“What do you do on student council?”

“Not much.”

“You could do both student council and sports.”

“And sacrifice my C average? I don’t think so.”

“Do you even try?”

“At what?”

“At anything?”

“Trying sounds like work.” With that, he flashed me a smile and walked away.

Amelia joined me a few minutes later. “You managed to shake Jackson? How’d you do that?”

“I think I might have offended him.”

“I don’t think Jackson gets offended.”

Either way, it’s what I’d wanted—for him to walk away. Wasn’t it?

“You want this?” I asked, holding up my hot chocolate.

“Of course.” She snatched the drink from me, and we watched a couple more people jump off the platform.

“Where is DJ?” I asked.

“He’s going to come join us in a minute. He’s right there.”

I looked where she’d indicated and didn’t see him anywhere. “Where?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Well, he was. He’ll be right back or I will hunt him down.”

“Does he know what he’s gotten himself into with you?”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “He will soon enough.”

A new person stepped up to the jumping platform. “It’s him,” I said.

“You see DJ?”

“No, Heath Hall.” I grabbed Amelia by the arm and worked my way forward, through onlookers now focused on him, until we were to the front where he could see me. For whatever reason, I wanted him to know I was here.

A low murmur rippled through the crowd. He turned, a harness on, his mask firmly in place. I thought back to our chat earlier about fear and wondered if he was scared right now. I stood on my tiptoes to try and see him better. His gaze went over the crowd. I waited for it to stop on me. It didn’t. He held his arms out to the sides.

“Suck it, fear!” he said, and then fell backward.

Amelia laughed.

My lip curled. “‘Suck it, fear’? That was his big speech? ‘Suck it’?”

She laughed again. “It was awesome.”

I was disappointed and couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t need him to acknowledge me in any way. This wasn’t about me. He obviously didn’t need my help facing his fear.

Amelia grabbed my arm. “Call Robert!”

“Oh! Right!” I whipped out my phone and quickly dialed as Heath Hall dangled on the end of the rope. It rang and rang until finally it spit me out into his voice mail.

“Anything?” Amelia asked when I hung up.

“He didn’t answer.”

“So technically . . .” She tilted her head toward the bridge.

“I guess.”

“‘Suck it, fear,’” Amelia said. “That’s going to be my go-to line from now on when I’m scared to do something.”

“Please, no.”

“‘Suck it, fear,’” she said again through a laugh. “Come on, let’s go find DJ.”