My Neighbor-s Son Part 1 - Jack Radley Rafael... -

He was perched on his own roof, one knee drawn to his chest, a cigarette burning between his fingers even though he couldn’t have been older than me. The moonlight hit his face—sharp jaw, dark eyes, a small scar cutting through his left eyebrow. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the sky, like he was waiting for something to fall.

My name is Lena, and I had just turned seventeen. I lived at 42 Maple Street, in the kind of quiet suburban neighborhood where the biggest crime was Mrs. Gable letting her roses choke the sidewalk. The house next door, number 44, had been empty for three years—ever since the old Rafferty woman went to a nursing home. Weeds took over the lawn. The porch swing rusted. I’d grown used to the silence.

“Sure.” He took a drag from the cigarette, exhaled a plume of smoke that curled up like a question. “Then why are you out here at two a.m., Lena?” My Neighbor-s Son PART 1 - Jack Radley Rafael...

Heat flooded my cheeks. “I don’t stare.”

“You’re the girl from 42,” he said. His voice was low, rougher than I expected. “The one who pretends not to stare.” He was perched on his own roof, one

He smiled again.

“He’s your age,” my mother said, peering through the blinds. “Maybe you’ll be friends.” He was looking at the sky, like he

He nodded, like that made perfect sense. Then he flicked the cigarette into the dark and patted the shingle beside him.