I

“Hey.”

“Hey. Come over here.”

Jeffrey walked across the flat roof of his school to the edge, leaning over to look at the five-story drop. He quickly breathed in between his teeth, taking a step back.

Sean looked back at Jeffrey and smiled. He pulled his legs back from over the edge and beckoned Jeffrey closer with his hand. “Scared of heights?”

“A little,” Jeffrey replied, letting a nervous chuckle escape his throat.

“If you’re so scared, then why do you even bother coming up here?”

“Because I like it up here. I can think when I’m up here.”

Jeffrey had slowly made his way over to where Sean was sitting, who had resumed his pose from before. Jeffrey sat on his friend’s right, imitating the position with a shudder.

“You know, you don’t have to sit on the edge.”
”No, I’m fine.”

“…Okay.”

There was a long pause afterward. Both of them looked out past the parking lot to the football field, watching the ant-sized players chase after a speck of pigskin.

Jeffrey decided to break the ice. “Thanks for showing me this.”
Sean looked over at him and smiled. “Welcome.”

“Thanks for everything, actually,” Jeffrey continued, sliding back on to the roof, standing up, and looking behind him. “You’ve been a great friend since I moved here.”
Sean looked back out to the field. “It was nothing, really. I was just being nice.”
”And that’s why I’m thanking you. I’ve only been here for a month, and you’ve been there since day one.”

Sean remained silent.

“You’re my only friend in this new town, you know?” Jeffrey stated, his voice cracking a little. “I’d be all alone if you hadn’t done anything.”

Jeffrey crossed his arms on his chest, looked down and closed his eyes. “I…don’t think I’d be as good of a student that I am today without you.”

Sean leaned forward, looking at the ground while Jeffrey continued to talk. After a moment, he leaned back, quietly sighing.

“I mean back at my old school, people would pick on me so much because I was so short. No one wants to be friends with that kid,” Jeffrey continued on, his voice rising as he mimicked the people of his old school. “But when I’m friends with you, no one treats me badly at all. It’s…a welcome change.”

As if on cue, the wind started to blow, lifting Jeffrey’s brown hair from his face. He shivered a little. “And now I’m probably ruining it by talking your ear off.”

“Not at all.” Sean quietly replied, before he shifted his body.

“But I should probably…Sean?”

Jeffrey had chosen that moment to turn around. Sean had disappeared. “Sean?”

Thud.

There was a sudden, high-pitched scream from the ground. Jeffrey felt the blood drain from his face as he rushed to the edge of the building. When he leaned over, what he saw would be permanently engraved in his memory.

Sean lay spread-eagled on the pavement of the parking lot. His right arm was bent backwards, and his neck…

Jeffrey couldn’t breathe. He opened his mouth, but no sound was able to come out. He backed away from the edge, dizzy from the horrific sight. It felt like the whole world was spinning. The merry-go-round of death was here, and it wasn’t stopping.

Spinning, spinning, spinning, Jeffrey grabbed his head and collapsed to his knees, fighting back the vomit that was daring to force itself out.

He’s dead…no, he can’t be dead…but he’s just lying there…oh God, what did I say…what did I do…I knew I was talking too much…but that can’t be why he…oh God, he killed himself! Why? Why!

The world stopped spinning. Jeffrey keeled over and vomited.