Page 77 of Her Devils

I’ll take away the pain Penn will inflict on her heart by making her body sing with pleasure.

That’s where I’m a real champion.

“Peyton, you’re almost out of the competition window. If you don’t open your canopy now, your jump will be invalid.”Dad’s voice shakes me out of my reveries, and I realize that I’m still gliding.

I pull the lever in the blink of an eye.

I can only have control to a certain point.

Gravity always wins in the end.

***

Jameson

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WINGSUIT ACROBATICS- Round one of seven

The pilot informs us that we’re almost at the jumping altitude of twelve thousand five hundred feet.

There are four teams on this flight, and we get to jump first. The Cove Angels are going to follow straight after us, and I wish the jump order had been different. Having Penn on our flight isn’t ideal, but I’m proud of Peyton and Channing for ignoring the glare the Angels’ captain has kept focused on the three of us for the entire flight.

I meet Peyton’s gaze. “Okay, so I’m performer A, and you’re B.”

He nods. “Roger that. Chan, make us look good out there.”

Channing is our videographer, so he doesn’t perform the acrobatics, but he’s part of the team because we get a score for the camera work too.

The first round is a free round, where we get to pick our routine. That’s followed by two compulsory rounds, where we have assigned maneuvers, one more free round, two more compulsory, and a final free round.

We start our free routine with a yin-yang move, with hand grip and total separation as we switch sides. It’s much more entertaining to look at as we demonstrate total control of our bodies in the air. We follow with a duck and roll, which includes me doing a barrel roll while flying right under Peyton.

Fruity loops are always a favorite of ours, and Peyton is skillful at making a front loop look as easy as pie.

This is going to be a long, intense week, because we still have freestyle and freefly skydiving to perform. We’d obviously love to compete in the formation skydiving events, but you need a minimum of four team members, and since we lost Trent, we’re out of those. The only silver lining is that the Cove Angels have lost their fourth, too, after Penn dumped his team member’s sister he had been in a relationship with.

I’m happy I managed to keep anything that wasn’t my performance out of my mind, but the descent is a totally different matter.

As my parachute opens, slowing down my fall toward the designated landing area, I think about another fall that there’s no parachute for.

Lenley.

I’ve been holding back as much as I can, telling myself that Peyton is right, and we need to stick to the fucking terms of our deal.

I look around me, spotting my team captain’s red and white parachute not too far away from mine, and I sigh. I don’t think Peyton is heeding his own advice when it comes to our sweet, sexy Lenley.

I see the way his eyes light up when he sees her or even when he just talks about her.

Maybe we should have predicted that hanging with the same girl could cause us to form an attachment, but we felt safe enough.

Our girlfriends in high school were never around for more than a few weeks. It was easy to get bored and move on.

We had each other, and that was all the consistency we needed in our lives. We’ve all experienced loss one way or another, so we learned to value our bond above all else.

Peyton lost his mom in a plane crash, and Channing’s father abandoned his family, leaving Chan to take care of his mom and baby sister.

I haven’t “lost” anyone per se, but both my parents come from old money, and they have always been too busy with their work and social engagements to bother with me.

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