Page 100 of Damaged

I pull my underwear off and plant a slow kiss on his lips. “You know what today is?” I whisper.

“What?” asks James.

“It’s the very first day we’ve ever dated.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. And there’s only two hours of it left,” I whisper, and I watch the skin on his cheek lift as he grins.

“Better make good use of it, then.”

“Better,” I say, my eyes narrowed.

He glides his fingers between my legs and puts his lips on my neck. And between the blurring waves of pleasure, I’m trying to wonder what the odds are that I’m going to wake up, bleeding out in an alley in Egypt or on the floor of the gallery.

Surely, this isn’t real life.

“Pinch me,” I say.

James pauses and then moves his hand down to my breast. He takes my nipple between his fingers and squeezes. Hard.

I throw my head back and moan at the ceiling. And then I manage to let out just a little laugh. Giddy at the fact that I am most definitely alive.

Sophia

Three days later, I don’t know why I agreed to go skiing. I guess I didn’t want to look uncool. And besides, wealthy people love to ski. If I’m going to live this life, I’m going to have to fit in somehow.

I took ski lessons in middle school. I remember mastering the bunny hill with pizza French fry. But today we’re going to be hitting much steeper slopes than that.

I grip my poles awkwardly. Hailee, Alex, James, and I all share a lift chair that’s heading up the mountain. We’re not far from Lake George, skiing at a resort that boasts the highest vertical drop not in the Rockies.

That doesn’t seem like a selling point. In fact, it’s more of a warning. Thanks for the heads-up. I will stay far away from any large vertical drops, thank you.

Unfortunately, during her winter out west, Hailee has gotten big into skiing. So here I am. She and Alex came to Lake George yesterday. Hailee couldn’t stay away any longer, and I should’ve feigned weakness to get out of skiing.

Now I’m staring at the mountain as the lift climbs higher and higher. The top is hidden in mist. I keep expecting it to end soon. This is the East Coast, after all. There are no snowcapped peaks, but it feels like we’re climbing forever.

James must sense my unease. He holds on to my forearm. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah! Totally cool. I’m just not big on challenging gravity.”

Hailee leans forward. She looks like a giant bug with her bright-orange ski goggles. “That’s the fun of it. Just trust me, Sophia. You’ll have a good time.”

It’s been amazing to see Hailee again. Our relationship feels like it’s at its strongest. Maybe because it survived us being apart for months. Before there had been an undercurrent of mistrust. At least one that I felt. Ever since her shitty ex Ford said I slept with him last summer I’ve felt so terrible when I was with Hailee.

It’s sad how people can poison a friendship with a lie. I don’t believe she ever really believed him but the fact that she even asked broke my heart. The good news is we’ve been tight as two peas in a pod since she came to visit. Close as sisters.

I look at the summit and gulp. The wind blows hard, so in response to Hailee I just give her a thumbs-up. My primary anxiety is getting off the ski lift without falling. The thing doesn’t even stop. You’re just supposed to slide all smooth off it.

But I’m not smooth. And that’s about to be brutally revealed to James. The top comes into sight, and I watch the skiers in front of us disembark. Okay. I can do it too.Just don’t lock your knees. Let gravity do the work. There’s a little slope.

I cringe when it’s my turn, but to my great relief, I don’t topple and take everyone down with me. I slide coolly to the side.

Okay. First win.

There are a few slope options at the top of the lift, and we shuffle and pole our way, trying to choose which one to take. James and Alex want the black diamond, but Hailee is going whichever way I am.

“The blue and the black meet up here,” Alex says, pointing at the slope map. “It’s just the initial drop that separates the two in difficulty.”

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