Rooftops At Sunrise

2

[Content warning: for suicide ideation.]

"You're crazy," Damian immediately tells her.

To which Aoi scoffs, crosses her arms, then takes a seat on the roof's ledge. She shrugs off her backpack, and reaches inside for a water bottle. Except it isn't water that the item contains, for when Aoi unscrews the lid, another bottle is revealed to be lying in wait inside—one made of plastic, with the words Medical Food written across its glossy surface.

Damian pauses to observe the sight. He also notices—much to his confusion—that the young woman has quite the collection of these bottles in her bag. "Uh..." He raises a brow. "Are you okay?"

Aoi's legs dangle off the building. She kicks at the air. "Okay is a relative term, you'll have to be more specific than that."

"I mean," he clears his throat. "Those things—" Damian finally gives up on the idea that the aliens will hear him today. He figures he'll try again tomorrow, on another roof, another ledge. Then, he takes a seat next to her, and looks at the drink from over his shoulder. "The last person I saw drinking one of those was my Aunt when she was dying from cancer."

"We die from living, stranger," the girl tells him. "It's no big deal."

But it is a big deal, to Damian, at least. "You're not going to confide in me, are you?" he mumbles, under his breath.

She sighs.

She takes a sip of her food. "I suppose, I could—even if you were to tell on me, it's not like anyone would believe a guy who talks to aliens in his spare time."

Damian's eyes widen. He gasps. He points at his face in shock. "You called me a guy!"

Aoi squints at his bag, that hangs off the side of the young man's shoulder. "There is literally a pin with pronouns on your clothes—how could I not?"

"I dunno." Damian shrugs. "It's definitely the first time that pin's ever worked, I'll tell you."

"People don't read anymore."

He sighs. "I don't think that's why... thanks for not being condescending about it, though."

"I'd rather pick on you for something you can control. Like, the alien stunt, for one."

The young man smirks. He does not know who this girl is, but, he likes her. She's cool, he thinks. Really cool—better than the people who bullied him before he finally caved and dropped out of his classes, cool.

There is a large tree in the courtyard below. In it, are three birds, an immaculate amount of leaves, and a stray basketball; Aoi is glad that the kitten, which had been crying for help on one of its branches two days ago, was finally saved. "How did you even get up here?" she adds, as she fights against the intrusive thought that tells her to jump off the building, just to see what it feels like; it does not worry her, she merely took her medication a tad too late, but it should kick in now, at any given time, in a moment, or never.

Sometimes, things do not work as well as Aoi wishes they would.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Aoi turns to face the young man, whose lips have curled into a pout. "I am now," she says.

This earns her another groan from his end.

Damian buries his face into his elbows. "Man, I hate teenagers."

The birds fly out of the tree. Aoi finishes sipping her food, then leans back to take a better look at the young man before her. She frowns. "You don't look much older than me."

"I know," Damian's voice is muffled by the dark red sleeves that cover his arms. "I never said I didn't hate myself."

For once, Aoi's face goes from stoic, to amused. A grin takes her lips. She chuckles. "That's fair."

There is a moment of silence in which neither of them utter a single word. The low humming of the school's bell makes itself known two floors down. If the two of them listen hard enough, they are able to make out the faint voices of students chattering in their classrooms below.

"You're skipping," Damian is the first to break their mute pause.

She nods, slowly, as if she isn't quite sure of whether or not that is true. "That may be the case, yes."

Damian falls backwards onto the concrete ground. He rests his skull against both his palms that he uses as makeshift pillows, before he stares up to the sky. It is clear—just like his mind was when he decided to come here. "Why?" he asks her.

"Why am I skipping?"

He shakes his head, then furrows his brows. "No!" he exclaims, with a click of his tongue. And Aoi thinks it odd, how the young man is able to have so much energy, this early in the morning. "I mean why skip here out of all places! Who skips starting from first period, in their school's building? That's so—"

"Maybe I didn't mean to skip." Aoi's looking at him now. She wonders if Damian can tell that he's pissed her off; it isn't enough for her to want to stop talking, however. "Maybe," she says, "I found a strange guy on my school's rooftop, and I wanted to see what all the commotion was about."

"Okay. You got me there."

She laughs. Her anger dissipates as quickly as the clouds above them do. "The teachers are going to get wind of what you did soon enough," the young woman tells him. "If you don't want to get caught, you should probably go."

Damian blinks. He turns his head toward her. Aoi still cannot fathom how it is that he can be so calm and collected, after the act he has just committed.

"Only if you promise to help me," he says. And Aoi does not promise that—of course not, only fools in strange movies and fiction would promise to aid a stranger, she thinks. But, she does give him her time.

The two promise to meet up in a day at a local cafe.

"And I'll buy you a cool cake or something," Damian says, as he motions to her backpack. "Watching you carry those things around and eating them, too, at that, is just sad."

Aoi does not tell him that she cannot eat the cakes he speaks of without dire repercussions. Instead, she stays silent and pretends for a few seconds that she is normal. Like him.

Like everybody else.

And then, she forces herself to smile, and thinks, If only. I wish.

I wish.