Free Together Forever by Kate Bennie

group that didn’t know how to snowboard.

“Come on Jay,” I said and basically started dragging him towards the other side.

“Wait, my friends,” Jay said looking back at them.

“We’ll talk about that,” I smirked and quickly strapped on and dragged him towards the other lift that would take us higher.

“Lago, you have a guest?” one of the attendants smiled at me.

“Yeah, let us through?”

“Go ahead.”

We inched our way forward and got on the lift. “Explain.” I demanded making myself comfortable.

“What do you mean?”

“Those. They aren’t your friends,” I told him.

“They are.”

“What happened to you and Kate ?”

“Nothing,” he shrugged.

“Why isn’t she here?” I asked.

“Because she’s not part of the team.”

“Since when did you leave her?” I asked him. He stared at me, and shook his head.

“You don’t know the story, Lago,” he sneered.

“Enlighten me,” I told him.

“Later.”

“No, right now, there’s a long way to go.”

“No there isn’t, only 2 minutes, tops,” he rolled his eyes.

I took out the walkie-talkie from my pocket and pressed it. “Can you stop the lift? 2 minutes, please.” I said and immediately, it stopped. “Talk,” I demanded.

He sighed and pinched his nose bridge. “Fine, okay, so when I moved to Stanford, there’s this rule with no PDA, so we decided to keep our relationship a secret,” he shrugged.

“And you decide to completely ignore her?”

“No, I don’t ignore her. We’re both just busy.”

“Busy? And when she calls you for dinner, you turn her down and go with your ”friends” ?”

“I have a reputation to put up.”

“Is it more important than Lyn that you don’t care about her anymore?”

“I do.”

“Why do you not treat her right?”

“I haven’t done anything wrong, God Damn it!”

“And she doesn’t know that you’re here?”

“She does. She’s the one that I was talking to on the lift.”

“Why did it seem that you weren't interested in talking to her?”

“Again, I have a reputation to put up.”

“If they’re you’re friends, they wouldn’t care.” That shut him up.

“Can we not right now? Let’s ride,” he said and we got off the lift.

A few runs later, I heard voices through my walkie talkie. “Lago?” it said. I grabbed it and looked around. Jay was a few feet in front of me.

“Copy,” I said.

“Where’re you?” It was Jack.

“Towards the end of Big Bonanza.”

“Too late to get to the badlands terrain park?”

“No.”

“Well, hurry up because Kate is about to get herself in some deep shit.”

“What do you mean?!”

“Just hurry your ass over here,” he mumbled and I went into code red.

“Jay! Hurry up and follow me,” I said and dodging everyone - going as fast as I can, cutting through the trees and went towards the park.

“What’s up man?” Jay asked from behind.

“Just shut up.” I mumbled and went towards Jack. “What happened?”

“She’s pushing herself,” he said worriedly.

“And?”

“She hit her stomach on a rail, she landed on her wrist – she doesn’t have her wrist guard on and did involuntary back flips already. She doesn’t look like she’s stopping anytime soon.”

“Fuck,” I mumbled.

“Hey, what’s happening?” Jay asked.

“Jay! What the fuck are you doing here, man?” Jack asked giving him a man hug .

“Trip,” he said and Jack nodded.

“Take him,” I said to Jack and he merely nodded. I sighed and sped down to the bottom of the park where Kate was on her way back up again. I grabbed her.

“What Jack? I said I’m fine,” she sighed and turned towards me. “Oh hey, Lago.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged.

“Do you want me to call your brother?”

“No,” she said right away.

“Then better talk to me or John , if not, Tristan will be here in 45 minutes,” I threatened.

“Fine, I