It Takes Two

Friendly banter turns very dangerous very quickly

"Dude, check it out! Listen to the rock when I throw it!"

I hate vomiting. And I hate heights. The latter often prompts the former, and when I heard the rock impact with ground far below us, my stomach rolled, and I hated Steve, too.

I shut my eyes tightly and bent over, trying not to hyperventilate. "Steve, you're an ass—"

"Joey! Help...Joey!"

I heard scrabbling and opened one eye, unable to bear blindly whatever new prank my best friend was pulling. But this wasn't a prank; it couldn't be. Steve was slowly sliding to the edge of the rock we were standing on.

"Steve...?"

"Damn it, Joey, give me a hand, man! Throw me a rope or something!"

The rope was in the backpack—clear over by the car!. There was only one way to save him: I dropped to my belly and reached out to him, instantly dizzy as the edge of the escarpment came into sight. After an eternity, I felt Steve's hand close on mine.

Then I felt myself start to slide along with him.

"You fat bastard, you're gonna kill us both!"

Then my foot hooked on the guardrail. Everything was still. The pebbles stopped slipping, the gravel stopped sliding. We lay there in a human chain, breathing and sweating in the high cold air.

Then I began to slowly pull Steve toward me. It was very slow, but eventually, he was able to get on firm ground and work his own way back up to the guardrail, where he literally dragged me back up by my ankles.

When I got my feet under me again, Steve's back was to the drop-off. I looked over the edge and wasn't dizzy at all.

"Hey, what do you know, buddy? It's not that far down after all!"

NOTES ▶︎

Word Count 300
Prompt: rope, chain, rockContent goes here

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