Their Freefall At Last by Julie Olivia

44

Bennett

Our birthday party does look like a grape exploded. But I don’t mind. I’m happy. We’re happy.

And when I pass through the iron gates with Jolene on my arm and everyone jumping out, screaming, “Surprise!” as if I didn’t just decorate with them yesterday, I can tell it’s going to be a great night.

Orson places a tumbler of my favorite whiskey in my hand.

Theo looks around me and furrows her eyebrows. “Where’s Ruby?”

Jolene’s hand tightens in the crook of my arm. “She’s running late.”

I didn’t know she was running late, but that’s fine. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not fully in the loop with my best friend anymore. Maybe that’s how it should be.

“Actually,” I add, “can we do this again in maybe an hour? I’d love for her to get the full effect too.”

I can only imagine how excited Ruby will be when they yell, “Surprise!” mostly because of how ridiculous it is that this isn’t a surprise at all. Ruby loves that kind of humor.

We jump on roller coaster after roller coaster while we wait. I hop on Bumblebee’s Flight with my hands in the air, Jolene next to me, whooping along. Lorelei sits in front of us with Emory. Quinn is with Landon. I’d bet Theo is somewhere in the park with Orson too. I can’t help but grin. This is how I imagined today, side by side with my beautiful partner and our closest friends.

But once I get off the ride, I check my phone for texts. I come up empty. My smile fades.

Where is she?

Jolene and I ride The Romping Meadow, hand in hand, watching the animatronics. I check my phone again, the bright light making me squint in the ride tunnel’s darkness. Jolene’s hand squeezes around mine. I give her a reassuring squeeze back, but she still eyes my phone until I put it back in my pocket.

We walk through the buffet line set up near the amphitheater picnic tables. Emory and Landon agree to see who can ride Bumblebee’s Flight the most times. Quinn is laughing at some joke Orson told her and Lorelei. Everyone is experiencing the night to the fullest, but I’m barely paying attention. My gut feels unsettled.

I look at my phone again. No texts. I check my watch. It’s almost an hour past when she should have arrived.

I feel the happiness start to flicker. Once turning bright like a light switch, it’s now suddenly clicked off.

She’s not here.

Ruby is not at our thirtieth birthday party.

“Ben, what’s wrong?”

I’m in line for The Beesting again—when did I get here?—and Jolene is beside me. Her hand is still clutching mine, but it’s tighter than it’s been all night. Almost painful.

“Earth to Ben,” she says, but it’s not sweet. It’s sharp and irritated, and she’s looking at me like she’s been calling my name for a while now.

“Hmm? Yeah?”

“You all right?”

I nod with a forced smile, but then my chest lurches like it’s detecting my lie. And Jolene’s eyebrows rise as if she can too.

All I can manage is, “She’d never miss our birthday.”

That was apparently the wrong sentiment because Jolene disentangles her hand from mine. I lift an eyebrow as she takes a step back.

“Our?” She crosses her arms. “You know you weren’t actually born on the same day, right?”

I can feel the tension coursing through her. There’s a twitch in the corner of her mouth. It’s an emotion that seems so familiar, but it’s also one I don’t have a name for.

Jealousy? Resentment?

Hatred?

Why is she being like this?

“Jolene, come on,” I say, the words sharper than I’d like them to be. “Ruby’s my best friend.”

She lets out a bitter, scoffing laugh. “Oh, and what does that make me, Ben?”

“Jolene,” I say, repeating her name like it might snap her out of whatever weird mood she’s in. But I can feel myself tensing up as well.

“Right,” she says, sucking in her cheek. And then she walks off.

“Jo …”

I swing a leg over the queue line ropes and run after her.

Jolene rushes across the midway with her fists clenched by her sides. I shuffle past Mrs. Stanley, Fred, and then Lorelei, who flashes me a worried expression.

I shake my head, as if to say, Don’t worry about us.

Lorelei’s bottom lip curls in anyway because she’s a smart woman and I don’t have to say something’s wrong for her to know.

I follow Jolene all the way to the front of the park, right near the Buzzy the Bear fountain, where water shoots up in spurts.

“Are you leaving?” I ask. “Don’t leave.”

She twists on her heel, her jaw grinding. Her eyes scan mine.

She shakes her head side to side. “No. Because you know what? I’d rather talk.”

My shoulders drop, and I nod, relief washing over me. I hate it when Jolene gets upset. It’s not common, but why does it seem less rare nowadays?

It’s just the wedding, I think. Just the stress.

I reach out to take her hand. “Okay, good. Let’s talk.”

My phone buzzes, and finally—finally—I see Ruby’s name.

But then I read her text.

While the park around us is still enjoying their night with blinking attraction lights and screaming laughter and a carefree pancake buffet, my heart instead slowly breaks.