Absolute

1

I had only ever had one friend as a child. His name was Gabriel Coleman. Gabriel had the brightest blue eyes, ones so clear and beautiful that I'd often spent time wondering if that's what the ocean looked like in real life. If somehow the universe had purposefully put the ocean into the eyes of the boy I'd grow to cherish.

We were six when my little family moved into the house next to his. Nine when he moved away.

Life got hard without a shoulder to lean on and a friend who knew what it was like. I often wondered what life was like for him. Was he okay?

But as time passed I thought about Gabriel less and less. Always on his birthday, though. I never missed it, no matter what was going on around me.

I would never forget the first one. After all, it's the night we met.

We were both six that day. I had been living in the house next to his for several weeks by then, and I'd yet to be able to sneak outside, even to the roof that was right outside the window.

At first it had been because this was Marie's room. By the time Mom decided Marie and I would switch rooms, because apparently having me in the room above hers was too much with all my noisy stepping.

Yeah, okay. She just wanted me in the farthest room from hers, for whatever reason.

I'd long ago given up wondering why Mom didn't seem to love me. Dad didn't seem to care on way or another, so until I met Gabriel, I thought that life in my house was normal. I didn't realize moms weren't supposed to have favorites and dads played a role bigger than financial support and protection.

That life was more than just existing day to day.

I had been grounded to my room until I could put it straight after my mom had thrown my belongings in without care. Marie's things had been placed neatly.

I didn't mind, much.

Because soon it was dark, and even though my stomach was grumbling from neglect, I had the window to the roof!

I waited well beyond dark. Until I was sure that every member of my family had fallen asleep, which included my father. I didn't even open the curtains that were up- a deep blue shade that blocked out almost all the light during the day, in fear that someone would check on me and put two and two together.

But I should have known I was simply being hyper vigilant, as always. Nobody bothered to look in on me, and when they'd finally gone to sleep I pushed aside the curtains.

The layers of dust let me know that Marie had never taken advantage of the roof access. I squinted out the window. My light was off so it was easy to look outside, I'd spent the last few hours pretending to be asleep myself.

The house next to ours also had a window with a roof access. It'd been a while since I'd seen it that say we'd moved in... but I hadn't remembered the roof of the neighboring house to be quite so... close.

The houses were touching, in fact. I stared at the window that was across from mine, holding my breath for something. When nothing happened I slid open my window, silently thankful for the noiseless procedure.

The wind that invaded my room reminded me that it was cold outside, that summer had came and gone. I of course knew this. Marie was so lucky she got to go to school.