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He even had me stand at the edge of the rooftop with them at the first sunrise of the new year.
"What?! Have you finally cracked?" I exclaimed as the three dragged me to the edge.
"We're not going to jump to our deaths, silly." Gil took a deep breath and stood straight, facing the sunrise which is already halfway done. "We're just going to jump...to our fresh tomorrow!"
I paused.
"WHAT?!" I struggled more on Francis and Antonio's vice-like grip and without any choice, I stood at the edge with them. "Can we do the sappy shit without risking our lives here? It's the first day of a new year and I like to live this day, thank you very much!"
"What Gilbert means is that..." Antonio paused, pointing forward and smiling, "...we're going to jump forward to that roof!"
"Wha...what...?" I felt my blood drain as I slowly brought my gaze to the roof Antonio and Gil meant.
"We do this every first day of a year. Y'know, to celebrate that we get to live the past year. Nobody does that so often," Antonio explained blissfully into the air. I paused at the first part, and looked away awkwardly to play innocent about their self-harm issues.
"Well, obviously nobody jumps off a roof on the first sunrise yearly..."
"It's just a 15 foot drop to the next roof and 7 feet away. You'll be fi-"
A 7 foot gap of a dark alley in between...?! If we fall to that alley, we're done forーTHIS APARTMENT BUILDING IS SIXTEEN STOREYS HIGH!
"WHAT?!"
"It's called parkour, you uncultured Italian," Gil said, already warming up and cracking his joints. Antonio joined while Francis took out his camera.
"You're really going to jump?!" I said, ignoring the fact that he called me an uncultured Italian and saving the beating for later. For now, I had to make sure I get to live.
The breeze blew and I almost let go of Antonio's sleeveーI was holding his sleeve?ーin shock. Francis started to tie his hair back while Antonio stretched his back and arms.
They really are going to jump.
"When you land, you got to roll to break your fall. Unless you want your leg bones to turn to dust, that is," Francis said, patting my back and starting to step back a few steps for momentum. Antonio smiled at me and took a deep breath.
"Uno..." Oh god, we're really doing this. I started to let go of Antonio's sleeve and ready myself.
"Dos..." Here we go.
"Tres!" Gilbert, Francis and Antonio took off running and jumped from the edge first, and before I knew it, I was on the air too. Our leap was high, and I could barely hear their screams of freedom amidst my own screams...of fear.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
When I opened my eyes and looked beyond, the sun was shining at the horizon, past the buildings that were built on the right spot to not block the sunrise. I felt my vocal cords cry for a break, and my heart might as well be able to power 10 factories with this hype. I rolled and it all happened so quickly I had to stare at the orangish-purple sky from the ground to absorb that 5-second flight I experienced.
The three recovered faster, sharing highfives and with Antonio and Gilbert screaming their hearts out to the sky.
"WOOHOOO!"
Francis smiled at the recording he got on his camera, and is probably sending it to Arthur at the moment. Not wanting for this feeling to go to waste, I stood up and despite wobbling at the shock, I joined Antonio and Francis's screams.
"FUCK THIS EARTH, WE LIVED!!!"
We lived. We fell, but we came back.