YASMIN DAIHA - FRAYED ROPE

Ever since she was younger, Yasmin has always loved to write no matter what was going on. She was part of the journalism class back in high school and ever since then she has tried her best to pursue her career in writing whether it be with internships or working with small newspapers. 

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​Frayed Rope

   “Jason come on! We’re going to be late to meet the girls!” Mark yelled while scrambling to fill up the water bottles and get the snacks for the day. Like always, Jason overslept, making them late so mark had to get everything done himself. When Jason walked down he had blankets and hoodies as if they were spending the night there.
   “Um, Jason. It’s only a hike. What are you doing with all of that?”
   “You never know, we might need it. I just want to be prepared. I was searching for some hiking materials on the internet and people bring a bag with some rope, extra water, blankets, snacks, and a first aid kit just to be safe.”
    “We’re going to be gone 2 hours max. I doubt any of that will be needed.”
   “We’re a package deal. Either the bag comes with me or we don’t go at all.”
   “Okay Jason, whatever you say. Let’s go,” Mark sighed as he rolled his eyes.
   As they arrived to the girl’s house, Mackenzie and Lindsey were already outside waiting for them. By the furrowed brows and the blank expressions, they had been sitting there for a while.
   “Took you long enough, we were starting to age,” Mackenzie stated.
   They passed deserted roads and many different types of homes on their way to the hills. As usual teenagers, the music was on blast and it was like all their problems went away at that moment.
   As they arrived at the spot where they were going to begin their hike the temperature was an already excruciatingly hot 98 degrees with no wind. They all grabbed their stuff and started the long hike to the top of the mountain.
   Every couple of steps Lindsey would stop to take some pictures with her camera. She was a photography major and her camera was probably one of the most important things to her.
   “Bet you I can run to the top faster than you can” Mark said. Jason didn’t even reply, he just started to count.
   “1,2,3, go!”
   rushing up to the top where the girls already where Mark didn’t calculate how fast he was actually running and the friction that the shoes had with the ground so he slid and bumped into Lindsey sending her camera flying to a ledge bellow them.
   “Mark!” Lindsey panicked and started to run over to the tip of the hill. “You insipid idiot! That’s the only camera I have!”
   “Lindsey, oh my goodness. I am so sorry. We’ll get it back, I promise.” Mark said.
   “Mark, how are you going to climb down a 20 foot drop to get the camera?” Elizabeth said.
   “Easy, I have a rope. “Jason stated. “I told you we’d need it.”
   “Give me that,” Mark said under his breath as he snatched the rope and started to tie it to his hips.
   “Okay so you guys will hold the other end and slowly bring me down.” There were beads of sweat on his forehead and his hands started to shake as he started to slowly get on the edge of the hill. Slowly he was lowered as if they had all the time in the world, no one wanted to be responsible for the rope slipping out of their hands.
   Marks foot slipped and they all started to get pulled forward.
   “Hold it!” Jason strained.
   “Guys! “Mark yelled.
   They finally got their balance again but while the rope was sliding down a rock scraped it and now it was cutting in half. The three of them looked at each other.
  “We can’t tell Mark,” Jason whispered. “If he finds out he’s going to freak and it will only make things worse.”
   The two girls nodded their head and held on to dear life on the rope.
   “I’ve almost got it!” Mark said. The rope let out one more strand. “Woah. Guys hold it steady!”
   As Mark reached for the camera another strand let loose and he inched lower again. What is going on?  He didn’t let anything distract him and finally grabbed the camera.
   “Got It! Pull me up!” Mark felt the biggest smile on his face and put the camera strap over him.
   He felt himself being brought up and wanted to make it go quicker so he started pulling and climbing. With every tug, another strand let loose and as soon as he was about to reach the top, the rope broke in half. Mark tried to grab the edge but it didn’t work. Everyone started running to him as fast as they could. Jason lunged forward and at the last second grabbed Marks arm. Mackenzie and Lindsey held onto Jason as he pulled mark up.
   “Come on. Almost there!” Jason yelled and with one bug pull, Mark was up.
   No one said anything for a while. They all just laid there trying to process everything that had just happened.