Chapter 27: The Girl on the Roof
The stars were louder up here.
Bea sat cross-legged on the roof of their almost-finished home, a blanket draped around her shoulders. The night wind played with her curls as if it, too, had fallen in love with her. Beside her, Nova climbed up slowly, carrying two mugs of warm ginger tea.
"You always come up here when you're thinking," Nova said, handing her the cup.
Bea took it gently. "I come up here when I need to breathe."
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A Height Above It All
The city looked small from this high. The chaos, the noise, the heartbreak—it all dimmed under the velvet sky. For a moment, they weren't two women trying to outrun their pasts. They were just souls under stars, wrapped in a night that didn't judge them.
Nova leaned back, her body stretched across the cool tiles. "If we jump, would the sky catch us?"
Bea laughed softly. "I think it already has."
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Gravity of Words
They sat in silence, listening to the pulse of the night.
Then Bea spoke. "I used to come up here in my old house too. When my mom would yell. When I didn't feel safe in my skin. I'd climb out the window and count stars like they could answer me."
Nova reached for her hand. "What did you ask them?"
"If I'd ever be free."
"And what did they say?"
Bea turned her gaze to Nova, her eyes soft. "They said I'd meet you."
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The First Kiss on the Roof
There, under the cosmos, Nova kissed her.
Not out of passion. Not to claim. But because no other moment had ever deserved a kiss more.
It was the kind of kiss that rewrote gravity. The kind that said we are not running anymore. That every bruise, every broken promise, every long night had been a map—leading right here.
To this rooftop.
To this love.
To each other.
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Dreams Out Loud
"Say one dream out loud," Nova whispered against Bea's cheek.
Bea smiled, eyes closed. "That we write our story and the world reads it."
Nova grinned. "Already working on that."
"Your turn," Bea said.
Nova looked up at the sky. "That we grow old, and your laugh still makes me forget how to breathe."
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Back Down to Earth
When they finally climbed back down, their fingers were inked with starlight. They were still girls with fears. Still women with scars. But they were something new now too.
They were two voices speaking the same vow in the dark:
I choose you.
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End of Chapter 27