Didn’t mean for you to witness that.
I promise I didn’t jump.
I don’t know how many times I reread it, and even though I believe she didn’t, my chest still feels heavy, and a sense of sadness washes over me.
Why didn’t I ask her for her last name? Why didn’t I give her my number?
Out of all the questions I could’ve asked, I asked for her favorite color.
Way to go, dumbass.
3
DANIEL
“The fuck?”
Angel’s voice comes from behind me, but I don’t move or angle my head in his direction. I keep it straight ahead, afraid if I look away, I’ll miss Josefine in case she decides to show up.
“What the fuck, man?” he groans loudly, standing next to me. “I thought you jumped off the goddamn cliff. Scared the shit out of me!”
“Why would you think that?” I absently ask, gaze still on the spot where I first saw her.
“Danny!” Angel punches my shoulder, pulling me out of my internal turmoil.
I jerk my head back, peering up at my best friend. “What was that for?” I rub my shoulder, wincing.
He shoves his phone in my face, the bright light blinding me momentarily before my eyes adjust. I read my name at the top, centering my vision on the blue dot that apparently shows I’m in the middle of the ocean.
“You piece of shit!” He punches me again and snatches the bottle from my hand and takes a long drag from it. “Almost gave me fucking heart attack!” he shouts and chugs the rest of my beer.
“Jesus—”
“Yeah, I thought you were meeting him right now!” Angel exhales a harsh breath, shaking his head as he tosses the empty bottle on my lap. He then aggressively moves his fingers on his screen, probably sending out a message.
“You need a new phone,” I state, picking up the bottle and dropping it in the small cooler I brought with me.
He sits on the ground next to me, but he doesn’t speak. That shocks me because there is never a time Angel isn’t talking, but as the seconds tick by, so does his silence. It draws out, painfully slow.
“Your mom called my mom, asking if we’d seen you because she hadn’t seen or heard from you since Christmas Eve,” he finally speaks up, bursting the suffocating bubble we were enclosed in. “I saw your location, and I thought…I panicked.”
Angel and I’ve known each other since we were about eleven. Funnily, we didn’t like each other when we first met, but once our moms did, they became inseparable.
We had no other choice but to hang out because either his mom was at our house or vice versa. Though it didn’t take long to get along because we both came to realize how much we love baseball.
We also came to realize that our dialect is different because he’s Puerto Rican and I’m Mexican. Because we were young and hella immature, we taught each other all the bad words. Good times.
I huff a chuckle. “Yeah, I see that. I’m probably going to have a bruise tomorrow.”
“I didn’t hit you that hard.” I can’t see him due to how dark it is, but I’m sure he’s rolling his eyes. “So, what are you doing here?”
I smile but as quick as it comes, it fades.
It’s been seven days since I stumbled upon Josefine.
“I thought you had…” I hear him swallow hard. “Jumped.”
Grabbing two bottles from the cooler, I pop the lids off and hand him one and take a swig of my own. The cool liquid bitterly glides down my throat, sitting uncomfortably in my stomach.
