Promise, Charlie

1. roof sitting

Charlie

There was a 25 percent chance I could die right now. Or at the very least break a limb.

Was I kidnapped? No, I was here entirely by free choice, and I still don't know why.

This whole situation screamed an accident just waiting to happen, but did that stop me? Sadly not.

I guess you could say I was in danger from my own stupidity. One would hope my own safety was enough to keep me from getting in situations featuring a twenty-foot death drop and near possible death. Yet, here I was.

And where would that be exactly?

Well, the short answer is nowhere. At least, nowhere special.

I was home.

On my roof, to be more specific, and in genuine danger of losing my footing and bruising a rib in the next ten seconds.

The two-story free fall onto my front lawn did not seem appealing. Neither did the dead bushes waiting below or the idea of being found unconscious when Dad came home from work later tonight.

Still, I stayed put.

From my vantage point, I could faintly make out the city skyline; I had forgotten how breathtaking it truly was.

Usually when I needed the quiet downtime, I opted for a local coffee shop, ordered a caffè macchiato size large, and chilled at a secluded table.

Never had I thought of climbing up here. Not only for fear of breaking a limb but also for fellow onlookers and neighborhood joggers seeing me and wondering what the hell I was doing.

The twenty-foot plunge, though daunting, did not make me shy away. More, it was the unwanted attention and questions I'd receive from being up here so late, and currently I was not in the mood to answer such remarks.

Luckily, today I'd have nothing to worry about.

How did I know? Because today was Friday. A quarter past eight to be exact, and I bet my entire left body that everyone around was already at the high school football game, crowding the bleachers and waving ridiculous foam fingers.

And usually, I'd be one of them. Well, not in the bleachers but on the sidelines, waving my green and gold pom-poms and chanting 'go team!' for minutes on end.

Not today, however.

As of ten minutes ago, I had six missed calls from Anastasia, twenty-four unopened texts from Elizabeth, and thirty-two missed FaceTimes from Becca. Not to mention the entire pool of notifications from my flooded DMs.

Though, this probably raises more questions: why were these girls trying to get hold of me? Is there a reason I wasn't responding? And the more troubling: why a roof?

Granted, this wasn't my first time being up here; three years ago, I could climb up with ease and lay on this exact spot for hours on end.

Now, while the rest of my cheer mates were busy prepping for the big game against Hunter High tonight, I was currently MIA and ignoring all forms of contact. So what place better than a roof?

'OMG C, where are you??'

'Zanko is going to freak. You're our center flyer.'

'Call me babe, are you ok?'

'Srsly, this isn't like you...' And it really wasn't.

Straight after last block, I made the last-minute decision to ditch my cheer bag in the locker room, hop on the bus instead, and watch Netflix until dawn.