry, clearly in her bra and underwear. No doubt it was her. Then, suddenly, she was in motion. The lift had been as good as it felt. Her pike form was tight, her legs straight, toes pointed the whole ride down. It was a beautiful dive, made more stunning by the backdrop of the rocky walls. She felt a flicker of pride. Before she could wonder or doubt, she sent Benny the link.

She walked down the sidewalk to the neighbor’s driveway, and onto the street corner, evaluating the pain in her leg. It had ached and throbbed all through dinner, but her parents hadn’t noticed. They had no idea she was hurt. They never did. She was too good at hiding her bruises. Even when she’d wished they’d notice her skinned knees, battered shoulder blades, she’d worked to keep the pain out of view.

They didn’t even know she’d been to the quarry today. Or that she and Maggie had fought. They still didn’t know about caving or kissing Cotton. She could feel her secrets adding up, building to some kind of crash.

Sometimes it was better to fall apart in a million ways all at once, rather than one small way on its own. One missed homework and her teachers would be angry. Two or three, they moved on to concerned. Skip it every single day and everyone quit caring. They’d give up. Diving had been like that too. The smaller an offense, the greater Benny’s wrath.

If a dive’s mediocrity could be traced to one small slip, one minor glitch, one teeny tweak, the more likely he would rant and rage. The closer to perfect a dive went, the more likely his assigned correction would feel like a punishment. If she had a strong approach, great lift in her hurdle, tight form, fast flip, but then botched the entry, he’d rage about that one last piece of the dive. She’d be in entry purgatory, standing on the side of the pool doing lineup after lineup, concentrating only on the moment of breaking the surface, the rip of the water, the act of sliding in, willing her body to act paper thin. But, if everything went wrong, he’d shake it off as if it didn’t happen. She’d simply have to do the whole dive again.

Back at her house, she paused and watched the neighbor’s smoke twirl up from their chimney, melting into the sky.

Then Benny was there, standing in the spot where her driveway met the street. She’d known he’d come.

“I saw your video.”

She stood straighter, shoulders back, chin lifted.

“The higher you go, the prettier you fall.” His voice sounded husky, thick with the night. He stepped closer, moving up the driveway. “There’s no one like you, Ria. Strong. Brave. Graceful. You’re the real deal.” He tilted his head and stared at her, into her. “I bet that dive felt incredible, didn’t it? Out in the wild, with a crowd watching. Even if they don’t understand what they’re seeing. They know it’s amazing. They know you are amazing.”

Exactly.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

She frowned. The dive had looked good. Great, even.

“I said, what the hell were you thinking?”

She’d thought she had to do it. That he’d never forgive her for being in a moment of possible and not going for it. She’d done it for him. Everything. It always came back to him.

He grabbed her shoulders, squeezed tight, then, in a flash, shoved her hard. She stumbled backward, bumping her shoulders and head against the retaining wall. An