The Two Middles

Chapter 16: I'm Yours

“Aubrey, trust me! Leave it and give me your hand!”

“I’m gonna fall and crack my head open if I do!” I yelled in protest, my hands gripping the ladder tightly.

“You have a safety harness, for god’s sake! Even if you fall, you’re not gonna touch the ground! You’re gonna fall for a second, then stop.”

“Preston, I am not letting go!” I yelled.

“Ok, let’s do this step by step,” he said.

“OK!” I yelled back.

“Step 1:” he said. “Stop yelling,”

“Okay!” I shout-whispered.

“Step two: use your brilliant imagination and imagine my hand is a ladder rung,” he said.

“Okay,” I said.

“Step three: Keep one hand on the white ladder rung, and place the other one on the skin-coloured ladder rung that is my hand,” he said.

“Okay,” I said, taking one hand off the ladder and instantly gripping Preston’s hand with it.

“Awesome,” he said. “Step five: There’s another skin-coloured ladder rung here. Take your other hand off the white one and use it to grip the skin-coloured one,”

Very, very reluctantly, I lifted my other hand off the ladder rung and placed it in Preston’s free hand.

“All good,” he said, calmly. “Step six: let me hoist you up.”

“Okay!” I said as he pulled me up to the roof.

“There,” he said, sitting down in the tiled, sloping roof. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Are you kidding me?! That was the scariest thing I’ve done in my entire life!”

“You had a harness!”

“It was a bedsheet tied to your bedpost!”

“I didn’t have rope!”

“I could’ve died!”

“But you didn’t! Besides, this is worth it. Look.”

He was so right. The cold, late-evening air hung still as it enveloped us. I could see the whole city from up here! Nah, not really. Just a few houses to the left and right. But it was still pretty amazing. Stars were starting to show themselves as they emerged, one after the other, forming patterns I couldn’t quite recognize because I’m pathetic at constellations. Anyways, it was pretty cool – the sky was turning purple as the stars twinkled, adding to its glamour; the cool air made you want to breathe more; the rooftops of all the other houses stretched endlessly on either sides of me, and it was all perfect.

Preston and I had decided to climb up to the roof after the Dad incident, to clear our heads off and spend some time together. So we’d climbed out of Preston’s bedroom window and onto the roof. There was a ladder from all the rooms upstairs leading to the roof. The builders had initially claimed that it was a fire escape. Yeah right. Why would anyone climb up to the roof if there was a fire? We all knew it was a very, very, very stupid and implausible mistake. But the ladder made everything everything easy as pie. Yeah right. That's  why I'd needed a safety harness.

Anyway, about my dad. I’d said what I’d wanted to say to him, and my decision was final. He could push me into anything he wanted to, but I wouldn’t give in. Like Jaden had said, I’m good. And good people are strong. And I’m strong. I could always ignore my dad What he had to say about my grades didn’t matter anymore. I just wish he cared a little more about me as a human and my interests. Oh well.