Chapter 7 The rooftops

Brianna couldn't sleep.

She stared at the ceiling, the glow of her phone screen fading beside her. Lydia was out cold, breathing softly from the other side of the room. But Brianna's mind was restless - tangled up in quiet words and the way Malvin had said her name.

You don't have to stay strong all the time.

She hated how those words had stayed with her.

Without thinking, she grabbed her hoodie and slipped on her sneakers. The night air outside was cool, almost crisp, and the campus was mostly asleep. She walked with no direction, hands buried in her pockets, letting the silence press against her skin.

She didn't expect to find him there.

On the rooftop of the arts building, legs dangling over the edge like the night couldn't touch him.

Malvin.

He turned when he heard her footsteps. Didn't look surprised.

"You always show up when I'm trying to be alone," he said, but there was no annoyance in his voice.

"Funny," she said. "I could say the same."

She walked over and sat a few feet from him, pulling her knees to her chest. Below them, the campus was a patchwork of glowing windows and empty streets. Above, a sky full of stars Brianna had never bothered to notice before.

For a moment, neither of them said anything.

Then he asked, "You couldn't sleep?"

She shook her head. "You?"

"I don't sleep much."

"Why not?"

He was quiet for a while. Then, almost too softly:

"Too many things I don't want to dream about."

Brianna looked over at him, caught off guard by the rawness in his voice. This version of Malvin wasn't guarded. Wasn't sarcastic or smooth. He just... was.

"I get that," she said.

He turned toward her, eyes darker than the sky above them. "What broke you?"

She blinked.

"No one asks like that," she whispered.

"I don't ask questions I don't want the answers to."

Brianna looked away. Her throat felt tight. "Someone made me feel seen. And then left. Like none of it mattered. Like I never mattered."

Malvin nodded slowly. "People can be selfish. Especially when they're scared."

"Were you scared?" she asked.

He didn't flinch.

"Yes."

The word hung there between them - naked, simple, heavy.

And for once, Brianna didn't feel like covering her pain up with sarcasm or distance.

They sat there in silence, not touching, not reaching - just existing in the same broken honesty.

The wind brushed against them like the world was holding its breath.

And for the first time in a long time, neither of them felt alone in their pain.

The silence between them was different now.

Not cold. Not forced. But full - like it was holding all the things they didn't have the strength to say out loud.

Brianna leaned back against the concrete wall behind her, her breath clouding faintly in the cool air.

"I don't usually tell people that," she said quietly.

"I know," Malvin replied. "That's why it mattered."

She glanced over at him. His legs were still dangling over the edge, but his posture had shifted - slightly hunched forward, like the weight of what he'd just admitted was finally catching up to him.

"I used to think," he went on, "that if I kept everything buried, it would make me strong. Untouchable."

"Does it?" she asked.

"No," he said. "It just makes you tired."

That hit harder than she expected.

They sat in silence again, but it was a silence full of truth. Honest. Raw. Human.

Then, quietly, he asked, "What would you do if no one was watching?"

Brianna frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"If no one had expectations. If no one could hurt you or judge you or leave. What would you do with your life?"

She stared at the stars, really looking at them for once.

"I'd write," she said. "I used to, before I stopped believing my words meant anything."

He nodded.

"You?"

"I'd design buildings that don't exist," he said. "Ones with hidden doors and secret rooms and rooftop gardens. Places people could go and feel like they mattered, even if they didn't know why."

She turned her head toward him slowly, the corner of her mouth curving ever so slightly.

"That's kind of beautiful."

He didn't smile. But something shifted in his eyes. Softer.

"I think you still believe in meaning," he said. "You're just afraid of what happens when someone proves you right."

That time, she didn't look away.

And for a moment, she wasn't thinking about the past or the hurt or the walls she'd built to protect herself.

She was just... there. On a rooftop. With someone who saw her.

Really saw her.

The wind picked up. She shivered.

Without a word, Malvin pulled off his hoodie and held it out to her.

She hesitated.

Then took it.

Their fingers brushed - warm skin against warm skin - and that tiny touch lit something quiet and wild in her chest.

He didn't say anything else.

He didn't have to.

They sat there a little longer, wrapped in borrowed silence and a hoodie that smelled like wind and something unexplainably comforting.

And for once, neither of them was hiding.