Promise Me Tomorrow

Day 1

Ten stories up, one hundred feet off the ground. The view was nice, the sun backlighting all the buildings reaching for the sky; too bad Jensen couldn't take his eyes off the tip of his toes just barely reaching over the edge. It was dizzying, but Jensen only managed a loose grip on the rail as he looked down to the street. The wind chilled his tears, ruffling his hair and shirt as well.

This was it, he glanced down at his backpack leaned up on the safe side of the railing, water-logged cell phone sitting at the bottom wrapped in the grey button down he was wearing now covered in rainbow glitter, along with his books and notes. Why him, the thought made him choke on a sob, hands tightening to the rail as he accidently leaned forward. This was the end, and he didn't know what was making him cry more, the fact that it has come to this, or that he was still too scared to do it.

The silence was interrupted by the metal door to the roof scraping along the concrete. Jensen's head snapped behind him to see who was there and he got stared right back at, or at least he thought so. Blacked out sunglasses hid the blonde stranger's eyes, but he didn't move or say anything, just looked directly at Jensen before straightening up and stepping out of the way for the door to swing shut with the same grating sound

"Ah, I g-guess..."

"That sucks," He stared off to the left letting out smoke, the bitter smell drifting to Jensen. "I'm having a last smoke before I'm gone."

"Wha- why?" How was he so lucid, speaking steadily and clearly while Jensen could barely get one broken word out of his raw throat before wanting to crumble to pieces.

"Made the decision that once I was out I would, annnnd-" the stranger didn't finish, just crushed the box and tossed it aside with a shrug.

"No, um, why... Ya' know-" He tilted his head to the ground, not even attempting to say it

"Kill myself?" Jensen nodded and the stranger shrugged again, "Honestly take your pick of reasons." Another shrug, tapping ash off the end of his cigarette, letting out smoke. He stayed quiet for a bit before asking, "What about you? Last chance to say it."

Jensen looked back at his feet. "Because..." What even was his reason? It didn't feel like one thing anymore but a bunch of things that all added up until- "I just can't take it anymore."

There were some muted steps before the railing shook a bit as the stranger leaned on the rail. It was hard to read his thoughts behind the sunglasses that just seemed to darken the closer he looked. The stranger made a motion for him to continue, and Jensen leaned back on the railing, relaxing slightly.

"I have a twin brother; he's the model student, everyone likes him, and I'm, I'm just a worse version of him." He could feel his tears starting again, but didn't try to stop it, "Everyone thinks it, half my school is convinced that I don't even exist and when they do talk to me... it's just to mock me and now... even attack me. I... I just can't take it anymore." His words turned to sobs wiping the tears from his eyes, and his grip tightened again when he tittered forward.

The stranger hummed, and Jensen looked back to him. He was looking off towards the skyline, mouth and nose twitching every so often, before he let out a sigh, stubbing out the cigarette butt and flicking it to the street. "Well, here's my last good deed." The stranger grabbed Jensen's waist and pulled him backwards, his hand immediately tightened on the railing as he turned to try and look at him.

"What are-"

"What?"

"Go disappear one day, pack up everything important, take your money and run, get a job in a different city, start over; YOUR demon has a body." He put a finger to his temple, "Mine's this bastard in my head that won't shut up. He wants me to be like him, but I have enough common sense to know that beating someone to death with a bat is not really the best idea."