Behind the Screen

Chapter 30

A few days later, I was wrapping things up at work when Chloe came into my office and shut the door.

"Hi," I grinned.

"Hi," she responded as she came over to me, "what do you want to do this weekend?"

"Hmm," I paused, "I'm not sure, I thought you were already scheming something."

"Well I do have something in mind," Chloe said, "but I wanted to see if you had anything in mind first."

"It's all you," I said to her, "what are you thinking?"

"There's this really cool hike near here that leads to a waterfall and place to swim," she said, "I've only ever seen pictures but I've always wanted to go."

"Is it a long hike?" I asked hesitantly.

"No," she laughed as she shook her head, "not even a mile."

"Well you might have to carry me part of the way if I get too tired, but I'm down," I said.

"We'll see if you're lucky enough for that," she grinned, "it does usually get kind of crowded though from what I've seen, fair warning."

"That's fine, it does sound fun though," I responded.

"Perfect, it's a plan," Chloe said, "I can pick you up, but we'll figure all that out later."

"Sounds good," I smiled.

                                        ***

On Saturday morning, I got ready to go on our hike, and I made sure to text Emily and tell her about it.

"Going to be with Chloe for a while today...don't worry too much about me ;)" I sent.

"Thanks for that, I won't this time," she responded.

I smiled at my phone and was about to put it down when a message from Chloe came through.

"Don't forget to wear your bathing suit...or do, I don't mind ;)"

"Unfortunately for you, I already have it on," I responded.

"Damn, okay fine, be there soon," she sent.

I shook my head as I set my phone down and grabbed the last few things that I would need.

I was hoping Chloe was right and this wasn't a very long hike, because that wasn't exactly my thing. I was in decent shape, but it still wasn't really my idea of a fun date.

The waterfall and swimming part sounded like it would be really pretty, so hopefully the hike was worth it. We lived near Portland, so there were a lot of these places around, I just hadn't been to many of them.

Before I could keep overthinking, Chloe pulled up in my driveway and honked her horn. I grabbed my water bottle off of the counter and went out to meet her.

"Wow, you even look cute in your hiking clothes," she said as I got into the car.

"Thanks," I said as I felt my face grow warm.

She still knew how to make me blush.

"So this place is only like ten minutes away," she said.

"Really? I didn't realize it was that close to us," I responded.

"Yup," she nodded as she pulled out of the driveway, "can't believe I haven't made it there before this."

"You must have just been saving it so you could take me there," I teased her.

"Yeah, something like that," she said as she grinned over at me.

We got to the parking lot of the trail a few minutes later, and there were already quite a few cars there.

"Guess we didn't beat the rush," Chloe said as she found a spot.

"Oh well," I shrugged, "it doesn't look too bad."

"Yeah I'm sure it's not," she agreed.

We got out of the car and walked over to the trailhead, where the sign indicated that Chloe thankfully hadn't lied to me. It said that the hike was just under a mile round trip, so barely anything at all. My kind of hike.

"Alright come on," Chloe said, "the best part will be at the end."

"I thought you said you'd never been here," I said to Chloe as we started walking.

"I haven't, but there's a waterfall at the end," she said, "isn't that kind of obvious?"

She turned around and smiled at me and I shook my head.

"Okay fine, I guess that's true," I admitted.

The trail was fairly crowded, but it wasn't too bad, and the walk went by pretty quickly. The scenery along the way was nice, but it was nothing compared to what was at the end.

"Woah," I said as we stopped at the lookout point.

"Yeah..." Chloe said as she took in our surroundings, "woah is right."

The roar of a large waterfall filled my ears as I felt the mist gently cool me off. There was a swimming hole right at the bottom, and there were a lot of people enjoying it.

"Well I don't know about you," Chloe said as she pulled her shirt off over her head, "but I'm getting in."

I watched as she took her shorts and shoes off too and set them in a pile on a nearby rock. There was a short trail down to the water, but there was also a spot to jump in.

I saw Chloe's eyes go between the two of them, and I knew which one she'd choose. She walked over to the edge of the rock and looked down at the water and then back at me.

"You coming or what?" She asked.

"I'm coming...but I don't know if I'm coming that way I said to her.

"But this way is definitely more fun," she said as she motioned down towards the water.

"Yeah...I'm not sure about that," I said hesitantly as I began to take my clothes off.

We both stood there in our bathing suits and I watched Chloe inch closer to the edge.

"Just jump with me," she said, "it's not that far."

I walked a little closer to where she stood and glanced down at the water. It really wasn't that far, but it still made me nervous.

More people around us jumped off and splashed into the water, and Chloe looked at me expectantly.

"Please?" She said with a grin as she held out her hand to me.

"Fine," I sighed, "but this was not part of the deal."

"I don't think there was ever a deal involved," she said with a smirk.

I slowly walked over next to her and she grabbed on to my hand and laced her fingers with mine.

"You ready?" She asked.

"No," I mumbled.

"Oh come on," Chloe said, "we'll be okay."

I nodded and took a deep breath as Chloe squeezed my hand.

"Okay," she said, "one...two...three."

We both stepped off the rock and I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as we hit the cold water with a splash.

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