Every time she had to fly, she was reminded of how much she hated it… was confused by how anyone found it relaxing being on a piece of wood, really, trusting that it was going to provide them with enough security to not fall and maim themselves or die. Cecilia was certain that she was never going to understand that, even though the thought returned in the back of her mind that she had at least somewhat enjoyed flying in her first year. Yes, but that was before, she thought, shaking the thought from her mind. She supposed that if Roman, Isabella, and Evan had really wanted to know why she was afraid of flying, she could have told them the truth, selectively leaving out major parts of it. But she had felt better just keeping it under wraps entirely, not wanting to even really think about it all that much. She simply didn’t like flying, and that was the excuse that she would be sticking with if anyone ever asked. There was no reason to say any more than that—some people just didn’t like flying, surely that wasn’t all that odd. Being in the air just wasn’t as appealing to some people. Cecilia pushed those thoughts away, deciding it was better to just not think about flying or why she hated it at all. It would be better to just think about something else, something entirely irrelevant in order to take her mind off of it. But she was drawing an absolute blank; apparently, her brain had been left on the damn ground as well, providing her with no ideas of what she could think about except for the very precarious position that she found herself in.

Trey hadn’t allowed her hands to pull away from his, which she supposed was probably good if she really thought about it. Holding onto the broom was practically the only reason that she was still on it, and she definitely would have unintentionally found a way to fall if she had let go. Not that she would ever admit that to him, obviously, because she was still sure that he wouldn’t even go to that small amount of effort to ensure she didn’t die. If he really wanted to mess with Roman, killing his ex-girlfriend in a freak broom-related accident would probably do the trick. “Right, hold the handle. Right,” she repeated, vaguely, wondering if she was actually losing it at this point. She shook her head, attempting to clear her mind, though she still kept her eyes shut. Luckily, he hadn’t asked her to open them again, though even the quick glance was enough to be a constant reminder how high they were. He didn’t press why she hated flying, either, which was good; Cecilia assumed that he didn’t think that information was relevant for anything, since there wasn’t any way to use it, ad she was just glad that he was dropping it. Her hands tightened on the handle as he spoke, her heart falling to her toes. “I would say no if I thought it would make a difference,” she grumbled, letting her head tilt downward in anticipation for whatever ridiculousness he was probably about to pull.

The girl was saying that she didn’t like flying just because she didn’t. That wasn’t a proper answer and he wasn’t stupid to believe it was just because it wasn’t her ‘thing’. She was terrified and that much qas quite evident. Sure there were people out there that hated heights which of course made flying seem extremely unappealing. No, she seemed far more scared than the average person did. There was no real point in badgering her. He was curious as to what the real reason was, but it wasn’t like it would change his mind. He personally didn’t care what kind of hang up she had unless he could find a way to exploit it.

He smirked wondering what it could be. Maybe he would make her think he genuinely liked her in time and that way she would spill all her little secrets that he didn’t already know. He was sure he could pull that off. It probably wouldn’t take much to get her to think he actually cared. It would be even amusing if she fell for this little trick and developed feelings. That would make the ‘break up’ so much more entertaining. Or he could break up with her and then pretend she broke his heart. The line of girls willing to give him sympathy fucks would be staggering.

He pulled himself from his thoughts as she spoke again. ”I strongly suggest you don’t try to let go again. I will let you fall.” He said simply glancing up briefly as he tried to gage just exactly how high he wanted to go. He chuckled lightly at her next comment. ”Then I guess that is a yes?” He said noticing her head bend forward a bit. If she threw up he was going to be pissed. Without warning he angled the broom and shot up into the air weaving the broom back and forth as they went until he brought the broom to a rough stop hovering high above the field. ”Open.” He commanded stiffening his arms in case she freaked out.

The school year was almost over, she reminded herself, and then she wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. That was a bright side, at least, knowing that this absurd fake relationship was almost over. However, even the thoughts about this ridiculous situation couldn’t keep her thoughts off of her current predicament. The main problem that she was having at the current time was that she was panicking with very little to do about it, as she felt like any move could cause her to just fall and die. In fact, Trey all but assured that only a few moments later, causing her to laugh shakily though there was no humor behind it. “That’s reassuring,” she replied, though she knew she wasn’t going to attempt to move her hands again… even though his hands being on top of hers was not nearly enough for her to feel like she couldn’t just fall off anyhow. In fact, she didn’t understand why he didn’t move his hands away from her on purpose just to freak her out further. It was something that wouldn’t surprise her, and she gripped the broom even tighter at the thought; if he did that, she probably would fall off, since she was sure that the only reason she was so still was because she didn’t have much choice in the matter.

A snarky comment came to mind at his question, though she let the moment pass without saying anything; the thought simply once again came to her mind that she couldn’t piss him off when they were Merlin knew how high up. She nodded faintly instead, figuring that was an answer enough anyhow. Suddenly, they were moving again, faster this time, and it felt like at a much steeper angle. Cecilia clutched the handle of the broom so tightly that she wouldn’t be surprised if she somehow managed to get splinters, since the broom might have been old enough for that shit. She kept her head down, though she could scarcely breath as they continued to move upward. It felt like time was moving incredibly slow even as they moved incredibly bloody fast, as she was sure that they’d been flying at this angle for ages. She gasped as they came to a rough stop, realizing that her entire body was certainly shaking now. Cecilia considered denying him outright when he spoke next, really not wanting to know how high up they now were. This was all really for his amusement, she knew, and she wished she had the wherewithal to deny him any reaction that he was looking for. But she couldn’t. Finally, it could have been second after Trey had spoken or minutes, she opened her eyes, immediately regretting that decision. “Oh, fuck,” she breathed, not sure that she was even capable of speaking at a longer volume. “Shit, holy fucking…” Cecilia’s eyes darted around, taking in the sights on the ground that proved just how far up they really were. Well, now she knew that she wasn’t breathing and it wasn’t until her sight began to blur and black began to appear around the edges that she even noticed that. She took a breath, and her vision began to clear. “Can I close my eyes now?” She asked, wondering if he was just about done being amused at this level before he did something else to terrify her.

Even though the school year was coming to a close he wasn’t even close to being done with her and this ‘relationship’. He was sure after she saw the letter from her father that she would immediately understand that. Right now he was willing to bet his only motive was to aggravate Roman and get a few shags out of it. While that had been true in the beginning he had moved on to bigger plans now. He knew she was stubborn and difficult. She did a half decent job at holding it back, but he had a feeling anything doing with her biological father may cause her to temporarily forget their agreement on her attitude problem. He smirked at her comment before chuckling lightly. He guessed she could be amusing at times and strangely wasn’t put off by the sarcastic comment. Of course having her up in the air when it was glaringly obvious that she hated this all caused him to cut her a little more slack than before.

The brief thought of letting her hands go had crossed his mind though he quickly pushed it away. He wanted to scare her, not kill her. He was worried if he let go she would freak out and the broom would go completely out of control putting them both in danger granted he was confident he would be able to right it relatively quickly. He wasn’t entirely sure she would be able to stay on the broom if that happened and wouldn’t risk it. It was a dick move to bring her farther up into the air in the manner he was, but he wanted to get some entertainment out of this before he dropped the last bombshell on her.

He stifled a laugh as he heard her exclamations. He had expected quite the reaction though he quickly became concerned when he felt her body start to become less responsive, almost like she wasn’t breathing. After a few moments he realized that she wasn’t. He normally wouldn’t have cared but for a split second he did. He leaned forward putting his lips by her ear. ”Breathe, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He said softly waiting for her to finally start again. He didn’t like that he had that momentary lapse when he was supposed to be scaring the hell out of her. For all he knew she hadn’t noticed… hopefully. He finally let a chuckle out as she asked if she could close her eyes. ”Sure…” He said simply trying to regain his composure. ”You need to relax.” He said with a smirk before removing his hand from hers to hold the handle above them. ”Let go.” He said wondering if she would actually comply.

This was easily the highest that she had ever been up in the air before, and she felt like that fact alone made it impossible to breath. It wasn’t that she couldn’t breath; it was just that there was no air up there. Or far less, or something. There was just wind, and that wasn’t helping in the slightest since that only made it more difficult to bring air into her own lungs without feeling like she was bloody suffocating. Suddenly, she vaguely realized that she did kind of wish she had chosen a newer model of a broom, since being this high up on a broom that could be incredibly unreliable was making the situation even worse. For all she knew, it could just splinter and break and then they’d both die. Hell, with how hard she was gripping the handle, it might just snap in half if it was that old. If it were possible, then it would happen. Cecilia didn’t have the best luck as far as flying was concerned. And if it were physically possible to be holding onto a broom tightly enough to get splinters, she was sure that it was currently happening. Granted, she was pretty damn sure that wasn’t a thing, but she didn’t bloody know. Perhaps it was with how old this broom was; it wouldn’t necessarily surprise her, after all.

At least they weren’t moving anymore, as him weaving upward at such a steep angle had practically just given her a heart attack. They were just as high up as she had expected, even if it had felt like they had been flying for bloody hours and could be up in the damn clouds by now. She would look up to see how close they were to just that, but she really felt a hell of a lot better not moving. Or breathing. But that wasn’t her fault that there was way less air up here and that with the wind blowing around them, clearly even her breathing could cause her to just fall. She nodded faintly at his words, finally recalling that she did have to breath, obviously, taking a shaky inhale of breath. Obviously she wasn’t even sure that she believed him, but she was going to tell herself that she did if only to prevent herself from panicking further.

“Thank you,” she whispered, surprised that he was even letting her close her eyes to begin with and she would probably also be irritated later that she just thanked him for anything. In fact, this entire exchange would piss her off or embarrass her later, more than likely; but there simply wasn’t much that she could do about that. Flying put her past the level where she could act normal, apparently, so she just had to be all right with being bloody ridiculous. She shut her eyes as he spoke again, instantly feeling the tiniest bit better that she couldn’t see just how high up they were, even if she bloody knew. Cecilia let out a small laugh at his words, but there was no humor in it. “Relax. Not possible.” She stated, though she bloody wished it were. If there were any way to calm the hell down, she certainly would be doing it. Her eyes shot open as he moved his hands away from hers and spoke again, and she glanced back at him warily before quickly moving her gaze forward again since moving was not going to help her keep her balance. “Let go and do what? It’s not like there’s anywhere else for me to put them.” What, did he want her to just let them awkwardly hang at her sides, because then she would certainly fall.

Trey was starting to get frustrated with himself. This was supposed to scare the shit out of her, which he guessed she had been and still was. But why he was reassuring her he had no bloody clue. He wasn’t some nice guy who cared about others and their feelings. It was momentary lapse he figured. There were some times that he was ‘nice’. Though he did that mostly just to get what he wanted. This was absolutely ridiculous. She shouldn’t mean a damn thing to him, and really he was sure she didn’t. Then why do you care if she thinks you’ll let her fall? He scolded himself silently. Trey Rudolphi didn’t care about anyone but himself and that was just how it was meant to be. Maybe the altitude was messing with his head. Yes, he was sure it was the altitude that was causing his brain to momentarily go fuzzy even though he few that high often.

He was caught off guard by her thanks. It sounded sincere instead of sarcastic and challenging as it usually was. This whole situation was getting confusing. Trey wondered if he should just get them back to the ground where things made bloody sense. He still had her little birthday letter in his pocket from her father to deliver. ”I’m sure you can manage.” He said gently as she said she was unable to relax. He was still being nice and he didn’t bloody like it one bit. He chuckled as she asked what she was supposed to do when she let go of the broom. ”Just look at this as a trust exercise.” He said with a smirk trying to regain his composure. He definitely needed to get them back on the ground and move in for the kill. Maybe this hadn’t been a great idea. No he was sure this wasn’t a good bloody idea. ”Just hold them out to the side for balance. This won’t be the last time I take you out on a broom.” He said moving so that only one of his hands held onto the broom while the other wrapped around her waist to hold her steady against him.

Time was certainly moving slower up here. She couldn’t even begin to contemplate how long they had been flying, but it felt like ages. Although she had remembered the importance of breathing, she still felt light-headed, something that could only be blamed on the altitude and her constant state of damn panic. Staying still did nothing to make her feel better, as the wind was moving them anyhow, and Cecilia knew that it wouldn’t be long before Trey was shooting them further up into the air or diving them downward or hell, even going upside or something ridiculous. If anything, her breathing shortened further at the thought; if they went upside down, she was bloody falling. There was no debate in that one, as she’d have absolutely no clue how to stay on a broom like that… was going upside down something that people even did? She honestly had no idea, but it seemed like something Trey would do to gain more amusement from. This would be the furthest distance she’d fallen from in her life and she would definitely bloody die if that happened.

Shutting her eyes did help marginally, but it wasn’t enough to calm her down, clearly. He wanted her to relax, but he bloody obviously didn’t realize that the idea of relaxing right now was about as impossible as if he told her to get up and balance on the damn broomstick. It couldn’t be done. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to relax, because there were half a dozen reasons just on the top of her head to do so, but that just wasn’t enough. “If I could relax, I promise you I would,” she answered, though it was something that she knew he wouldn’t understand; as someone who bloody loved flying, Cecilia knew that it was probably impossible for him to contemplate how anyone was this afraid of it. “A trust exercise,” Cecilia repeated, warily, her hands still gripping onto the broom tighter than before now that his hands were no longer there for further balance. “But I don’t trust you.” Clearly, he knew that much. If she took her hands off of the broom, then she was putting this situation further in his control and Cecilia was unsure if he realized that any stunt he pulled to scare her while her hands weren’t gripping the broom would certainly result in her falling. He’s not going to let you fall, she told herself, though she wasn’t entirely sure if she believed it.

She couldn’t even contemplate the meaning behind the fact that he stated that he’d be taking her out on a broom again… the end of the school year was in a few days, so she had very little idea of when he was making time for this. Instead, she just nodded, feeling slightly better when he wrapped his arm around her though she’d never bloody admit it. Shakily, she began to loosen her grip on the broom with one hand, flexing it slightly as it had gotten sore from how tightly she’d been holding on. She let it move out to the side as he said, before releasing her grip with the other hand even slower than before. Cecilia could feel her heart racing as she moved that hand out to the side as well, officially making the only reason she was still on this broom be because of his arm wrapped around her. She certainly felt like she was shaking now but she had no idea if that was happening or if it was just bloody happening in her damn mind.

The wind seemed to be picking up slightly, causing the broom to sway a bit more than it had been before. He was sure that this was only making the girl more nervous about being so high up. Older brooms typically didn’t handle the breezes as easily as the newer models. He knew there was a solid reason as to why that was though he couldn’t think about it at the moment. It did amuse him that she was the one that had chosen the broom so the only person to blame for the added discomfort was herself. He really didn’t mind it in the slightest as he knew he was in complete control of the situation both with the broom and the girl. He knew there were a few other things he had wanted to do before getting them back to the ground though he wasn’t entirely sure what he would do just yet. It wouldn’t be right to let her get away this easily when he had wanted to scare her shitless and remind her that he was the one with the power. She was at his mercy and she would do well to remember that.

He snorted in amusement at her comment on not being able to relax. He really didn’t understand why the hell she was having such a fit when he had barely done anything that would cause any kind of real concern. He would have to really do some digging after this little outing to figure out exactly what the bloody problem was… and extort it for his own amusement. ”I figured.” He said simply in reply to her saying she didn’t trust him. At least she was smart enough to know that she really shouldn’t trust him, but he knew eventually he could trick her into actually doing so. It seemed like she was relaxing slightly as his arm moved around her waist. He guessed that was good as he didn’t need her flailing about and knocking them both off the broom. He smirked as she finally released the broom completely. He kept the broom steady for a moment though I sudden strong breeze ran over them making the broom sway a bit more than usual. Within a moment of the breeze hitting them he sharply angled the broom down to the ground doing a nose dive as fast as the broom would allow.

At this point, Cecilia was pretty damn certain that Trey was unaware of just how bad she was at being up in the air. After all, she knew that he was about to do something ridiculous and it would probably result in her falling. Either he thought she was at least capable of staying on a broom, or he didn’t care if she fell, and both of those options did lead with her falling, obviously. With her hands not on the broom, her position felt even more precarious and she felt like she could fall off at nearly any moment anyhow—she had no idea what she’d do the situation escalated. Laughing a bit humorlessly under her breath at his comment, Cecilia pressed back against him slightly though she very much doubted that would help her stay on this broom. The irony wasn’t lost on her that she didn’t trust him but got the smallest bit of comfort in that ridiculous action that she would deny even happened later. She had to take what she could get when she was in literally one of the worst situations that she could find herself in. Flying, with no hands on the broom, having no control over what happened, and having the person who was in control want to terrify her on purpose as well as probably not caring if she fell anyhow—yes, she was uncertain how this could get worse.

Cecilia flinched slightly when a stronger breeze moved through the air, causing the broom to sway precariously and that alone just made her want to bring her hands back to the handle. But only moments later, her heart was in her damn throat as they began to dive. She probably would have screamed if she had a voice to speak anymore but it seemed lost with her ability to breath which had vanished again as well… though this time that was easily blamed on the fact that they were moving so quickly downward. He was just trying to kill them both, she thought frantically, her one hand moving to grab onto the arm he had around her waist while the other moved to grip her opposite wrist. He had never flown a broom this old before more than likely, which meant he certainly didn’t know the required time to pull out of a dive which meant that they were just going to hit the damn ground if she didn’t fall off first. There was one hand on the broom, she noted. There had been four between the two of them, and now there was only one and there was no bloody way that he could control a broom with one hand. He couldn’t. There was just no way that he was going to get them out of this dive in time and if he did, it would be because he had to quickly realize at the last moment that he needed to really pull them out of it and that would mean he’d let go of her and then she’d fall anyways.

Bloody motherfucking Merlin this was not how she wanted to die but she was starting to think that he was simply unaware of this broom’s limitations. She knew enough about it to know them but that didn’t mean that Trey did. She actually couldn’t breath. It no longer had anything to do with the wind blowing at her, she practically couldn’t recall how to bring oxygen into her lungs. Her grip tightened on her own wrist, only able to focus on the sound of her heart practically beating out of her damn chest but she still couldn’t breath. Cecilia knew she should probably open her eyes to see just how close they were to just damn colliding into the earth but she couldn’t. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen and she really didn’t want to witness it.

Trey knew this was terrifying the girl and he found a great deal amusement in that. Truth be told if she didn’t react so much he wouldn’t really worry about making things doubly worse for her. Unfortunately for her he was very perceptive so even if she had been able to contain herself even a little bit he still would have noticed. He didn’t want her to get seriously injured. He wasn’t that big of a prick, besides she was no good to him dead. The strong breeze had done nothing but up the ante as he felt her press her back into him slightly when he brought an arm around her waist. As much as he hated to admit it he did enjoy the feel of her against him, though obviously it was just because he liked to shag her. That was it.

The broom was quite old and he knew he would need to use more caution when pulling crazy stunts. He had really wished she had picked a newer model, but he had been flying long enough to know how to handle most brooms. He was the bloody captain of the quidditch team for the love of Merlin. Diving down towards the ground would actually be slightly dangerous given the equipment he was using. Even with that being the case he was confident that he could handle it. A large grin spread across his face as they began their nose dive towards the ground. He was sure that nothing could compare to the feeling of being on a broom doing things of this nature. Hell he’s be willing to say it was almost better than shagging… almost.

As they started getting closer he knew he had to pull up sooner that he normally would on his personal broom. He grew up dirt poor and had flown on quite a few questionable brooms. It wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with. He would have to let go of her to make sure they both made it safely to the ground. He figured he could freak her out a touch more before they were done. ”Hurry up and grab the broom!” He shouted in his best panicky voice before letting go of her to firmly grip the broom as he yanked up on it to level them out.