The waves crashed onto the cliffs. He emerged from the icy water, taking in large gulps of air hungrily. Like he would never again breath in Oxygen. She watched him, perched on top of the cliff. She waited for him to pull another body up. He didn’t.

He had really dived.

She wanted so badly to jump in afterwards, to go down with him. He had needed her and she had failed him. Instead, she sat on the edge of the cliff. Toeing the fine line between being on top of the cliff and being down there, with a broken neck and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

She watched him fight the current, fight the waves. He had run after their friend, once he had tumbled over the edge of the cliff. Tumbled was not a fitting description, she deduced as Marcus attempted to swim, furiously, towards shore.

She wasn’t sure when she started crying. But she knew that at some point, the salt she was tasting was not from the ocean air. The cold wind quickly chilled her; but she no longer cared.

James had not come up. James had not come up, even to prove her wrong. He had promised. Sworn that he would dive off this cliff and survive. “Watch,” he had said, “I’ll jump and then come up.. just to prove you wrong.” He had stuck out his tongue and she had screamed that he was being a fucking idiot, and needed to get away from the edge.

Marcus had laughed, calling his bluff.

As James moved backwards, so he could run towards the cliff – making the dive all the more dramatic, Marcus had started to panic – she had seen it in his face. Was James really stupid enough to dive?

Sarah couldn’t remember if he had paused, before falling off the edge. She could just remember screaming as he disappeared from sight in an almost ridiculous manner. She could still hear Marcus’s shouts and curses as he made his way down the cliff. Once low enough, he too had dived. But he had emerged.

She shifted, realising she was going numb from staring at the waves and Marcus. Standing up, she brushed off the dirt. She gave another glance to the sea below her, as the waves engulfed Marcus. They were too strong and he had never been a good swimmer.

She shook her head and made her way to the car they had parked a few yards back. Easing herself into the drivers seat, she turned the key in the ignition and decided she would stop at the old ice cream shop on the main road, she really didn’t feel like fish and chips anymore.