Six Days: Book One in the SIX Series (11 page)

           
I didn’t feel ready to have that discussion with her yet.
I mean really, I barely knew the guy. It had only been a few days, really.
Before this week every time I saw him he was chatting so much with everyone
else I never even had much one on one time with him. I wasn’t even sure where
he was at with all this either. I mean sure, we had fun together, but he
randomly drew my name out of a wooden box, right? So all of this time we were
spending together, it was really just because I was his dare. He was more or
less keeping up with his end of the deal, so to speak.

           
I threw a pillow at Mallory and stood up to get in bed.
“I’m not answering that. Just be up before nine to help me get dressed,” I
replied, smirking.

           
Griffin showed up at exactly nine-thirty. Because he had
mentioned water, I decided to wear my swimsuit under my clothes this time. It
felt like a better idea to me to already have it on, rather than the potential
of changing in the forest again. I packed a bag with some extra shoes, just in
case my Nikes didn’t seem appropriate, though I wondered how outdoorsy we were
planning to get.

           
We drove for almost an hour, and Griffin finally let me
in on a few details about where we were going today. It was located just
outside of a place called Nevada City. It was considered a National Park,
though a little
off
the beaten path so it never got
too busy. Mallory was
right,
there were some giant
ponds to swim in along with some hiking trails. The real gems, however, were
the natural waterfalls and rock slides down the tree studded hillside.

           
We parked the car and walked for about ten minutes,
finally coming to a clearing with a pseudo beach area covered in a
sand/rock/pine needle mix and a large pond. There was a giant rock formation
jutting out into the pond with several teenage boys jumping off, doing flips
into the water.

           
“You’ve got the map?” Griffin said, narrowing his eyes at
me.

           
I pulled it out of my pocket.

           
“Clothes off,” he said, dropping his bag and pulling out
a couple of towels. “I mean, you can keep the swimsuit,” he added with a smirk.
“You’ll need shoes.”

           
“So I’m hiking in my bathing suit and Nikes? What is
this?” I asked, chuckling. “Where will I put the map?”
           
Griffin walked towards me and
plucked the map from my hand. His fingers grazed mine, sending a shiver through
my arms.

           
“I’ll hold onto it,” he responded, smirking.

           
I peeled off the yoga capris and striped tank top I was
wearing, feeling awkward to still be wearing my shoes. Griffin riffled through
the bag he brought, pulling out a ridiculously hideous pair of grey
rubber-bottom shoes.

           
“Look, I know these aren’t exactly glamorous. But these
are the best things to wear, I promise,” he said, holding them out to me. “That
way you can grip on the rocks while we hike, but they won’t bog you down much
when we’re in the water.” Griffin pulled another larger pair out for himself.

           
“Oh my goodness, are these an uglier version of
Aquasocks
? I haven’t worn these since I was seven. I
actually had a neighbor once, an old lady in a wheelchair and she wore shoes
like these everyday so she could grip the floor as she wheeled herself around,”
I chuckled at the memory. “Although hers were neon green, so she had us beat.”

           
“I hope they fit, they’re an 8-10. The guy at the store
told me every woman should fit into an 8-10, so I went with it,” Griffin said,
shrugging.

           
“Ha, not true, but they’ll do. Thank you,” I replied,
putting them on. They were surprisingly more comfortable than I would have
imagined, almost conforming to the contours of my feet. Not too bad for rubber
shoes, I guess.

           
“Wow, Addie. I thought the shoes were sexy enough on the
shelf, but they look even better on,” Griffin said in a teasing tone as he put
his shoes on.

           
“Shut up, no one can make rubber shoes look good. That
has to be impossible. Even Meg couldn’t pull these off,” I replied, looking around
to see which direction we would even be heading. “Show me the way.”

           
Griffin took off his shirt and nodded his head towards
the giant pond. I followed, reminded of the tattoo on his side that I still had
yet to read. We waded through the water, and it actually got pretty deep, which
made sense from the teenage boys still doing back flips off the giant rock
protrusion. Once we swam over to the other side, Griffin helped pull me out of
the water alongside the rocky shoreline. From there we began our trek up the
hiking trail.

           
After walking about twenty minutes or so, Griffin stopped
to check out the small piece of paper he had put into a sealed plastic bag in
his pocket.

           
“Is that really a map?” I asked. “I thought it was just
something cute you drew on pirate-themed paper.”

           
“Well, thank you for the compliment on my ‘cute’ drawing,
but yes, it’s actually a map,” Griffin said, leaning against a tree. “I used to
come up here every summer with Johnny, Steve, and a few other guys. We would
always have a hard time remembering where to leave the trail, so we drew it out
one time,” he said smiling. “So I just copied it on here, partly for
aesthetics, sure, but so we won’t really get lost. I think this is it though,”
Griffin said pointing through the trees. “Are you ready?”

           
I smiled. “I suppose. I am out in the middle of nature in
a bikini and some
kickin
’ rubber shoes. I guess I
can’t be any more ready than this,” I replied, putting my hands up. Griffin
laughed and grabbed my hand, leading me through the pine needles. They were
pushed down enough into the ground that you could tell numerous other people
must have walked this way, but it wasn’t an actual cleared hiking path like the
rest of the trail had been.

           
After
another six or seven minutes
of walking, Griffin finally paused, turning towards me. “Well?” he said,
motioning to the water rushing down a bunch of rocks. “Just a few feet down,”
Griffin said grasping my hand again. He carefully led me down the side of the
rocks. I was finally thankful for the rubber shoes. We finally reached a small
ledge, well, a three foot rock jutting out of the earth. Griffin sat down on
it.

           
“So,” he began, pulling me down next to him, “here’s how
it works. The running water has actually created some natural water slides,” he
said, motioning below us. Each side of the rushing water was surrounded by even
bigger rocks and lots of trees. “So once we jump down to this part,” he said
pointing at a smooth section below where we were sitting, “then we just get
down on our butts and we literally just slide down that part.”

           
I looked at Griffin with wide eyes.

           
“It’s awesome, I promise. The rocks are perfectly smooth
from the water wearing them down, so it’s really just like a slide. This part
is easy. There’s a little drop off later on, a few slides down from here. I’ll
warn you before we get to that,” he explained, trying to calm my anxiety,
though I wasn’t sure it was working. “Come on,” he said, staring directly into
my eyes.

           
“Griffin, this is crazy,” I responded, smiling, but
terrified.

           
“You’re supposed to say ‘yes,’ remember? I promise you’ll
be okay. I can go in front of you or behind you, whichever you want,” he said
in a soothing voice. He had a look of boyish excitement in his eyes, a look
that I had to say yes to.

           
“You go first,” I said reluctantly. “Just don’t lose me.”

           
“You have no idea, Addie,” Griffin said, sliding down to
the rocks below. He reached up and put his hands on my waist, hoisting me down.
His touch pulsated through my skin. He crouched down and smiled at me. “Adventure,”
he said, splashing down into the water. Griffin quickly slid down onto the
rocks, sliding about twenty feet forward down the natural slide. He grabbed
onto some rocks where they leveled out, motioning me to join him. I followed
his lead, crouching down so I could slide my butt down onto the rocks. I pushed
my body forward. I held my torso steady and slid down the rocks, surprised to
feel how smooth they were. It felt exhilarating.

           
I giggled the whole way down and Griffin helped me up
once I reached the spot he was at. We walked a few more feet down the hill
until we reached another small ledge.

           
“Unfortunately it doesn’t connect the whole way down, so
there’s a lot of up and down. But it’s fun, right?” he asked, beaming at me.

           
I had to admit it was fun. I had no idea a place like
this even existed.

           
Griffin crouched back down again and pushed off the
rocks. I could tell by his body’s motion that this rock slide moved a little
faster than the last one. I followed, laughing the whole way down as I slid
about thirty feet through the rushing water. We stood up again, walking about
twenty feet down the hill to the next slide. This one was a bit further than
the distance between the last two. By the time we came to the third slide,
Griffin put a hand on my shoulder.

           
“Now I’m giving you a heads up on this one because I’m a
gentleman. This one has a little drop off at the end, but it’s only three or
four feet. The water is deep at the bottom so don’t let that freak you out.
You good?”
He cocked his head to the side, trying to judge
the expression on my face.

           
“I’ll go first,” I responded, surprising even myself.
Without hesitation, I dropped down and pushed myself off the rock. Sure enough,
after sliding for about eight seconds, I quickly felt a rapid free-fall through
the air before plunging into the water. I let out an exhilarating scream. The
water felt so refreshing. The trees and rocks seemed too simple of a scene for
this type of fun.

           
“Griffin,” I shouted loudly as I surfaced, wiping the
water out of my eyes. “That is
not
three or four feet! It’s more like
eight!” I yelled with my head laid back, laughing as I floated in the water. I
swam back a few feet, hoping I wouldn’t be in the way when Griffin
came
flying over the edge. Seconds later, Griffin shot off
the edge of the rock, plunging into the water.

           
As he surfaced, he had a huge grin on his face. “Shit,
that was a big drop. I’m so sorry if that scared you, I swear it used to be
smaller. Maybe the water level is down a bit,” he said, swimming towards me.
“When we used to come up here, every time we brought someone new with us, we’d
never tell them that it dropped off at all. Watching their faces at the end,
that was always the best part,” he said, smiling at the memory.

           
“I feel like a kid right now,” I said softly, trying to
hide my nervous excitement as Griffin swam up to me.

           
“There’s one more slide,” he said, pointing down the
hill. “Good adventure?” he asked, putting his hand on my waist. I bit my bottom
lip.

           
“Great adventure,” I responded softly. Griffin moved
closer to me, and I felt a slight shiver run through my body.

           
Right in that moment, a teenage boy
came
flying off the edge of the rock. He landed in the water just a couple feet from
us, engulfing us in a wave. He quickly rose to the surface, shaking all of the
water off his head.

           
“Shit, man, did you know there was a drop like that?” the
kid said to Griffin, gasping for air. “Charlie!” the kid yelled up at the rock.
“You’re such a jerk,
man,
I can’t believe you didn’t
warn me!” Moments later, another kid
came
flying down
the chute. Griffin snickered at his scream.

           
“Come on,” Griffin said, sliding his hand up from my
waist and grabbing my hand. “Let’s get to the bottom before the rest of these
guys show up.”

           
I followed Griffin out of the water and we hiked down for
a bit to the next water slide. This one was a series of three humps, so it was
slower than the others, but still left a pit in your stomach as you inched over
each hump. We finally reached the large rock formation at the bottom of the
hill, which Griffin led me up. Once we made it to the top of the rock he sat
down on the edge, letting his legs dangle over the side. I joined him.

           
“So do I get to read your tattoo now?” I asked, reaching
for his arm.

           
He reluctantly nodded. “But don’t judge me. Maybe it
doesn’t make sense on its own, I don’t know.
When I was in
L.A.
I got it one night after performing. It just felt right, and I
needed something to go with the music notes. It’s just part of the lyrics from
one of my songs, one of the ones I sang that night.” He maneuvered his elbow
forward so that I could see the script.

           
It’s not about whether you should sink or swim,

           
Deep water and drowning
are
not the same thing

           
So just hold your head up, and try to breathe me in