We are the boys

Dev talks to Ty

I found Ty on the roof at 11 PM. He always goes there when he doesn’t want to be found. The city’s holo-ads flicker below us, casting blue and red across his face.

“You didn’t have to wait for me,” he says without turning around.

“I did,” I say. “You’re mad at Marcus, not me.”

“Am I?” He laughs, short and bitter. “He tells you first. You keep it for him. What am I, the last to know?”

“That’s not it,” I say. “He was scared. You know how he gets when he thinks he’s gonna lose people.”

“Yeah, by leaving.” Ty finally looks at me. “For ten years it’s been us. Now it’s him and a shuttle ticket.”

I sit down next to him, legs dangling over the edge.

“Do you want him to stay and rot at the freight yard with you?” I ask.

Ty goes quiet for a long time.

“No,” he mutters. “I just wanted him to say it to my face. Not through a text you hid.”

The words land harder than I expect.

“I wasn’t hiding it for him,” I say. “I was hiding it for us. I thought if I could hold it together for a few more days, maybe it wouldn’t feel so real.”

Ty shakes his head.

“Dev, it’s already real.”

Below us, a cargo drone lifts off toward the orbital ring. Monday’s getting closer.

We sit there without saying anything else. Because for the first time, I don’t know what to say that’ll fix it.