“Oh no,” I said, backing up. “No way. I’ll just wait for you guys in the Jeep.”
“Come on, Rory. It’s an amazing feeling,” Bea said imploringly.
“Here, look. I’ll do it. It’s fine,” Cori told me.
Then she turned and jumped, disappearing from view in a snap. The rest of them cheered, hooted, and hollered. This time I didn’t look, but I heard her shout up to us when she emerged.
“The water’s perfect!”
Crazy. They were all crazy. Every last one of them. I turned and walked away as fast as I could, my pulse thrumming in my ears. Krista, Bea, and Lauren came after me, but I threw my hands up at them, my sneakers crunching across the pebbles and sand.
“You guys do whatever you want to do,” I said. “But just FYI, peer pressure is pretty lost on me.”
“We’re not trying to peer-pressure you,” Bea said, screwing up her face as if I’d offended her. “If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.”
“Why are you even doing it?” I demanded, feeling annoyed and embarrassed that they were all so blasé about something that scared the breath out of me. “That has to be a twenty-story drop!”
Bea shrugged. “Because we can. There’s a lot you can do when you realize you can’t die.”
My gaze darted past her to the edge. So that was what this was about. Illustrating Joaquin’s point. I was going to “live” forever. Which meant nothing could hurt me. Not in a permanent way.
But still. That didn’t mean I was ready to jump off a cliff.
“Hey, if you don’t want to jump, don’t worry,” Krista said, reaching for my hand with both of hers. Her skin was warm and soft. “We’ll sit this one out with you.”
“We will?” Bea asked, disappointed.
“Don’t let me stop you,” I said.
“No. We want to hang out with you, right?” Krista said to the others as she tugged me toward a grouping of large rocks. “Let’s sit.”
Bea sighed, looking longingly over at the cliff. “Fine.”
“I’m in,” Lauren said with a shrug.
Krista and I settled down on a wide, flat, gray rock and Bea and Lauren perched around us. Bea sat with her knees together, her feet apart, and pushed her hair behind her shoulders, her jaw clenched. Lauren fiddled with the gold seashell she wore on a chain around her neck. I glanced over my shoulder at the waves far below, feeling awkward. Being the center of attention was not my thing.
“So,” Krista began, biting her lip. “Are you okay?”
I froze. Had Tristan said something to her? “Yeah. Why?”
“Just Joaquin kept going on about how we had to cheer you up, and when Tristan came into the general store this morning after your tour, he wouldn’t even look me in the eye,” Krista explained. “Did something happen between you two?”
“Me and Tristan?” I squeaked. “No. Of course not. We’re not, I mean, he’s not—”
“Oh god. You like him, don’t you?” Krista squealed.
“Ugh. Not another one,” Bea said bluntly.
“What do you mean, another one?” I asked.
Lauren leaned back on her hands. “Just don’t let Nadia find out.”
“I knew it!” I exclaimed. “She likes him, doesn’t she?”
Silence. The three of them exchanged knowing looks, and a new and awful thought occurred to me, one that would explain everything that had happened this morning and also make it ten times more embarrassing.
“Wait a minute. Are Tristan and Nadia, like, together?”