Shiver by Allie Reynolds

Author:Allie Reynolds [Allie Reynolds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-01-18T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

TEN YEARS AGO

I text Curtis. How’s Jacinta?

Broken femur. They’ve taken her down to Grenoble.

I’m so sorry.

Poor Jacinta. That’s her season over.

I lie awake for half the night debating whether to tell Curtis about his sister’s role in the accident. I’m almost certain the black thing, whatever it was, came from Saskia’s hand. Yet I couldn’t swear to it; it happened so fast. It might just have blown past her in the wind. And if it did come from her, she could have dropped it accidentally. My gut tells me she dropped it deliberately, but even so, she probably only intended to distract Jacinta and make her bottle out of her spin.

Anyway, telling Curtis wouldn’t achieve anything. Saskia would say it was an accident and the damage is already done. Hopefully she’s learned her lesson.

At the pipe the next day I can’t get the accident out of my head. Every time I’m about to jump, I find myself looking around to see where Saskia is, to make sure she can’t drop something onto me.

Okay, she’s coming up the tow, so I’m safe. Deep breath. Come on, focus!

With ten weeks to go until the Brits, I’ve pushed aside the idea of trying a Crippler for now. It was scary enough watching Brent do one yesterday. Instead, I’m trying to go bigger, so I’m dropping in from farther and farther up the pipe. Of course, Saskia soon caught on and now she’s doing the same.

This time I drop in from twenty meters up and nearly lose it on my way down the wall. My first hit shoots me higher than I expected; I flap my arms like mad for balance and somehow I land it. A few more speed wobbles and a sketchy spin on the last hit. I skid to a stop, amazed I’m still upright.

Brent drops in above. Such an aggressive line; no wonder he goes so big. I count the rotations on his final hit. One, two, three. I think. He spins so fast it’s hard to tell.

“Was that a ten eighty?” I say when he pulls up alongside me.

He grins. “Yeah. I was going for a twelve sixty, but never mind.”

“You went huge. Don’t you get scared?”

“Only when I’m watching you.”

“Shut up.”

“I mean it, Mills. You were way on the edge on that last run. Cool it a bit, hey?”

“What? You’re the last person I expected to hear that from.”

“Sorry. Um, I’m going to grab a snack if you want to—”

“No.”

He heads off to his backpack.

Odette pulls to a stop beside me. “Are you okay?”

I blow out my breath. “Brent just told me to cool it. Such a bloody hypocrite.”

“It’s hard riding with someone you care about. But you have to separate it. Otherwise . . . Pfft. They are holding you down like an anchor.”

It’s so true. And how can you bust big air with an anchor?

“We go up again?” Odette says.

“No. You go. I need to psych myself up.” I want to watch Saskia and see where she drops in from.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.