PART2

PART1

Twenty minutes later, I was standing outside a small blue house after a taxi dropped me off. I knocked. Taylor answered, wearing an oversized sweatshirt, and looked genuinely shocked to see me.

“Cindy?”

“I’m sorry for showing up like this, but the police and Caleb’s parents came to my house this morning looking for him.”

The second I said Caleb’s name, her expression changed.

I asked for the address.

Then I heard footsteps behind her before Caleb appeared, looking exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept at all.

The moment he saw me, his face went pale.

“Cindy…”

I folded my arms tightly. “You were there the night of the fire?”

For a second, nobody spoke.

Then Caleb stepped outside.

“Yeah,” he admitted.

Hearing him say it out loud made my stomach twist.

Then I heard footsteps behind her.

“What happened?”

Caleb hesitated before answering.

“When I was nine, I saw Mason sneak out of our house late at night. He used to do stuff like that all the time back then, and I followed him on my bike because I thought it was a fun game.”

He looked down while speaking.

“I lost sight of him for a while as he was on his skateboard, but eventually I spotted him climbing out of a window at your house. Then, a few minutes later, I noticed smoke coming from the kitchen.”

I stared at him, unsure how to respond.

“What happened?”

“I got scared and rode home. The next morning, when everyone started talking about the fire and what happened to you…” He swallowed hard. “I kept thinking if I told anyone, Mason’s life would be over.”

“So you stayed quiet?”

“I was nine.”

That made me stop for a second.

He explained that Mason kept getting into more trouble as he got older. Juvenile detention. Fights. Eventually, prison.

But Caleb never stopped thinking about that night.

Especially after starting the same school as me years later.

“I got scared and rode home.”

“Initially, I tried avoiding you,” Caleb admitted. “Every time I looked at you, I thought about the fire.”

But avoiding me became impossible.

Classes. Hallways. Football games. Group projects.

And eventually, guilt turned into something else.

Then Caleb told me something I hadn’t expected at all.

Before prom, he’d overheard some guys joking about how nobody would ask me to dance.

“I snapped at them. One of them almost punched me over it.”

“Initially, I tried avoiding you.”

Taylor stood behind us, quietly listening.

Caleb continued, “I didn’t ask you to dance because I felt sorry for you. I did it because I was tired of pretending I didn’t care about you.”

That truly surprised me.

He explained that after dropping me home, he’d gone to Taylor’s house because her parents were away and he needed advice about finally telling me the truth.