Shift/Perspective

The sound of William Tell playing shrilly woke Keith up. With a muttered oath he picked up his cell phone and checked the caller I.D. He frowned at the name displayed and figured there was no need to bother with manners.

"What do you want?"

Laughter rang from the other end of the line. "I take it I woke you?"

Keith growled something indiscernible but managed to make it sound threatening.

"But Keith! The sun is shining, birds are singing, and McDonalds is only serving breakfast for another 30 minutes!"

"What do you want, Jed?" Keith ground out.

"I'm just waiting for an update."

"I'm not your soldier behind enemy lines. I'm not going to type up a daily report of the happenings for you."

Jed ignored him. "Did you see Rei and Mina last night?"

Keith rubbed his eyes distractedly. "Yes, they were at a party last night."

This time it was Jed who grumbled.

"Don't worry," Keith assured Jed in his most serious of voices. "Rei was only dancing on a table for one song and she kept most of her clothes on."

"WHAT!"

"And I was able to stop Mina from leaving with some guy. But I'm afraid I didn't get there in time to prevent her from disappearing with a few girls. But I've been assured that experimentation at our age is a good thing."

Jed was no longer freaking out. "I don't even want to know what sick lesbian fantasies you've placed my sister in. Did you actually find them?"

"Yes Jed, I actually found them. Neither seemed to be having much fun at the party- though your girlfriend did manage to get completely wasted- so I took them to Waffle House."

"How drunk is completely wasted?"

"How drunk does completely wasted sound to you? The good news is that she's a sillier drunk than you are."

"So other than Rei suffering through a massive hanger, they're both fine?"

Keith sighed. "Yes Jed, they're completely fine and fully capable of taking care of themselves."

"Of course they are!" Jed agreed wholeheartedly.

"Then why am I tailing them?"

"Just in case they can't. My sister has a way of attracting trouble."

Keith wiggled his big toe and was forced to sigh in agreement. "Neither one of them is stupid. It won't take them long to start questioning my constant presence this weekend."

"Nah. Familiar face in an unfamiliar place syndrome will override the urge."

"Sure Jed, whatever you want to believe. Don't think for a second I won't rat you out when they figure out what's going on. I refuse to be the one who gets his ass kicked for this scheme." He glared down at his watch. "I'll be meeting up with them soon."

"Excellent."

"You do a horrible Burns impression."

Jed snickered, unoffended. "Whatever you say Taylor. And watch out for Rei, she gets grumpy when she has a hangover." Jed's tone didn't suggest an actual warning, rather disappointment that he wouldn't be there to experience Rei's wraith firsthand.

"You're a sick man, Hathaway. You know that, right?"

Jed was laughing as he hung up the phone.


Keith checked his watch. He and Will had been waiting for fifteen minutes. He frowned apologetically at his cousin. "If they're not here in five minutes we can leave."

Just then Mina appeared at the edge of the quad and waved enthusitally in their direction. Will let out a low whistle of appreciation as the girls approached.

Keith was taken aback by Mina's cheerful display. With Mina it was usually one teeny step foreword three giant leaps back. According to the established pattern she should hate him more than ever after last night. He couldn't help but frown at her as she drew closer. How was he supposed to figure her out if she didn't stick to her pattern?

She grinned up at him. "Don't look so grumpy, Keith. We wouldn't have been late if someone," this followed with a pointed look in Rei's direction. "Had gotten up on time."

"No worries. I'm Will, you must be Mina."

Mina smiled prettily at Keith's cousin. "Yep. The grump is Rei and the other one is Cassie."

Cassie studied Will before stepping foreword. "Are you in Levin's Abnormal Psy.?"

Will actually blushed under Cassie's attention. "Yeah, I think I am." Obviously he'd noticed Cassie before and used this opportunity to start a private conversation.

Keith stared at Will's back in disbelief.

Mina inched over to Keith to nudge him slyly in the ribs. "Your cousin likes Rei's cousin. I think he has a crush."

"Trust you to sum it up in elementary school terms." Rei's sunglasses shielded all from her glare.

Mina risked dismemberment and made a face at Rei. "I think it's sweet."

"Sweet?" Keith asked incredulously as he watched his cousin make a fool out of himself. Dear lord, was that how he acted around Mina? He snuck a glace at the blonde out of the corner of his eye.

"Of course it's sweet. Sweet like the singing of birds, sugar, and all the other Disney crap. So sweet that the squirrels will soon break into song and I'll suffer a massive brain hemorrhage." Rei muttered. "Are we going to stand around all day or are we going to do something?"

Mina smiled brightly and in a sugar sweet voice designed to piss Rei off cooed. "Does somebody miss her wittle Jeddy Weddy?"

Keith winced on Jed's behalf and Rei snarled and stomped off muttering to Will and Cassie. Mina made out "blonde" and "punch" and conveniently ignored the rest.

Keith shifted and tried to avoid awkwardness. "I'm glad you came. I was beginning to think you weren't going to show."

Mina snorted. "You obviously don't have a sister to teach you the ways of women. If we give an exact meeting time we really mean at least fifteen minutes after that set time."

"So I should have shown up at 12:15?"

Mina rolled her eyes playfully. "Dear god no! Sometimes we're on time and we get pissed if we have to wait for you."

Cassie turned back towards Keith and Mina. "We're going to Spanky's for lunch. Come on." Mina and Keith walked behind the other three.

"That's not really fair." Keith pointed out after a minute or so of walking in companionable silence.

"What isn't?"

"The time thing. Why are men supposed to wait without complaint but women aren't?"

Mina smiled at him. "Because."

"Because?"

Mina nodded sagely. "Yep. You have much to learn grasshopper."

Keith smiled in spite of himself. "I suppose that makes you Mina-sensei."

"Pretty much. Stick with me grasshopper and I will make a Jedi out of you, yet!"

Keith's smile stretched. Apparently Mina's adorable habit of mixing up idioms extended to pop culture.

They spent the rest of the walk mostly in silence, pausing now and then to make fun of Will's outlandish attempts to keep Cassie's attention.

"Not that I don't enjoy you're company…"

Mina looked up at Keith confused and he hurried on.

"I do!" he really, really, REALLY did. "But I'm surprised you haven't joined up with Rei yet." He gestured to the brunette who was trudging after Will and Cassie, no doubt glaring for all her worth at the two.

Mina looked almost hurt for a second and Keith began to mentally berate himself. He was a jerk, an idiot, a fool. He had the girl of his dreams walking beside him, for all appearances enjoying his company, and he had to go and ask why. For once-

"You saw the mood she's in." Mina wrinkled her nose as she watched Rei violently kick a can out of her path. "It's best to let the hangover run its course before I expect her to act human."

Keith smirked down at her, relieved she hadn't surged foreword to Rei after his comment. " So, I'm consolation company."

"Yep." She agreed with a playful nudge against his shoulder.

He was grateful when they caught up with the group at Spanky's. Isolated proximity to Mina Hathaway was turning him into a prehistoric moron. After his first open mouth insert foot moment, Mina had turned her attention to the campus and its students. And Keith focused his upon her.

Knowing that he had a history of staring at her, even knowing that he had her brother's blessing of sorts (hadn't Jed told him to "keep on eye" on her") did not make Keith feel any less like a stalker.

And trying to focus his attention on the students they were passing only made him aware of how many of the males were checking out Mina. In their defense she was wearing a rather tiny blue sundress and he had been doing the same thing himself. But it was all he could do to restrain himself from clamping an arm around her shoulders and hauling her to his side in a statement that would scream, "Mine!".

He actually made a list in his heads of the pros and cons of such a maneuver.

Pros

He'd get to touch Mina.

Every male would know they stood no chance.

Her skin looked really soft.

Like really, really soft.

Touch good.

Cons

It's wouldn't stop guys from looking.

Jed would kill him.

Mina would kill him.

Rei wouldn't care if he touched Mina, but she was out for blood and any excuse to bring pain was a good one. Rei would kill him.

Touch bad.

Regretfully, he went with the touch bad theory and settled for glaring at every man who ogled Mina. Luckily for all involved Mina seemed blissfully unaware of what was going on around her.

It was pathetic, Keith decided as they were all led to a table and handed menus. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Keith Taylor, the boy who was always in control had been brought to heel, turned to a caveman, and barely keeping control of himself – all because a girl was being nice to him.

It was like seeing a wolf, a solitary and proud creature, roll over on its back and squirm helplessly because someone offered it a treat.

"And you sir?"

Come to think of it, he'd never actually seen a full grown wolf tamed, but that wasn't the point, was it?

"Keith."

The point was that he was in danger of becoming Mina Hathaway's lapdog. She was lovely but was she worse the potential loss of dignity?

"Hey, Keith."

And why was he so hopelessly drawn to her? It couldn't have simply been her beauty; he'd be surrounded by beautiful girls his entire life. It couldn't be love, could it? She wasn't the type of girl he'd ever pictured himself with. She was too flighty and opinionated and god knew she attracted trouble. He had the injuries to prove it. She had awful taste in friends, just look at her friendship with Jordan. Or even Lynda. She was too loyal for her own good. And yet…no, it couldn't be love. He wouldn't allow it. She was beautiful and fun and sweet to just about everyone (sometimes even him) but he was–

"Keith!" Rei slapped down the menu covering his face and pointed to the waiter. "Did you want to order or just sit around with glazed eyes for the rest of the day?"

Keith blinked at the intrusion and Mina jumped to the rescue.

"As opposed to what you planned to do with your day: pretty much the same thing only with more attitude."

Rei turned her withering glare to Mina and the exchange bought Keith time to quickly scan the menu and rattle of an order to the amused waiter.

Keith resisted the urge to smile gratefully at Mina. Better to just pretend he hadn't noticed anything at all. He cleared his throat and glanced to his cousin. "So, what are we doing today Will?"

Will looked a bit sheepish. "To tell the truth, I hadn't thought past lunch. The campus is great at night but it doesn't offer much entertainment during the day or weekends. And the town is kind of small."

Cassie leaned in towards Will. "I was thinking we could take 'em to river and hang out there for a bit. The girls and I planned to see a show at the Hitchcock tonight. You two are welcome to come."

"That'd be great." Will said without even glancing at Keith for confirmation.

Keith sighed as he slumped back into his seat. He'd hoped to end the weekend early and get back home. Less than an hour in Mina's company had turned him into a space cadet, who knew what state the sight of her in a swimsuit would leave him in.

An increasing sense of unease was growing within him. It wasn't just that he was enjoying Mina's company; she seemed to be enjoying his. With any other girl this was a good thing, but with Mina…

She'd probably hate him with the heat of a thousand fiery suns by the time Monday came around, and as usual he'd be left baffled as to what caused the change.

Mina nudged Keith gently. "If you don't want to stick I can cover for you."

Keith smiled weakly at her. "Thanks but I was planning to stay for the entire weekend."

"Worried about the river, or just the possibility of a horrendously bad movie afterwards?" She asked with a wry grin.

He shrugged. "The movie actually. The only ones I saw advertised were Old School and Lost Boys."

"Oh, we're not going to see either of those." Mina assured him.

"That's a relief."

"Cassie's taking us to the midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Keith had been polishing off the last of his burger and now found himself in the position of trying not to choke. He painfully swallowed as horrific visions of men in corsets and pearls flashed unwanted into his mind.

Mina laughed as Keith's face turned red and he began to cough.

"Kidding, only kidding!" She leaned her cheek into her hand, grinning fondly as she tried to capture Keith's red face and irate expression in her mind forever. "What I wouldn't give for a camera right now." She mused.

There was a flash of light as Rei took out a camera, snapped, and nonchalantly went back to picking at the remains of her sandwich.

Keith glared at both girls as he thumped his chest to stop the coughing. Neither paid much attention.

Mina was too busy eyeing Rei with a mixture of astonishment and suspicion.

"Why do you have a camera?"

Rei paused in the act of spearing a pickle with a fork to answer. "Weekend away, good times, possibility of blackmail, you know…" She waved her hand airily.

"Right." Will said, giving Rei a worried look.

Silence descended over the table as all the occupants, save Rei, wondered what embarrassing footage Rei might have caught without their knowledge.

Rei pushed her plate away, smiled angelically at everyone, and signaled the waiter. "Check please!"


After stopping by their respective cousin's dorm rooms to change, the group headed to the river to find it mostly deserted. There were a couple of guys from Will's dorm taking turns jumping off of a 15 ft. rock ledge and Will trotted over to join them. Rei and Cassie spread out towels and began slathering on sunscreen. Mina stood beside Keith as they eyed the gentile river.

"Do you want to try the ledge?" Mina asked.

Keith gawked at the ledge and tried not to let it show. There was no way he was going to tell the girl he had a crush on that he was mildly afraid of heights. "I suppose it wouldn't be very manly of me to wade in, would it?" He hedged hopefully.

Mina gave him an odd look. "Well, there is that aspect. And also, there's the rusty fish hooks and pointy rocks waiting for your bare feet."

He glanced down at said bare feet. "Point taken." With a sigh he began to climb the slope. "Onward ho."

Mina shoved him gently as she followed. "You did not just call me a ho."

Keith blanched. "What? No, it's a quote from….well something."

"I know. I was kidding."

"I knew that."

"Right."

Keith didn't have a chance to defend himself further as Mina delivered her parting shot before jumping off into the water.

Keith peered over the edge and turned white as the earth swirled crazily. He tried to blink the world back into focus as Mina's head broke the surface. She waved up at him.

"Come on Keith, it's not that far." Will assured him as he paddled with the currant. He also shot his cousin a look that translated to, 'Don't let the girl you like know what a big wuss you are. Jump and get it over with, man!'

There were a million things Keith wanted to ask before jumping into that water. 'Is it deep?' nearly crossed his lips, before he realized that he'd probably stutter the question out and sound like a wimp.

'How close is the nearest hospital?', 'Mina you can have first pick of my stuff if I die', and 'Will, you bastard! You know how I feel about heights, and you brought me here anyway.'­— these were all contenders for final words. In the end though, Keith felt it would be better to leave life as he'd lived it— silent, with eyes screwed shut, and an appreciation towards barely concealed dramatics.

There are those with acrophobia who, once pushed from a height with a safe landing in mind, do not mind the falling. They find that it was looking down, the intense vertigo, that caused their heart to pound, not the fall. Once they've hit the water they surface ready to try again, maybe this time without looking down at all. Once conquering their fear, these people often go on to skydive or bungee jump to drive their lack of fear home.

Keith was not one of these people. He hated the weightless sensation of falling, the way his stomach jumped into his lungs. His father had spent buckets of money trying to help Keith through his fear of heights, but in the end Keith, his father, and half a dozen therapists had given up. Keith resigned himself to a life without skydiving or bungee jumping, a life where he was absolute crap on roller coasters, and a life where he stayed as close to the wall as possible when going up and down stairs.

The fall took less than three seconds, but it felt like forever. When Keith hit the water he allowed himself to sink as far as he could, in hopes of touching the bottom. His toes touched the silt at the bottom and he opened his eyes to peer up to the surface. He could see someone's legs – Mina's maybe? – paddling four feet above his reach. 'Better to be at the bottom of a river than flying above it.' Keith thought. He would have stayed longer, but his lungs were tightening, begging for air, so he pushed off of the slimy base and rocketed to the surface, right behind Mina.

She shrieked and batted at him. "Don't do that!"

He grinned somewhat feebly. "Sorry?"

Everyone but Keith spent the afternoon scrambling up the steep embankment to jump back in. Keith left them to it, preferring to drift downstream with the current, then swim back up. After a few more jumps Mina joined him, and the two floated near one another in silence punctuated by Mina's teasing until Cassie called from the shore to tell them it was time to leave.