Rooftops

Twenty-Eight

a/n: I just want to clarify a few things. Chapters for Rooftops are meant to be short. Therefore, they won't have much description. I love description just as much as the next person, the little details are what makes a book all the more meaningful, however, I also believe one can make a short story meaningful with few words. Rooftops is supposed to be fast paced. The entire novel will be over the course of 1 week. Imogen and everybody else in this novel is an adult (25 years of age or older) therefore they all have jobs, families, and lives to live. A week of vacation is the ideal time that one takes off from work to visit family and friends.

If you have any questions, please do feel free to ask me, via comment or direct message.

I'm sorry that it's been awhile since I've last updated. Life, as usual, has gotten in the way but I hope that I can get into the groove of writing again. Okay, I'll stop talking now, lol. Hope you enjoy it. :)

xx Cassie.

||Twenty-Eight||

I can feel my heart pounding in my ears. My lungs burn and my legs feel like noodles. I can feel sweat dripping down my back and I watch as drops of sweat fall onto the sand. Music blasts through my earphones, a rock song playing as I sit on the ground, the soles of my feet dug into the sand. It's still dark out. My body is still on Texas time, so while my body thinks it's seven in the morning, the time on my phone says it's five.

Ten years and my morning routines haven't changed. I still wake up at the crack of dawn and run. Run until I can't breathe. Run until I can't feel my legs. Run until I can't hear anything but the pounding of my heart in my ears.

"I never understood your obsession with running," I hear a fairly familiar and masculine voice say. I jump, startled and look up over my shoulder. Rob stands a few feet to my left, dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain white T-Shirt.

Other than the night he flew in for Jade's birthday, he's been out of town for majority of my stay. He's finished filming for his role in his new movie and flew back into San Diego late last night.

"I remember when we lived next door to each other, Hazel would start barking when she'd hear you trying to sneak out of Justin's bedroom when you'd sleep over." He laughs as he sits down next to me.

I pull my earphones out of my ears and hang then around my neck. "Once a habit is formed, it's hard to break."

Rob nods and runs his fingers through his hair, "Don't tell Jade," He begins as he leans to one side as he slips his hand into his jean pocket. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and shows them to me, shrugging his shoulders when I look at him with an arched brow. "Like you said, once a habit is formed, it's hard to break."

He flips the pack over and taps it against his wrist, slipping the white cigarette between his lips before he lights it and takes a drag.

"Don't tell Jax," I say, "Can I bum one?"

Rob chuckles and hands me new cigarette and his black lighter. I don't smoke, not often anyways. I'm not exactly sure when I even started but all I know is that at some point I did.

"When you'd start?" he asks, referring to my smoking habit.

I shrug, "Not exactly sure."

We sit and smoke in silence. Robert finishes his cigarette before I finish mine and he lights another, blowing the smoke into the air before us.

"He still loves you," he suddenly says. The atmosphere between us shifts and I stub my cigarette out on the bottom of my shoe. "It might not be the same love it was five years ago, but it's still there. It'll always be. That's just the type of guy Justin is. And I know that what happened between the two of you was unavoidable and that things didn't end so well but he doesn't deserve what you've given him in the time you've been here."

Clicking my tongue, I push my fingers through my hair, "Is this the nice way of telling me I've been a bitch to Justin? Because if so, damn Rob, you've gotten soft in your old age." I half tease. When we were younger, Robert was always the standoffish one. He observed. He analyzed. And when he found it worth it, he spoke up and held nothing back. He had no filter. But now? Old age changes people I guess.

Rob shrugs, "It's my way of not pissing Jade off if she hears about this conversation."

"You think I'm gonna run to Jade and tell her you called me a bitch?" I laugh. "C'mon Rob, seriously? You've called me worse and never did I run to either Justin or Jade to tattle on you. I'm a big girl, I can handle a little name calling."

It's like we're twenty again, standing on the balcony of his and Justin's first place that they shared together, and he's trying to figure out what exactly is going on between his best friend and I.

Despite the darkness, I can feel his eyes studying my face as he tries to analyze what exactly is going through my mind or what I'm feeling in that moment.

"Stop being such a bitch." He says, his voice void of any emotion whatsoever. "Consider his feelings next time. No guy wants to hear the girl they thought they were going to spend the rest of their life with say that they're in love with someone else."

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