Josh.mp4 - 5. Going to the cliffs

Chapter 4. Going to the cliffs

At last, I get to the Art Design school. I saw Leo driving by earlier, but he was with his girlfriend so he didn't stop and only waved at me as they passed. I haven't really hung out with any of the guys since I heard about Nathan, but thankfully they haven't called me out on it yet. It's funny, though. At the beginning of the year I used to hang out with them all the time and I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be part of their group. Now I'm not so sure. It’s also kind of weird, now that we graduated and we stopped being an official part of the soccer team. Everybody’s sort of drifting apart. I know that some of them are thinking about going off to college, but most are staying here. As for me, I'm not so sure. I might go back to Washington like my mother wants me to, or I might do something else. I’ve told Kate I have college plans since that’s what she wants to hear, but I haven’t applied to anywhere yet. In fact, the closest I've ever come to being in a university is this Art Design school I used to visit with Nathan.

I go inside the building, thankful for the fact that it's cooler inside than out. The school is small, only about ten classrooms plus two or three really big lecture halls. They do have impressive computer equipment, though, particularly in the basement. Nathan showed me around the very first time I came here with him. He took video editing classes here, and would use their more powerful computers when he wanted to put his videos together and format them and ‘render’ them, whatever that is.

I haven't been in here for weeks, but the guy at the reception recognizes me and lets me in. As I pass, I give him a quick glance and see that he has remembered from where he knows me and whom I would usually come with. And what just happened to that someone. I hurry up intentionally before he can ask me anything about Nathan. I'm not in the mood to talk.

I go down the hall and to the left, then down a flight of stairs to the basement. I'm lucky; it's empty. Three rows of impressive-looking computers and gigantic monitors line the room, under the surprisingly warm glow of the light fixture array one of the art students designed. The walls on either side are covered in multicolored murals and there's even one weird sculpture right in the middle which is basically just a bunch of twisted metal. I remember that Nathan once said that the sculpture made him think of flight. I really don't see how; most contemporary art is just random strangeness to me. Nathan used to say that I was hopeless when it came to art.

I stop. What's wrong with me? Ever since the hospital, everything reminds me of him. I don't like it, because every single time I remember him I feel a stab of guilt that is only growing stronger as I see the extent of the finality of what Nathan has done. He's never going to come back to the basement again, for example. It makes me feel more like a thief for coming here with my stolen memory card, which is the only reason I came in the first place.

Whatever. I got this far, I might as well just get it over with. I sit down at the computer at the very end of the room, which had been Nathan's usual working spot. I turn it on and use Nathan's password to access his account. It takes a little while, but soon the computer is completely unlocked and ready for me to work. I get started right away at finding out whatever is in the card, but as soon as I put it in a little error message tells me that one file in it is encrypted. I grin in spite of myself at yet another sign of Nathan’s excessive paranoia with his personal stuff. I click the little decrypt button, and the progress bar starts filling up slowly. While it works, I can't help browsing around in Nathan's folders stored on this computer. Rough copies of his videos are stored here, unfinished, and as I go through the different files I wonder if I should delete them. Probably.

There are a lot of folders. Most of them have dates on them, which correspond to Nathan's vlog entries. All of those are extremely unfunny and boring; I know because he made me watch a couple of them. It's mostly rants about stuff he doesn't like, which he tried uploading to his channel but without success in terms of video acceptance. They're all there, though. I'm slightly surprised that he kept a copy of everything here in this hard drive, given the fact that it's basically like leaving your own diary out for somebody else to find. Although when I think about it, you would have needed Nathan’s password to get to the files in the first place, and I was the only person who knew it apart from him. I select them all and delete them quickly. I know Nathan would not have wanted anybody else to see them.

There are other folders set up as batches of clips which are the raw materials Nathan would use when putting his videos together. I click on the first one, intending to drag it straight into the recycle bin, but then I stop. This one’s named ‘crazycliffcat.mp4’, and I smile when I remember the exact day this was shot. I glance quickly at the progress bar on the decryption for the mystery file on the memory card; it still has more than halfway to go. I double-click on the cat video, wanting to watch it a final time before I delete it for good.

I had been working out that day in the afternoon, using my dad’s mini-gym which he had set up in our basement. There wasn't much. It was just a treadmill, three sets of barbells, some free weights, a bench and two heavy bars. I liked it, though, especially since it had sort of become my place now that my dad had given up on trying to get in shape again. It was a good spot to unwind after a day at school, and sometimes I even worked out for a little bit after soccer practice even if I was tired. I felt like I could think in there, alone, without anybody disturbing me unexpectedly.

So when Nathan walked in out of nowhere that day, I was so surprised that I just stood there, holding the heavy dumbbells in my hands, one of them lifted halfway up.

"I'm going filming to the cliffs," he said casually. "Since you've been here for less than a month I thought you might want to come along and see it for yourself. It's a pretty cool place, and there's usually nobody there. You in?"

I stared. "What?"

Nathan walked towards the treadmill, his eyes roaming around the room.

"This is pretty cool," he said. "You set it up yourself?"

"That was my dad, actually. How—"

"You can actually lift these?" he asked me, lifting one of the big 40-pound barbell discs.

"Yeah. For bench presses. They're my favorite exercise."

"How much can you press?"

"About 150."

Nathan nodded appreciatively. He looked at me and smiled. "It shows."

"How did you get in here?" I blurted. "Did my mom let you in?"

"The door was open. And I didn't see you mother, but I supposed you would be back from school by now so I broke in."

He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Dude," I said. "Next time call me or text me or something. It's kind of creepy that you show up at my house like that."

Nathan shrugged. He walked to the bench, which was loaded with weights. He grabbed one of the heavy discs with both hands and slid it out of the bar.

"Wow. This is really heavy."

"That's kind of the point."

Nathan grinned. "Okay, okay. Right. And I won't barge in again, promise. The afternoon is pretty nice, though, and it's just windy enough for there to be some cool waves over at the cliffs. If we want to check it out before it gets dark, we should probably get going."

"How far away is this place?"

"Maybe half an hour of walking. It will be worth it, though. Trust me."

"I don't know."

"Do you have anything better to do?" Nathan asked me, setting the weight on the floor.

"Um…"

"Great. Come on, Josh. Let's go."

I thought about telling Nathan to get lost, but to be honest I was kind of bored and he had made me curious. "All right. Just let me get a jacket."

"Cool. See you outside."

Nathan already had an actual camera out by the time I came out, no phone this time. He was intently filming the sky, but when he heard me coming he whipped it around to focus on me.

"And this is Josh, everyone. Josh, say hi to my viewers."

I reached for the camera, blocking the lens. "Oh, no. You're not dragging me into one of your videos."

Nathan retreated, keeping the camera out of my reach and still filming me. "Why not?"

"Because! Just… go back to filming clouds, or whatever you were doing."

Surprisingly, Nathan listened to me. He put the camera away and sent, "All right. Let's get going."

Once we were out and about, walking down the street, it suddenly occurred to me that this was probably a very stupid thing to do. What if somebody saw me? With him? I started looking around apprehensively, ready to try and spot any the guys from school before they saw me. I would never live it down if they saw me hanging out with Nathan. So far I had been lucky, since in the two weeks or so after I had made it into the team I had not run into Nathan at school, not even once. I had secretly been relieved after the first few days, even if I did feel a bit like an asshole about it. Now, though, the fears came back. What the hell had I been thinking?

I turned to look behind us. Nobody, by car, or walking. So far so good.

"I know a shortcut," Nathan announced suddenly, turning left into a much smaller street. "Come on. I want to have at least two hours of sunlight for filming when we get there. If we go this way, we don't have to go through town and we'll get there faster."

"Sounds good to me," I said, extremely relieved to take a less exposed route. We were indeed walking northwest, straight towards the coast. I hadn't walked this way before, but there weren’t many houses around after ten minutes or so. As soon as I saw that the probability of somebody seeing us was growing slimmer and slimmer, I began to relax. When we left the town altogether I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

We walked for quite a bit, not really saying anything. I had never come this way before and I was busy looking around and examining our surroundings. The terrain was rising gently the more we walked away from town, going up in a steady slope. The ground on either side was covered with tall wheat-like plants growing in every direction. I didn't know what they were, but they swayed gently in the wind and blanketed the entire landscape in browns and golds. Far to the right inland there was a golf course I had heard of, clearly visible with its bright green grass and the barrier of trees that bordered it on three sides. A single great strip of road linked it to the town, now behind us. I saw a lonely car driving up to the resort but other than that there were no signs of people anywhere.

We were following a path that led steadily northwest. It was barely large enough for a car, and judging from the few footprints and bicycle tracks I saw here and there in the dirt I could tell people did not usually drive up here. It was strangely quiet, as well, with the loudest noises being the sounds Nathan and I made as we walked. There was a bit of a breeze blowing intermittently, which was good because now that I was walking I was starting to get hot under the sun. The breeze was cool and it smelled slightly of the sea. I knew that we were very close to the coast, but the way the land rose blocked sight of the ocean for the moment and I couldn’t see it. There were no houses around, no buildings of any kind. In fact, we walked for about half an hour before the slope started to level up and I finally saw a structure not far ahead.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing.

"Oh, that's the shack," Nathan told me.

"The shack?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea what it's called. It's abandoned, and pretty much falling down as you can see. I've been in there a few times filming stuff, but it's not very interesting. The roof is caved in over there, and I think there was a fire or something because inside everything is black and covered with ash. It's a good place to get good shots, though, of the sort I'm going to need for my next video. We’ll be stopping there for a little bit."

"What’s your next video going to be?" I asked.

"Nothing big. I want to do something with clouds."

"Clouds?"

"Yeah," Nathan said. "I want to get shots of clouds moving through the sky. I'm going to make another compilation video, synch the different shots to some atmospheric tracks I have. I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but you'd be surprised at how many views those kinds of videos get. They were great as a hook to get more people to look at the other stuff in my channel. And, of course, we are also looking for the cat."

"What do you mean?"

Nathan pointed at the shack, which was much closer now. A smaller path branched off from the larger one and we followed it, stepping through the tall grass. The new path led straight to the door of the shack.

"Remember the cat I was chasing?" he said.

"Yes."

"I've seen him around here, probably twice. I think there are mice in the shack or something and he comes to hunt them. I want to get some footage of him if I can; doesn't matter if I have to stalk him until it gets dark. You never know when you're going to get a good shot."

"Okay," I said. "But what about the cliffs? That sounds like a cool place to visit."

Nathan pointed left. "Over there. We're going, but I have to wait until sunset. I want to film the sun setting across the ocean and hopefully some clouds to go along with the scene. But before we do that you're going to do something for me."

"What?"

Nathan nodded in the direction of the shack. "In there. There's a basement, or something like that underground, only I can't reach it. One of the beams from the roof fell and landed right on the trap door that leads down. I can't move it on my own, so I thought I'd tell you to come along so you can help me. I want to see what's under there. Been dying to know, ever since I found this place."

"What do you think is in there?"

"I don't know. Could be nothing. But it could also be something interesting, something to document in a video. I'm going to be the first person in however many years ago this fire happened to take a look inside the basement. This will be great content for the channel."

"You're really serious about the whole YouTube thing, aren't you?"

Nathan nodded. "Yeah. I want to make it, Josh. I know I have the talent to film good stuff. I just have to find out ways for people to realize that as well. For that I need interesting content, stuff nobody has done before; stuff that's funny or interesting and that will appeal to as many people as possible.”

“Right.”

We walked up to the shack. Up close it was easier to see that the building was badly damaged. It didn’t look like it was falling down or anything, but all the windows were gone along with a chunk of roof, and the front door hung awkwardly from its hinges. Weeds had crept all the way up to the shack, and there was a half-burnt, half-rusted bike lying on the ground nearby.

"Let's go in," Nathan said.

He pushed the door open and a small shower of dirt fell over him from the top of the rickety structure. I followed, curious. The inside was disappointing.

"Man, this place is a dump," I commented, looking around.

"There's the beam," Nathan told me, pointing to the far corner of the single room. There was a lot of debris in the area, since that had been where the roof had caved in. A large wooden beam lay sideways over the remnants of a crushed table and what might have been a chair. The beam was very thick; no wonder Nathan hadn't been able to lift it on his own.

"You want me to lift that?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he answered. He was fiddling with his camera, filming in my general direction.

"And you want to film me lifting it?"

Nathan shrugged. "Pretty much. What if there’s something awesome down there? I want to document it."

“Right. I'm not doing this on my own."

"Come on, Josh, try. If it's too heavy, I'll help."

“No way.”

“Oh, come on. You were lifting weights for nothing when I found you. This time you can lift to actually accomplish something.”

“Uh…”

“Come on!”

"…Okay. But it better be worth it."

I walked over to the fallen beam and pushed some stuff around. I could see that Nathan had already tried moving the thing unsuccessfully, judging by the many scrape marks on the wood. When I looked closer, I saw that there was indeed something that looked like a trapdoor underneath all the dirt and ash.

"Stop looking around and do it," Nathan demanded.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, Nathan. I'm trying to find an angle."

I finally grabbed one of the edges of the beam and gave it a hard shove. There was a creak, but the thing did not move. I did it again. No luck. I decided to switch sides, trying to push it off balance here and there, but all I got for my efforts was dirt and ash on my clothes and on my hands. Five minutes later I gave up.

"Dude," I said. "This thing’s too heavy. Stop filming everything and help me move it."

"Okay," he agreed. I was mildly surprised that he didn't protest.

"Cool."

Nathan set his camera aside carefully on a shelf that had escaped the worst of the fire. "What do I do?"

I pointed to one of the sides of the rectangular beam. "Push over there. I’ll push from here. On the count of three, we both give it everything we got, okay?"

"All right. Ready."

I nodded. "One, two, three!"

We pushed. The beam groaned, and something cracked threateningly up in the ceiling. The beam shifted underneath us and my feet were beginning to slide on the ash-covered floor when the thing finally started moving in a useful direction. I put more force into the push, and felt Nathan doing the same. The beam shifted ever so slowly, inch by inch, while bits of dirt rained down on us from above. Finally, when we were almost done, there was a loud snap and the beam suddenly jerked free of whatever it was that had been trapping it. We moved it quickly of the way then, freeing the access to the trapdoor underneath us.

"Yeah!" Nathan celebrated, letting go. I stopped as well; I was already sweating.

"Let's open that thing," I grumbled.

"Not yet. Let me set up the camera."

I ignored him. Now I was even more curious, so I knelt down and looked for a way to open the trap door. I found a handle soon enough, and I pulled.

"Wait!" Nathan said. "Dammit, Josh!"

The trap door opened easily, smoothly. A strong smell of damp and something foul drifted out as soon as the opening was big enough. It was dark down there, and even with the light from outside I could not really see.

"There's nothing here," I announced, opening the trap door wider. "I can't—"

Something large and black streaked out of the hole, straight at me.

"Whoa!" I yelled in surprise, dropping the trap door. The thing brushed against my leg, and a split second later a larger furry something exploded out of the hole in pursuit. "Holy shit!"

The trap door fell closed with a loud bang, lifting up a cloud of dust and ashes. I fell back on my butt desperately trying to back away from the hole. As I hit the ground, I landed on a rotten piece of wood that splintered under my weight with a spectacular crack. It hurt. Then there was silence for maybe a split second before Nathan began to roar with laughter.

"That was amazing!" he cried, laughing his head off. "Oh, man! You should've seen your face!"

I stood up slowly, brushing dirt from my jeans. Nathan had the camera in his hands again, and was happily filming everything.

"What the hell was that?" I asked him.

I had to wait for him to finish laughing before he answered. "The cat chasing something, probably a mouse. Or a rat. That was awesome! ‘Holy shit!’" he pantomimed, and started laughing again.

"Give me the camera," I said, snatching it off his hands. I stopped the recording and then played the file back. Nathan leaned forward to see.

It was a short clip, but even I had to admit it was funny. First you could see me opening the trap door. Then the rat came out, and a split second later the damn cat I had seen that first time in the parking lot. I yelled, fell on my ass, and the animals disappeared. Then I stood up and reached for the camera looking embarrassed and annoyed.

I handed the camera back to Nathan. "You're not uploading that."

He grinned. "Oh, yes. This is failblog material right here. It was priceless!"

"Don't."

"Why not, Josh? It's funny, nobody got hurt, and you didn't scream like a girl, which is a big plus."

"You're an asshole, Nathan, you knew that?"

He flicked the camera on and started recording again. "Come on, we need to see what's inside."

"Okay. But now you lift it."

As it turned out, there was nothing in there except for a dead rat and lots of burnt-out garbage. It was some kind of a basement, or had been, but now it was just a dark hole. It wasn't very exciting, so we left it and stepped back outside the shack after a few minutes.

"Well, that was a waste of time," I said.

"I don't know," Nathan told me. "The basement is a pretty good hiding place if you need to get away from people."

"If you don't mind dead rats. And that crazy cat from hell."

Nathan chuckled. "Come on. I promised to show you the cliffs and we still got time. I can do my cloud filming there."

"Finally."

We headed off in the direction of the unseen ocean, over by where the sun was beginning to descend in the sky. The cool breeze had picked up, making the grass sway in waves all around us. It was really peaceful out here and I found myself enjoying the walk.

"I wonder what makes something funny," Nathan said eventually.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

Nathan lifted his camera slightly. "This clip I just filmed of your best moment ever. It's funny, right? I mean, if you were a stranger who saw it on the Internet, would you laugh?"

"Sure. If it wasn’t me."

"But why? Have you ever thought about it, Josh?"

"Because it's funny?"

Nathan sighed. "But why is it funny?"

"I don't know. It just is."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I have been analyzing some of the most popular videos going around, trying to understand exactly what makes them funny. It's complicated, I think. The most I’ve been able to decipher is that most funny videos have to do with situations that could have been dangerous except they aren't, or where people are hurt or scared but not a lot. I think this kind of funny stuff might be something like a defense mechanism in our brains, a way to process minor events in everyday life that might generate stress otherwise. Like an evolutionary adaptation or something."

"Um… I'm not sure I follow."

Nathan looked at me. "An example. You're watching a video of skateboarder who makes a jump and falls. Do you laugh?"

"Depends on how he falls," I answered.

Nathan nodded. "Exactly. If the guy just falls but it looks like it didn't hurt, it's not really funny. But what if the guy falls right into another skateboarder who was passing by really fast and they both go down?"

"Funnier. The more spectacular the better, I guess."

"Yeah, I know. But why? Or what about pranks? Why is it so funny to scare another person?"

I nodded. "Good point. It's not that fun when you are on the receiving end, but I love April Fool’s. This one time, my friends and I—"

"See?" Nathan interrupted. "It's the same things I've observed so far. I don't know why it's that way, but it is."

"Don't overanalyze it, Nathan. Just enjoy it."

"If I discover the building elements of ‘funny’, then I can create thousands and thousands of funny videos with no effort at all. My channel would take off, I would have millions of views, and I would be able to live off of advertising and merchandise."

"Dude, do you always have to go full-on creepy with whatever we’re discussing?" I asked.

Nathan did his changing-the-topic thing and nodded in the direction we were heading. "Here are the cliffs. Enjoy."

I walked over to the edge, curious, and got a good look all the way down to the sea.

"Wow. The view from here is pretty cool."

"Yeah," Nathan said. "Come on, we can walk all around the edge of this thing for half a mile or so. It gets tricky, but it's worth it."

"Okay," I agreed, and followed him.

The cliffs were very impressive. They seemed to come out of nowhere, beginning abruptly right at the edge of where the grass was growing. There followed a steep drop of about 100 feet straight down, and it looked awfully dangerous if you were to fall down there but the view was spectacular. There was no beach anywhere down at sea level and so the waves broke directly against the rocks and the cliff walls, sending sprays of foam upwards every now and then. The ocean spread in every direction, off into the distance. I didn't see any ships or boats among the waves and there was no sign of surfers anywhere either. I didn't know very much about surfing, but the lack of big waves and the lack of an accessible beach probably meant that this area was deserted most of the time.

The wind blew much more strongly out here, but not enough to be dangerous or anything. I found myself leaning far out as we walked, looking down the sheer cliff walls. I wondered if it would be possible to climb them. Then I wondered if I would have the guts to do it if somebody dared me. Probably not.

Nathan was busy filming stuff as he walked, and we didn't speak much until we got to the point where he wanted to stop. It was an unremarkable stretch of terrain, no different from the area we had been walking through.

"This is the place," Nathan announced.

"The place for what?" I said.

Nathan started assembling his tripod. "I'm going to take some shots of the sunset here. In the meantime, we can go down and explore the cave. I've always wanted to go and see what's down there."

"The cave? What are you talking about?"

"You'll see," was all he answered. He was busy for the next five minutes or so as he set his camera and tested the settings again and again. He asked me to stand directly in front of it, then further off facing it and then looking out to sea and then facing it again until he was satisfied with whatever it was he wanted to prepare. He left it filming.

"Now what?" I asked him.

He grinned. "I'll show you. Come this way."

We walked right to the edge of the cliff and there I saw a little path that I had not noticed before, a sort of winding zigzag that cut into the cliffs and started going down at a very steep angle. The path was only really big enough for one person, and it was strewn with little rocks all over the place. A couple of larger boulders blocked the way on two spots I could see. I walked to the very edge of where the path began and leaned out, looking straight down. If you hugged the path, then it was possible to go down in relative safety, but one false step and then you would fall a long way down into those sharp-looking rocks at the bottom where the waves were hitting.

That's when Nathan pushed me.

"Whoa! Shit!" I yelled, losing my balance. I tumbled forward, and since I was already partially over the lip of the cliff as I was looking down, I had no way to stop myself.

It all happened in an instant. I felt my heart go cold with fear, then my arms were flailing, and then I was going over the edge and straight down into nothing. Into death.

And then Nathan grabbed the back of my shirt and stopped me from falling.

He was laughing as he yanked me back from the edge, back to safety. "Oh, man!" he chuckled. "That was priceless! You should've heard the way you sounded!"

I rounded on him, knocked his hand away and pushed him back. "What the fuck, Nathan?"

He was still laughing. "It was a joke, man!"

"That wasn't fucking funny," I growled, still rattled from my almost-fall.

"It depends on where you were standing," Nathan commented. "Besides. I had you; you wouldn't have fallen. And I got it on tape!"

I glanced back at the camera, which was pointed straight at us.

"You gotta be kidding me," I said. "You did that so you could film it?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, why not? It'll be funny. You're funny, Josh. I already have two awesome clips of you freaking out in only one day. First the rat, and now this! I'm going to get so many views..."

"You're insane, dude."

I started to walk away. Nathan cut me off.

"Hey. Sorry. That was a bit over the line, I admit it.”

“A bit?”

“Okay, a lot.”

“I’m outta here.”

“Josh! Don’t go.”

“Why not? You almost pushed me over the fucking edge! Are you a psycho?”

Nathan managed to look contrite. “Sorry.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Right.”

“Hey, I apologized! Now you have to forgive me. Besides, we have to go down, man. The cave is down there and it's going to be awesome. And the sun won't set for a bit anyway. I have to stay here to get my shots and it would be great if I had some company. What do you say?"

“No way.”

“Come on!”

“I don’t think so.”

“Dude, please! We’re already here! Come on, don’t make me beg!”

"If… you better not do that again," I warned him.

"Hey, relax. Nobody got hurt, right?"

"Fuck. Okay. But this better be worth it."

"You bet. Let's go!"

We started going down the damn path. I went first, with Nathan right behind me. The going was steep, but not impossible, and actually once I started going down I realized that the way was actually far more manageable than it looked from higher up. It was slow going, though; the path was very irregular. The good part about it was that after about five minutes going down, we had a spectacular view of the cliff wall as seen from halfway up.

"Wow," Nathan said, and took out his phone. "This view is amazing. Let me take some pictures."

I stopped. "Okay. Might as well do it too."

I took out my own phone and took a couple pictures. The view was incredible, and here the sound of the ocean was much louder. This part of the wall was sheltered from the wind, though, and the waves were almost nonexistent. Looking down, I caught a glimpse of a large black hole right at the bottom of the cliff: the cave that Nathan had mentioned. It looked big, and it was set well above the waves. The path led straight down to it and it didn't look like we were that far away. I leaned forward a bit more check it out.

"Whoa!" Nathan yelled, and he pushed me again, hard.

"Fuck!" I cried out involuntarily, scrabbling for purchase with one hand. Nathan had grabbed my shirt like before, but I gave him a hard yank without meaning to and it unbalanced the both of us. For half a terrifying second, we teetered over the edge of the damn cliff. Then my foot found a grip and I dug it in. I let go of Nathan and grabbed the rock wall for dear life.

It took me a couple seconds to recover. Nathan was steady on his feet already and laughing again. "Sorry," he said, without the least bit of remorse. "Too tempting!"

I didn't say anything. I just started walking up and shouldered roughly past him on the narrow trail. Then I plowed on, back up.

"Josh!" he yelled. "Dude! Can't you take a joke? I was playing!"

I ignored him at first, but he started coming after me and I stopped when I was almost all the way to the top, glaring at him.

"That wasn't cool, Nathan. You got some issues, dude. I told you not to do that again."

"But I was just…"

"I'm leaving now. If you don't want my fist in your face, leave me the fuck alone. Got it?"

Nathan stared at me. I left.