Looking over the edge of the cliff to ninety feet of empty space ended by the few ripples in the water, my stomach filled with butterflies. Nobody was within at least fifteen miles of Grady’s edge at that moment, besides my friend Santino and I. The sound of our favorite songs echoed for miles. We’d been talking about this night for the past month; it was finally here.
Ever since 4th grade we had been jumping off anything we could find, just to get that little rush of adrenaline that everyone’s hungry for. But now, two weeks after graduating sophomore year, we were facing our biggest stunt yet. We got the idea to jump off a massive cliff like this one from our idles on Youtube. The whole time, we were thinking about actually jumping off the cliff, not the result it could have. We took the next ten minutes debating who was going first. Finally, I nominated myself to live a little, and go first.
I backed myself up twenty feet from the edge, and took a few deep breaths. Demanding Santino to turn the music to the max, I prepared myself. Next thing you know I launched myself off the cliff, floating in the ninety feet of space above the water. My stomach felt like an inhabited ecosystem full of butterflies, just as my chest was bursting with fulfillment. I broke through the sheet of water, submarining twenty feet. After resurfacing, I couldn’t believe what I’d just done. Santino stood there on the edge, waiting to see if I’d appear again. He gave a reluctant screech down to me just as I came up.
Next thing I heard, Santino was counting down from the top of his lungs, just so I could hear him over the music. Of course, just as the base dropped to the beat of the music, I saw best friend lunge over the edge for the open space ahead. Except, unlike every other time we had done this, he tripped a foot short of the cliff drop. This sent him spinning wildly in space. I screamed and screamed and screamed, and it felt like I was screaming in slow motion to the death of my best friend. The smack of his hopeless body on the water seconds later left me with a million things going on in my head. I swam faster than I possibly could towards him. But when I got there, all i found was a pink skin body with no pulse. I somehow managed to get him to shore without drowning, but there wasn’t much hope left.
I left every belonging I had there and sprinted the half mile to my car with him on my shoulders. As I arrived I had cuts all over my legs, which I couldn’t feel, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was my best friend’s life. Although the nearest hospital was twenty-five minutes away, I managed to get there in sixteen minutes. Once again, I carried Santino on my shoulders, kicking open every door I went through and immediately he was taken into an emergency room. The world felt like it slowed down in time for the 20 minutes I waited for the results of his life. My heart continued to beat as fast as it had when I waited in the water. I think it almost bursted out of my chest when I saw the doctor approach me. “I’m sorry son, but your friend is no longer living,” was all I heard until I knew my life would never be the same. This time, I wished that my heart was out of my chest. This time, I wished I could’ve take back the last hour of my life...