Nate's entire body went numb. Had he just witnessed a murder?

He had little time to reflect on that possibility as he leaned over the edge. "Oh my God!" He breathed, placing his hand on his chest to relax.

The lake was below them. And Simon was already swimming to the edge.

Adrian let out a belting laugh. "Did you think I'd throw him off to his death?” He jested. “This is where everyone goes to cliff dive! God, you’re stupid. Obviously Michigan was right there." And pointing to the massive lake in front of them.

Nate frowned. He was hardly paying attention to what Adrian was saying. His heart began calming down finally as his muscles relaxed. "You’re a lunatic." He might have laughed himself if the situation hadn’t scared him so much. The truth was he hadn’t noticed the massive lake that was clearly there. Nor had he thought

His laughing ceased. "Oh, come on! Wasn't that funny?"

"No! I thought you'd killed him." Nate got in Adrian's face. "What if he couldn't swim?"

"We've gone cliff diving here before-"

"You're not funny."

Adrian's smile vanished. "Fine. Asshole."

"You're very concerned about him for not being friends." Kelly hissed. She leaned down next to the rocks.

This wasn't about friendships or even liking the guy. Nate could never see any justifiable reason to throw someone off a cliff. "The both of you are insane. We aren't friends, but you can't throw him off a cliff!"

They shrugged in response.

Nate flinched, looking down at Simon. He hadn't moved. "Fuck! How do you climb down?"

"Climb down?"

He glared at them. "Forget it!" He stood up. "You two are bat shit crazy. I don't care if he's gay, you throwing him off a fucking rock into a lake was fucking insane!" He jumped off shortly after.

The water below engulfed him, hitting him like ice. Though it was spring, the water was still freezing.

Nate swam to shore. "Hey!"

Simon didn't move. He looked down at the ground. No, Nate realized. He was looking down at his hand.

"Simon."

He plopped down behind him. "Hey, Simon."

He finally looked over his shoulder. There was a plastic hearing aid in his hand. "Damnit…" Simon muttered.

Nate tapped his shoulder, getting him to flinch and spin around. His eyes went big. "Huh?"

Nate pointed at the cliff, where Adrian and Kelly were looking over the side of, and traced his finger from the cliff down to the water. "Are you okay?" Nate asked, speaking slow enough for Simon to read his lips.

He nodded. "I, um…" he looked down at the hearing aid. "It's not waterproof."

"What about the other one?" Simon didn't reply. Nate tapped his shoulder again, getting his attention. "What about the other one?"

"It's completely soaked too." He looked down at it again, pulling out the other one from his wet pocket. Even after minutes passing, he still couldn't believe it. "Damnit…"

Nate shivered as the wind went passed. "We need to leave. Or we might get sick." Nate got to his feet. "Come on." Again, Simon didn't hear. He tapped his shoulder again. "We need to leave. How do we get back up?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I've never jumped off before."

"What?" Nate clenched his jaw, swearing at the two on the cliff. He hated to admit it, but Simon was right. Actually, he wouldn't admit it. "Stand up."

Simon did as he was told. "He has my backpack." He flinched. "My sketchbook!"

"It's fine. We'll get it later." He sighed. Simon wasn't looking at him again.

He reached into his pocket for his phone, but it wouldn't respond. "Fuck… okay, let's go." He looked behind him at the setting sun, taking note of its position in the sky.

He started walking. The hope was he'd eventually find a road. Simon gasped, reaching for his arm. "Where are you going?"

"Out." He turned to Simon. "Follow me. And stay close. You won't be able to hear me if somehow we get separated."

Simon wasn't looking at him. "He threw me off the cliff." He said.

"Yeah, they're assho-"

Simon started laughing. He let go of Nate to lean over, hands on his knees. "He actually threw me off. What a psychopath!"

Nate glared at him. "That was not funny! I thought he killed you."

He waited for Simon to finish, but the laughter only got worse until he was coughing. He wheezed. "Oh my God. Good laugh." He chuckled, looking up at Nate. "But he broke my hearing aid."

"You're very weird." Nate frowned. "Come on."

They started walking in the opposite direction of the sun. Each time the wind blew through, the pair shivered. Nate stopped. "Take your clothes off." He instructed, removing his jacket. Simon didn't move. "Hey, take your clothes off. We can't stay in wet clothes."

"Uhh… what?"

He frowned. "Did you not understand or do you just not want to?" Simon shrugged. "Fine. Get sick. See if I care."

They kept on walking. Behind them, the sun went lower, casting the sky into an orange twilight. He was getting a bit nervous with how long they'd been walking. First he didn't know where to go, or call for help with his phone broken. Then there was Simon, who shivered behind him.

"We've been walking for nearly an hour, now." Nate complained, fully aware Simon couldn't hear his bitching. "And my phone…" he spun around. Simon ran into him. "Where's yours?"

"Huh?"

"Phone."

"Um," he dug around his pocket. "It's in my school bag."

Nate groaned. "Seriously? Fuck." He flinched at the sound of a twig snapping. His thoughts immediately going to bears. "Crap."

"What?"

He took Simon's hand. "I hear something." He mouthed these words, not bothering to make noise.

"What?"

Nate placed his finger over his mouth. "Don't talk." He mouthed again.

Another twig snapped and he gave it his attention. It could be a deer, and he prayed to God that it was.

My heart started to race when the bush began russling, despite there not having been a breeze in ages. He started backing away from it, taking Simon with him. Whatever it was, he didn't want to stick around to find out. He bolted.

The two fled. In that rushed moment he completely forgot about the sun. As they ran, it continued to get lower. Eventually they were looking at woods for miles in all directions, and a set sun. There was a bright light, yet, in one direction.

"Damnit." Nate breathed. He wasn't exactly the athletic types. It pissed him off when Simon was perfectly fine, shivering less as their clothes had somewhat dried. "We're never getting out of here…"

He wondered if there was a path he should have taken, but didn't. If people went rock jumping all the time, then it must be easily accessible to the people. At present, he was more likely to appear in a video of I Survived. Or, in the worst case scenario, die young in the woods with his grades most hated classmate.

"If I can't get my phone to turn on, we might be lost here forever." He said, but Simon was looking someplace else.

He was starting to wonder if jumping in after him was really a good idea.