Chosen Family Pt. 04

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Author’s Note:

This is part four of five. You should read the first three parts first.

Thanks so much to everybody who has commented and reached out with feedback. It really means a lot! As I continue growing as an author, it’s very helpful to know what works and doesn’t work in my writing, from as many perspectives as possible.

——————-

Brittany

Terry Pratchett was one of the greatest writers of all time. Brittany had read dozens of his Discworld books and loved them all, especially the whole Vimes arc. Somewhere in one of his books, she couldn’t quite remember which one, there was a quote about heights. The exact wording also escaped her memory, but the gist of it was something like: “fall from 40 feet or 40,000, you end up just as dead.” It made sense in her head. Nice and logical. The lower heights didn’t bother her too much, why should the higher ones?

But then she got a taste of big wall climbing.

Wallface wasn’t even that big in the scale of things, but after she and Ivy had made their way up past where the highest walls at the climbing gym would have ended, Brittany realized she was woefully unprepared for the psychological weight of all those hundreds of feet of empty air between her and the ground. She found herself tiring out quickly, and she couldn’t figure out why until Ivy pointed out that she was gripping the rock with all her strength, straining her muscles in an unconscious effort to cling on for dear life.

So, instead of working further up the wall, she and Ivy spent a chunk of that first morning doing essentially trust fall exercises. Not the kind where she was meant to learn to trust her climbing partner, though. Ivy wanted her to learn to trust the ropes. It was completely different than falling at the gym. She’d done that dozens of times already, and she thought she trusted the rope well enough. But the first time she deliberately let go of the rock and let herself fall into what felt like oblivion, Brittany was sure it was the end. Game over, well played, make better choices in the next life. The bottom fell out from her stomach and she screamed for all she was worth.

It was even worse because the belay system they were using here was different than at the indoor gym. She was used to top-rope, where the ropes went all the way to the top of the wall just like the name implied. For outdoor big walls like this one, that was impossible. The system they used instead was called trad climbing, or lead climbing, which apparently had distinctions, but she couldn’t keep them straight. The main differences fell to Ivy, as the one leading, to manage, but there was a big one Brittany noticed as soon as she let go of the wall. The ropes were a good deal more stretchy than the ones they used in the gym. It made sense, for the purpose, but it meant that she was in free fall for a terrifying second. If she’d messed up her harness and wasn’t hooked in, this was exactly what it would feel like!

But then, with a slight elastic slowing and a bit of a jerk, the ropes caught her harness, and she swung back into the wall, feet first as she’d been drilled for weeks to position herself. Just like the ropes caught her the next time, and the time after that, and every time until she slowly stopped being surprised by letting go and finding herself not dead.

It helped a lot, and she and Ivy made their slow way up Wallface. Ivy led the way, setting the ropes into anchors as she went while Brittany belayed her from below. Then they’d switch roles and Brittany would climb, unclamping the rope and collecting each anchor she passed while Ivy belayed from above. Up and up, one pitch at a time, taking breaks between each to relax on a ledge and rest their muscles.

That was another way this was different than indoor climbing. There were little ledges and outcroppings that made nice natural break spots for them both to sit and watch the world below them. Also, rain. Didn’t get that in the climbing gym.

Brittany sat next to Ivy on a ledge about two-thirds up the wall. Something like five hundred feet up the vertical cliff, which would make the distant valley more than three thousand feet down below their dangling bare feet. They’d both taken their climbing shoes off, and the cool water on their skin there felt amazing. It turned out, one of the hardest things about big wall climbing was tolerating the discomfort of wearing climbing shoes all day.

They’d stopped for lunch, and fortunately Ivy kept a poncho big enough to drape over both of them in the bag they pulleyed up the ropes, but the direction of the wind and the shape of Wallface kept them mostly fine without it. Which was to say, they were both soaked, but it was nice after the heat and they weren’t getting pelted. They watched the rain fall over the landscape, distant trees swaying in the wind, water coming down in sheets, making the greens of the leaves and greys of stone seem sharper, even as the clouds and fog made everything less distinct. Up above, the dripping sound of water coming down the rocks merged with the very soft kırşehir escort hum of rain in the forest far below.

It was beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. Brittany kept taking deep breaths in, loving the fresh, earthily damp smell that felt like it was filling her up with life.

“The Adirondacks are famous for sudden downpours like this,” Ivy murmured, her voice sounding as mesmerized as Brittany felt.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I bet it’ll be sunny again in 20 minutes.”

Brittany took another deep breath through her nose. “Almost seems a shame.”

“Yeah.”

They both fell silent again, except for the occasional sound of bites being taken out of sandwiches. It wasn’t exactly the deepest conversation she’d ever had, but it fit. Sitting there next to Ivy on this tiny ledge, back against the rock and legs dangling out into open air, made the experience seem complete. Brittany had experienced a lot of different kinds of relationships before, but climbing partner was a new one. It felt different than any other kind of friendship she’d built around shared hobbies. More intimate, with a ton more trust. How many other hobbies involved literally holding somebody’s life in your hands on the end of a rope?

This route up Wallface was called The Diagonal, and it was rated 5 point 8 for difficulty. Like the bouldering difficulty scale, which denoted all its ratings starting with a letter ‘V’, which nobody knew the meaning of, nobody seemed to know why all rope climbing ratings started with a 5. The 5 was irrelevant. The easiest rating was a 5 point 1, and expert difficulties were anything beyond 5 point 12. That’s right, it didn’t even follow a proper decimal system, where 5.12 would be harder than 5.1 and easier than 5.2. That would be too easy to understand. Anyway, depending who you asked, 5 point 8 fell somewhere in the range of high level beginner or low level intermediate.

Normally, something that difficult would be a bad choice for a newbie like Brittany’s first adventure on a big wall. However, The Diagonal had that rating mostly because of its height, not its technical difficulty. Sure, there were a few difficult technical stretches, but most of it was actually pretty beginner friendly. It was just really long, and most beginners trying to do it in one day would get tired well before the top.

Which was no problem for them, because they could take multiple days! It was easy to rappel down the ropes to their lean-to when it got dark, then climb the ropes again the next day to where they’d left off. It just meant Ivy had to play babysitter for hour upon hour, which Brittany kept telling her she didn’t have to do, and she’d be happy to just belay her on one of the harder sections the others were all practicing on, but Ivy was having none of it. She wanted to be a part of Brittany’s first summit, and honestly, Brittany kind of loved her for it.

This was her second day, after a bunch of the first one had been spent hiking over Mount Marshall to their second campsite, and then learning to trust the ropes. At this pace, she should hit the top well before sundown. But if she didn’t? Whatever, there was always tomorrow. No rush, all the time in the world to enjoy the journey and the stops along the way.

“Ivy?”

“Hmm?”

“This is fucking awesome.”

Ivy turned to her, showing Brittany her own wide smile mirrored back at her. “It really is, isn’t it?”

“I can see why you’re all addicted to trips like this. Before we left, I had no idea what we were going to do to fill all the time for a week with no internet.”

Ivy laughed. “But now you understand why I never feel the need to stuff a book into this bag?” She pat the pulley bag between them.

“Something like that,” Brittany agreed, joining Ivy’s laugh.

“Wait until we get to the top and have dinner watching the sunset.” Ivy shifted, stretching her shoulders beneath their shared poncho and letting a bit of water cascade over her face. Far from dampening her spirit, it made her laugh again. “Damn!” Ivy was very pretty when she laughed, and the rain wetting her hair caused it to stick to her face in a way that framed her very nicely.

“I’m just happy we’re able to take it slow like this.” Brittany held up her hands, free now she’d finished her sandwich, and let the rain fall onto them. It felt amazing, soothing her scrapes and cooling against her bruises. She didn’t have all the layers of callouses Ivy’s hands did quite yet, but they were starting to develop! Along with the notches the rocks had made in her nails and everything else, they felt like badges of honor.

“Yeah, it’s great when we have time to spare. Sadly, won’t be the case up on El Cap. You’ll be there, right?”

Brittany’s heart leapt in her chest. “Well, I hadn’t been invited…” She trailed off as Ivy cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Is that your diplomatic way of saying you’d rather not, or did you really think you needed an invitation?”

“Um, you guys only met me like a month and a half ago or something. Assuming I’d be malatya escort invited to the biggest thing you’ve been planning for a year would be pretty presumptuous.”

Ivy chuckled and lay a friendly arm around Brittany’s shoulders. “You’ve got a bit to learn about being climbing partners. Where I climb, you climb too.”

Brittany tried not to let her excitement give her a heart attack, but it was hard! “Well then, hell yeah, I’ll be there!” She said, then her brain caught up with what she’d just agreed to. “Wait, you mean just coming with you to Yosemite, right? I’m nowhere near strong enough yet to climb El Capitan!”

“You’ll be able to do some of the pitches, but yeah, there’ll be a lot where you’ll have to follow me up the ropes. Is that alright with you? Kidding aside, I totally get it if you’re not that into just being a passenger and belaying me for three days straight.”

Was that alright with her? It was exactly what she’d been hoping for! “That sounds amazing. I’d honestly love it,” Brittany said, then forced herself to ask the obvious question given what she herself had just said about the timeframe. “Ivy? What did I do to deserve all this?”

Again, the cocked eyebrow. “This?”

“You know, you being willing to climb with me despite me being a total newbie and, like, not even in the same league as you?”

Ivy put the eyebrow down to regard her with a serious look in her eye. “Climbing skill is just practice and experience. That part is easy,” she said, then her eyes darted aside for a second to Brittany’s beaten-up hands, and a little of her serious expression softened. “Well, maybe not easy, but it’s teachable is the point. Your enthusiasm, and loving all this?” She waved around their rain-soaked ledge. “We’re stuck on a tiny bit of rock getting our asses soaked. Most people would label this embracing the suck, but not you. You see the beauty in it. You’re the kind of person who can imagine belaying me up El Capitan for two or three days continuously, helping me haul gear and climbing up ropes, and say it sounds amazing. There’s no amount of training that can teach a climbing partner that.”

Brittany hadn’t been expecting a satisfying answer. She’d been expecting some kind of deflection, or Ivy to laugh it off and say it was her charming personality or some shit like that. This was… wow. So incredibly validating! “Well, I guess I’ll have to schedule some more vacation days, then.”

——————-

Rose

Brittany’s triumphant yell as the sun was starting to set was so loud, it reached their group several routes over. They all exchanged a knowing look.

“You always remember your first time,” Olivia said, her voice filled with innuendo.

Rose rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure Ivy isn’t about to jump on her that fast.”

“Why not? I did, and she’s a ton of fun.”

“Proud of you, Liv,” Alex said, then tossed Olivia’s playfulness back at her. “You remember our first time?”

Olivia gave her double entendre a friendly shoulder bump, then ignored it and answered, “Obviously! The Gunks. Fuck, we were such idiots back then.”

Rose grinned. “You say that like we’re any different now.”

“Fair. But at least now we know to stay away from that tourist trap. We’ve got this whole damn wall to ourselves, and it’s fantastic.”

The Shawangunk Mountains, or just The Gunks for short, were great climbing. There were a ton of routes with a pretty wide range of difficulties, from beginner friendly to master level. However, they were in the eastern Catskills, an hour north of New York City, which made them often quite crowded.

“Can either of you see them?” Olivia asked, looking back towards the source of Brittany’s celebration. “I wish we were there to congratulate Brittany.”

Rose’s hands worked automatically, belaying Hazel on her way to join them here at the top. “I do too, but Ivy wanted it this way, and I think it’s romantic.”

“Sunset dinner on top of a mountain?” Alex sighed, dreamily. “Yeah, Ivy’s on to something there. Why haven’t any of us ever brought a date up here?”

“Because none of us have managed to find someone crazy enough to follow us here?” Olivia suggested, and Rose smiled to herself. Would Lydia enjoy this? Her brand of crazy was a little different, but maybe it would transfer over like Rose’s own? She really should have invited her. If only she wasn’t such a coward.

“Brittany isn’t Ivy’s date,” Rose told them. “At least, not yet. I think Ivy wants to just keep bonding with her and see where things go.”

“Speaking of which,” Alex said just as Hazel was clambering over the lip. “How did Lydia like your little present?”

Rose felt herself coloring, not because of the erotic pictures, but because of the answer she was about to give. “I–um…”

Alex raised an eyebrow, expectantly.

“She hasn’t checked yet,” Olivia supplied for her.

The eyebrow went up even further, and Hazel giggled. “But you sent them yesterday morning!” Alex exclaimed. “You’ve been up high enough plenty of times niğde escort to get reception.”

“I kind of… you know… want to draw it out a little.”

“Draw what out?”

“The anticipation!”

“Dude, you have a problem.”

“That’s what I keep telling her!” Olivia said, at the same time as Hazel joined the conversation.

“I think it’s cute.”

“You think everything is cute,” Alex countered. “Rose, give me your phone, I’m checking for you.”

Rose unfastened a carabiner from her harness and passed the stuff sack it had been securing to Alex, then went to help Hazel with the kick-hoist that would bring their dinner supplies up to them. It was a good distraction from Alex’s reactions to what must have been a lot of text from Lydia. Rose smiled, feeling the anticipation inside her build even higher. She would have checked soon anyway. Couldn’t leave Lydia unread for too long, even if they were camping. Still, that warm feeling of having a friendly message waiting for her was so nice. Why not make it last?

“Rose! Lydia got a DJ gig at a club in NYC in a few weeks! You’re inviting us, right?”

Rose gasped, suddenly so excited she almost forgot to lock the grigri, which would have let their food plummet to the bottom. “She what!?!”

“She–” But Rose had already snatched her phone back and was reading for herself. “Oh, now you want to read your texts!?! Make up your mind, bitch!”

Rose muttered an apology, her eyes leaping across her phone screen. Over Lydia’s all caps expletives reacting to her pictures – she’d come back to those soon – on to Lydia’s big news. She’d applied for a bunch of amateur DJ nights, and one of them had liked her! Rose had never heard of House Of Yes, but apparently it was in New York City and Lydia playing there was a big deal. Even if she would be one of five DJs showing off their stuff that night.

Rose realized she was breathing even faster than she’d been while climbing. Her thumbs flew across the screen, frantically typing in her own caps-locked incoherence that mirrored Lydia’s own, and barely held herself back from hitting send long enough to get her sisters’ feedback.

“Can we just pause to appreciate that this is yet another fucking EDM event you’ll be dragging my ass to,” Olivia groaned. “I swear, the things I do for you, Rose.”

“Lydia loved your pictures!” Rose said, scrolling up in the conversation and showing Olivia, who wasn’t impressed.

“She loved your tits and ass,” Olivia countered. “Anybody with half a brain couldn’t fail to make you look good on camera.” Though, as she kept reading, a grin slowly spread across her face. “Looks like I did manage to trick her into thinking you were using the selfie stick! Ha! Me, 1, Lydia, 0.”

“When is this happening,” Hazel asked. “Is it the kind of thing I can bring Mary to?”

“I don’t see why not,” Rose said, re-reading everything Lydia had sent, a good deal calmer this time, and letting the golden glow inside herself settle.

“Great! I’ll tell her. Oh! And Ivy and Brittany will love it too!”

“At least somebody will be happy,” Olivia muttered, darkly, and Alex tossed a sisterly arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t worry, Liv! I’ll get you so drunk you’ll forget you hate EDM.”

“You better be serious.”

“I would never joke about something so important!”

“Fine then, I’ll join. But I reserve the right to bitch about it the whole drive down.”

“If there’s a force on earth that can stop you doing that, please tell us all what it is.”

“Fuck yourself. Anyway, Rose,” Olivia said, turning to her. “You were thinking of talking to her after we get back, right?”

Olivia’s expression shifting downward fast mirrored Rose’s own apprehension at the subject being brought up. After all, if things with Lydia went badly, Olivia would have to be the one to put her back together, yet again. “Yeah. I was hoping she’d join us climbing or next game night or something, so before that?”

Olivia’s bearing didn’t improve, even as she tried to be encouraging. “It’ll be fine, it doesn’t have to be your whole life story or anything. Just, ya know, enough to show you trust her.”

“Yeah,” Rose agreed, then admitted, “I know, but I haven’t figured out what I’ll say yet.”

“It’ll come to you,” Alex said, genuinely brightly. “We’ve still got tons of time here before we have to go back to the real world. It’s like the old saying goes, never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the next day.”

Olivia chuckled and Hazel laughed. “If anybody at work asks, I’m telling them I’ve never met you,” she said.

The good news for Rose was that Alex was half right. The rest of their camping adventure was everything she could have wanted and more. The bad news was that she never did figure out exactly what to say to open up to Lydia.

Olivia tried her best to help, making suggestions and talking through what Rose wanted, but that was something else that was strange. Olivia was clearly trying to hide it, and she was doing a pretty good job, but every time she brought Lydia up, her mood took a downward spike. Like talking about Lydia pained her. Did she not like her? But that didn’t make sense. Olivia would have said something ages ago. More likely she didn’t like bringing up painful topics for Rose, even if she knew it was good for her in a therapeutic way.

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