Fall: A Six Sentence Story

He attended college that fall in an area with a rich history of limestone mining, quarries, old and new, dotting the landscape. The abandoned quarries eventually filled with water and became recreational areas for local families and college students, where they swam and scuba dived, and brave (or foolish) ones, usually college boys, would even dive off the high sides into the deep, deep water. He never joined his friends at the quarries, as a childhood accident left him terrified of water, but it never bothered him that he could not, or would not, swim.

College students being what they were, they were drawn to the quarries at night, where under the moon and the stars, they would gather in the parking lots to drink beer to the sounds of Tommy James and the Shondells and the Turtles and Sam & Dave drifting from someone's car radio, and after much begging from friends, he finally joined them there one crisp night, putting off studies in favor of beer and laughter and maybe a chance to sway to the music with a pretty young thing. Eventually, nature called, and he excused himself for a moment and stepped into the darkness to relieve himself, but when he hadn't returned after several minutes, his friends began to call for him, casually at first, then more and more frantically, turning on car headlights and digging flashlights out of glove boxes, his name echoing over the rocky walls of the quarry.

His body was found by divers the next day, floating in the cold water of the quarry, and an autopsy revealed that there was no water in his lungs; he died of fright, his heart stopping before he ever hit the water.

Linking up with Ivy at Uncharted for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "fall."