Blair’s eyes go wide and he raises his palms in surrender. “No harm, mate. I was just saying she’s pretty strong. No monsters will mess with her.”
Nick jabs his finger into Blair’s chest and I hear someone in the back of the cave suck in their breath. “She’s not yours to touch.”
I exchange a look with Amber, both of us uncomfortable as hell. Everyone is, especially Gemma, who is going beet red and looks like she wants the ceiling to collapse on her.
“Nick, it’s fine,” she says, her voice low but harsh, like she doesn’t want to bring further attention to herself. “Just forget it.”
Nick doesn’t seem to hear her. He stares at Blair for a beat before jerking his head at him like a posturing dog. Then he turns around, putting his arm around Gemma and leading her away to the back of the pack.
Now, I’ll admit that I’m naturally a jealous person. I’ve gotten in fights over ex-girlfriends before, I don’t like it when guys hit on my woman, and I can be fairly possessive—if she’s mine, she’s mine. That said, I could see that Blair meant no harm, and I wonder if Nick is always blowing his top like this around her, or if it’s a new thing. Gemma doesn’t seem like the type of person to put up with it.
Then again, maybe the Gemma I met in Vancouver wasn’t really her at all. What did she say about Halloween again? Everyone wants to pretend to be someone else? I put that revelation away for now.
Blair attempts to shake it off, though as he addresses us for the rafting procedures, he avoids looking in their direction. I’m barely listening to him myself. I look over my shoulder at Nick and Gemma. He’s still staring at Blair with murder in his eyes, but Gemma briefly looks at me. I give her a sympathetic smile that she doesn’t return. Her eyes shine dully in my light.
“All right, let’s do this,” Blair says, clapping his hands together. “Let’s do four to a group, which seems to work out perfectly here. I’ll take the lead.”
Blair walks to the edge of the black river with his tube. I look to Amber, feeling like I missed something. “Wait, what’s going on?”
She rolls her eyes. “Way to pay attention.” She peers at Nick and Gemma. “Were you guys at least listening?”
They stare at her blankly. She sighs and looks even smaller under the weight of her helmet. “When we get in the river, we have to attach to each other by hooking our legs on each other’s shoulders.”
I glance at the gently rolling water and observe the other four in our group, trying to sit in their tubes and splashing awkwardly in the water.
“Come on,” Blair yells at us, now sitting comfortably in the black tube and holding on to the riverbank with one hand, his white boots glowing against the black. “You don’t want to be left behind.”
Seeing that we’re in near-pitch dark except for our headlamps, which paints the rugged and slick cave walls in an eerie glow, while an underground river rushes past us and disappears into the fathomless depths of the cave, no, it’s not a place we want to be left behind in.
Amber goes in first and shrieks a bit as she steps into the water. I follow behind, and even with the wet suit it’s still a sharp, biting cold that seeps under my skin. It’s a bit unnerving to be going into water where you can’t see the bottom at all. Everything is unnerving right now.
Getting into the tube itself is also a bit of a challenge, but once I’m in I do as the others did and hook my legs over Amber’s shoulder. She grabs hold of my calves, holding me to her, which in turn keeps the rim of my inner tube pressed against hers.
To my relief, it’s Gemma who comes floating from behind, bumping into me. I turn my head and try to glance at her. Without my light shining directly on her she’s cast in shadow, but I can see the whites of her eyes reflecting in the dark.
“Wanna hook up?” I ask playfully.
I can tell she’s smiling. That’s something.
“You can have my legs,” she says as she carefully places the backs of her knees on my shoulders. I wrap my hands around her calves, holding her firmly to me. It shouldn’t be strangely intimate, and yet it is. I half expect Nick to tell me off for touching her, but there’s not much he can do about it here.
“This is like a PG version of the human centipede,” I joke, to which Amber laughs.
“Seriously Josh, you have the worst taste in movies,” she shouts back at me, her tone flirty.
“Hey, I’m not saying they’re good films,” I protest.
“Stop your yapping and hurry up,” Blair yells from somewhere up front, his voice echoing off the walls. “We’re ready.”
“I’m going to punch that fucker,” Nick growls from the back, still sore over what happened earlier.
Gemma’s legs tense under my grip. “Nick, stop.”
“All right guys,” Blair says, projecting his voice so it reaches us. “Lean back and let the current take you. I’ll be in the front, leading the way. Keep your arms inside the tubes at all times and hold on to your partner. If you bump into the wall or get stuck, just gently push off. If anyone starts panicking, just call out and we’ll all stop. It’s going to get very dark, very narrow, and very low in places, but the cave opens up often, so there’s always relief. So keep your heads back and look for the glowworms. Enjoy the black-water rafting.”
There’s a twinge in my stomach as the adrenaline builds. I tighten my grip on Gemma’s calves and she gently presses them into my chest.