Rooftops

Chapter 8

5 YEARS LATER

I wake up to the incandescent morning light spilling through the gap between the thick curtains. Now I'm half conscious, the possibility of returning to sleep likely.

Next I hear Ben's pacing on the kitchen floorboards two rooms away. He's not wearing shoes, but the soft pattering is loud enough to really wake me up. I push myself upright using my hands, and stare at the door.

"I can't do this anymore, Heidi," the same crushing sentence every day. "It's too...enclosed."

I don't reply, but set my hands to work by making one cup of tea.

I can feel his presence behind me.

"Do you ever stop and think? Think about how much better off we'd be living as we were?"

"I wish you could go." He doesn't say anything for a while, so I turn to face him. "You're like a little bug...a midge of sorts. The ones that swarm in the summer evenings to eat your skin when all you really want to do is sit by the campfire and talk all night."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Can't you figure it out? Do you ever think about what I must be feeling?"

"I don't need to. Whatever you are feeling I must be worse off."

"Do, go on." I cross my arms.

"You can write here, and read books and do whatever it is you want to. Have long baths and other pointless shit." A sword to my stomach. "What can I do here? Nothing, can I Heidi?"

I take my cup into my hands and walk over to the sliding doors, opening my way into the forest.

A/N

This is a short one so I'll post again tomorrow.

I genuinely have no internet at the moment, so I'm relying on 3G when I go to town and stuff, but that's not great to post stuff with!

But I am going to a friends house tomorrow so I'll sneakily get some wifi :) The next ones better I promise!

Thanks for all the lovely comments, it makes my day!

If you could feedback on anything (literally anything, a sentence that didn't sound right etc) that would reassure me a lot - not one writer doesn't need criticism!