The Babysitter II: Happy Halloween

On The Roof

Peach's PoV:

I scampered up the stairs to the loft and knocked on Rose's bedroom door. "Hey, Rose"

No answer.

"Come on, don't pretend to be asleep" I sighed, "I've had enough of that for one day."

Well never mind. "I don't care, I'm coming in anyway" I muttered, opening the door and stepping inside. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, but when they eventually did, one thing became clear.

Rose was not in here. And her window was wide open.

Rose's PoV:

A light breeze blew, making me shiver, despite the thick hoodie I was wearing.

I'm okay, this is safe.... well... no it's not safe, but I'm going to be alright.

I'll be fine as long as I don't slip-

Just then, I heard something. A voice. Or, at least, I thought I did. Nah, just the wind.

"Damn it Rose where are you?"

Wait a second... that was definitely not the wind. Sounded like Peach. Frustrated, too.
"I'm up here, Peachy" I whisper-shouted, "on the roof"

A few seconds later, she stuck her head out of the window, staring up at me. "What the hell are you doing?" She hissed, yet proceeded to follow me up onto the roof, her short, messy hair blowing around wildly in the wind.

"I just..." I mumbled, then shook my head. I could have sworn I saw tears in her eyes...

After a moment of silence, she mumbled "Don't ever scare me like that again".

My eyes widened in surprise. "But y-you're never scared!"

"I was just then" she admitted, making eye contact for a second. "I was worried about you... because I know what you're going through"

Gulping, I wait for her to explain further. Please say she has it wrong... she can't know... what'll she think of me?

"You haven't been eating, have you? Sleeping?"

I winced. "P-Please don't judge me..."

"I'm not going to... I have past experience with this." she sighed. Wait, what?! "What were you looking at on your phone?"

"I... social media stuff"

"Not grumpy cat?" Peach asked in a knowing tone. I shook my head.

"Normal people" I admitted.

Suddenly, she hugged me tight. "Who cares about the so-called 'normal' people? It doesn't matter what other people say or think... most of what you see on social media is fake. You shouldn't be constantly comparing yourself to other people anyway, it's not good for you-"

"...that's deep..." I murmured.

"Yeah, but it's true. You need to take care of yourself..."

"Heh. Okay, I'll try - thank you Peachy"

She smiled a little, and for the first time ever she didn't complain about the nickname. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while, then I noticed Peach was shivering quite violently, her arms covered in goosebumps. I took off my pink hoodie and offered it to her.

"Thanks" she whispered, putting it on. It was much too big for her but she didn't seem to mind.

Suddenly, Peach stood up and she began walking across the roof, using her arms to balance herself. "So what are you doing out here anyways?"

"Huh?" Came my response, forgetting where exactly we were.

"Why are you on the roof, duh?" She half-smiled, "I mean I gather you're here for some reason other than giving me a heart attack."

Oh, that- "uh, just sky watching."
But Peach simply turned around and raised an eyebrow at me - she wasn't easily fooled. She never has been; I know that, so why do I even bother coming up with excuses?
"Alright, alright-" I huff, "I just, thought I could climb down there. And just, I don't know. Be free, I guess?"

"Free where?" Peach giggled, crouching back down next to me. "We saw just now what's waiting for us in the outside world, dum-dum."

Seeing her point, I remained where I was but redirected my attention to the sky. "Outside is a prison just as much as this house is."
She didn't really hear me say that; I could tell because there was no reply to reprimand my bleak outlook on our situation. So we sat in silence. It was nice.

A while later she nudged me slightly. "Come on. Let's go back in now... it's kinda late"

"Oh... okay" I mumbled, only just able to hide my disappointment. Wait... no I wasn't!

Ugh, who am I kidding? Fine, maybe I kinda enjoy spending time with Peach. Maybe I'm also kinda jealous that Peach spends so much more time with Emerald than she does with me.

Kinda.