She was crying. She was breaking. Facing the mirror, looking at her reflection. Seeing the tears running down her face. Seeing the emotions in her eyes. The rage, the sadness, the regret. Then, she hears something hitting the window. She ignores it. But, something hits it again, harder. She closes her bedroom door, she knows who it is, and leans over the windowsill, looking down at her garden. And there he is. Seth Jones, the boy of the pretty smile and the determined voice, who knows her better than her own diary. She opens the window, and they stare at each other for some long five seconds. Then, she looks down and sighs. And without another glance, he climbs the yellow ladder that is leaning against the window since she was little, when she was afraid that one day she would wake up and see everything around her on fire. It was a matter of precaution. But, that was her problem ever since the accident happened, she had gotten cautious, worried about what might happen. Living in the past, forgetting the present and avoiding the future.

He climbs the stairs, until he is only five inches away from her, and the only thing standing between them is the, now, dead rose he had given her for Valentine’s Day. They stare at the rose. “It was one of the happiest days of my life, I remember it as if it were yesterday,” he smiles, “we were in history lesson, and as always you arrived late, with your pink dress and-” but he’s not able to continue, just before he says the next word, she starts sobbing loudly. He looks at her, hurt, thinking of how he would do anything to erase that day of her mind. The day her world collapsed. She was six, and was playing in the garden. When she hears a scream from inside the house, it was her mother. She was afraid, but followed the scream to her bedroom anyways. She entered, and saw her mother on the floor, enable to move. Scared, she froze, watching her mother’s eyes closing slowly and enable to do anything but hearing her mother’s last words: “Without you, I am your dream, only that, and that is all.” It’s been twelve years now. But the pain and the guilt never go away. And he knows it.

When, the last tear drops. She tries to dry her face with her hands. “Stop” he whispers, taking her hand “You know you don’t have to hide with me.” His dark green eyes meet hers, now red from crying “I’ve seen you cry, I’ve seen you laugh. You may think you’re weak, but you’re strong. Cry, you can cry. Let every emotion inside you go, through your tears. I’ll be here, I won’t leave you. Cry, let it go.” As she looks deeply in his eyes, she notices he is starting to tear. “I know, the pain won’t go and a piece of me dies every time I think of how incapable of making you feel better I am, but-” But, before he can finish, she hugs him, and sinks her head in his shoulder, looking for the comfort that had gotten her through so much. Listening to his heartbeats, hearing his heavy breaths. “Come inside.” She lets him go, and he jumps through the window, entering in the dark room. He looks around. He seems to be looking for something. And then he finds it. A small jade stone, sitting on the bedside table, next to a picture of her mother. He picks it up and tells her in a low tone “I remember this stone. I gave it to you three years ago-” but his voice starts falling and she feels the need to say something. “It was meant to represent our strength, I remember,” she whispers. He turns, and looks at her in the eye. Both of them are thinking of the same thing. Three years ago, he told her he couldn’t do this with her anymore. It was too much drama. It is still the biggest regret of his life. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for being a coward. I’m so sorry for having abandoned you when you needed me the most. I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have left.” He starts walking towards her and takes her hand. “I hurt you, more than I should’ve-“ But she interrupts him “Stop, just stop. You are here now. We are here now.” He leans forward, and kisses her intensely, feeling every touch, every emotion. But, after a few seconds, she pulls him back. And still feeling his hands in her hips she says, “You know, after all that happened. All that I went through. You were the one thing I don’t regret. The one thing I’m proud of having.” She looks down. She is smiling, something he hasn’t seen in a long time. “Every year, you’re here. Every year, you hold me while I cry.” Then, she looks up. “Twelve years ago, I fell, I fell hard and I broke into pieces. But, coincidentally, twelve years ago, I met you. The new boy in the neighborhood.” He starts smiling too. “You found me, hidden behind that ladder, crying and the first thing you told me was: ‘How can something so beautiful be crying, when butterflies only live three days and Winters are tuning into Summers?’” He starts laughing and holding her tightly. “It didn’t make sense at all, but it made me smile. It was the first time I smiled after what happened to my mother. And, it was in that moment that something inside me came up, something new, a warm feeling that overloaded me with happiness and-” But he interrupts her, with a wide smile in his lips “And it was in that moment that we fell as hard as we could for each other. We were six, we were innocent. Yet, we found each other. Some might say luck, but I call it fate.” She hugs him, and whispers in his ear “People say love is a funny thing, and now, I finally got the joke.”

They laughed, and then spent the night lying in bed together contemplating the beauty of silence. Holding hands. Eventually, she fell asleep, and for the first time in twelve years, she did it smiling. He was there, and he will always be there, ready to climb that ladder every night she needs comfort or support, and she knows it. That yellow ladder outside her window, wasn’t just a simple ladder anymore, it was the bridge between her world and his.