Watching Them Burn: My Rebirth Story novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Roof

The roof door of the old library was propped open with a brick.

I took the stairs two at a time.

The wind hit me at the top.

Willa sat on the low stone ledge at the far end with her back to the city and her sneakers hanging over the drop.

She held her phone in both hands.

"Willa."

She turned her head.

Her eyes were wet, but she smiled at me, the same soft smile she gave everyone.

"You came. I knew you would."

"Get down from there."

"Oh, it's fine. It's wide. I come here to think."

"Then think on this side."

She laughed.

It was small and wet.

She slid down off the ledge and onto the roof, and I felt my knees start working again.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just didn't know where else to go."

"What's wrong?"

"Everything." She wiped her face with her wrist. "Everyone's calling me Dane's fake friend. They think I'm trying to make you look bad."

"I don't think that."

"You don't?"

"You posted that he was hurt. You didn't say I was cruel."

She sat down hard on the gravel.

I sat next to her, close enough that I could grab her sleeve.

For a while, neither of us said anything.

Below us, the campus lights were coming on one by one.

"I've loved him since I was fourteen," she said.

She said it to the ground.

"I know."

"You do?"

"It's on your face every time you say his name."

She wiped her nose.

"He never looks at me like that. He looks at me like I'm furniture. I'm good for carrying his bag and picking up the pieces. And then you walked in, you said no, and now it's all he talks about."

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