Apparently I was insane enough to not question him and just follow him up to the roof. The cold freeze immediately hit me straight in the face. Up on the house you could really feel it. I climbed with him up to the top of the roof where there was a spot you could sit on. We both swiftly did. The view up there was... different. In the city you would see lights, skyscrapers and cars zooming past, but there it was just darkness. The only thing that lit up the sky was the sun that was slowly setting behind the hills and trees. It was definitely different.

"I come here to cool off.", he explained.

I took a deep breath again. It almost felt like I could drown in the cool air. He was right, it did make me feel calmer, but not less annoyed.

"She's so annoying.", I chuckled.

"Sometimes.", he mumbled.

I looked over at him, he seemed distant. Not physically but emotionally, like he was putting something off. Maybe it had to do with what Nathalie had said.

"What did Nathalie mean when she said it was cruel of me to be here?", I asked.

He stayed silent for a few seconds, those few seconds felt like hours. 

Without looking at me he just bluntly responded: "Nothing important. Just Nathalie being the overdramatic little princess she is."

He almost smiled when he said this, but you could tell he couldn't. Something kept him from it. The fact that he used her real name and mocked the way I called her a princess earlier made it clear to me that he was faking, he was trying to hide behind a joke. Which was actually my thing and I wouldn't let anyone try to steal that from me.

"Philip, what did she mean?", I insisted.

He suddenly chuckled which made me flinch a little, did I finally break him? The look he gave me told me everything and nothing at the same time. Almost like looking at a blurry mirror, I couldn't quite read him yet. 

He stopped chuckling and smiled: "You are so stubborn, you know that right?"

I just shrugged and waited for him to answer me. It took him a moment, you could tell he was hesitant if he actually wanted to say what he was going to say. While staring at the sunset he said: "I used to have a sister."

My mind was still processing what he said when he added: "Lily. She died when I was six and she was five. She would have been your age."

I wasn't sure what to say. Should I have even said something? No sentence I could have come up with would make this even slightly less tense. He tried looking over at me but stopped himself, clearly also unsure what to say or do next.

"We have a spare bedroom so my parents thought that we might as well use it for something... they always took in only boys though, you know, until you."

We stay silent again. Last time we were this quiet was when we walked to school together on the first day, now that silence made sense.

"I don't mind you being here. It's just... when I see how my mom looks at you..."

He struggled to say the next part: "I don't even know. Is it grief? Hope? Sadness? I don’t know."

The way she looked at me. That was the reason she always gave me that unexplainable look. She was a grown woman, I couldn't figure out why she even chose to foster a young girl if she knew it would be difficult for her. I didn't even want to know. Maybe the answer scared me too much or I just tried to pretend like I didn't care. The nervousness started to creep up on me and I realised if I didn't say something soon I'd crumble from the pressure.

"Wow. And I thought I had it rough.", I joked.

This seemed to lighten the mood a little. We both chuckled and soon after he cleared his throat and added: "That's what Nellie meant, I think."

I looked over at him. Once again he called her Nellie and he didn't seem to care all that much about her being jealous, or maybe he was just being clueless again. Trust me, speaking from experience some guys truly do not know when a girl likes them. 

So I tried to nudge it out of him a little: "She definitely cares about you. Like a lot."

He gently nodded, not saying anything. Okay maybe a nudge wouldn't be enough, how about a push instead?

"Like a lot, a lot.", I added and moved closer to him, in case he didn't hear me loud enough the first time.

He nodded and chuckled: "Okay, I get it. She has a crush on me, I know."

My head turns in his direction before moving away from him. I didn't expect him to be so blunt with it. Clueless Philip isn't as clueless as I thought.

"You know? But- Okay... So, now what?"

"What?", he mumbled.

"Are you going to do anything about it?"

He looked a bit confused at first. It took him a few seconds to respond: "I- I am doing something about it. We used to be really close but once I learned she had a crush I pulled away a bit."

That explained why he called her Nellie, but also why they didn't really seem to talk much. Must be awkward for him, maybe also her if she knew that he knew. 

His decision did make me wonder: "Why? You don't like her back?"

"I never said that."

"Then what is it?"

At that point it was obvious that my interrogation seemed to make him annoyed. But I couldn't help myself. A stuck up rich girl crushing on a laid back jock dude? You didn't see that every day. 

Before I could question him further he decided to just cut the interrogation short by saying: "I mean, she's too young for me."

"Too young? I'm in the same grade as her! You think a year is too young? No wonder you're single, you're setting the bar too high!", I explained.

"...Nellie isn't a year younger than me."

"Huh?"

"She skipped a grade. She's 14."

My jaw dropped. No thoughts came to mind, just empty shock.

"Are you, Philip Evermore, telling me that a 14 year old has been bossing me around?"

He laughed and put his head down, clearly amused by my shocked reaction. How couldn't I be?! That girl has tried to boss me around, was rude to me and acted like she was above me while she was younger than me! Unbelievable!

"Wow. Just wow.", was all I could utter.

He just kept giggling to himself. He seemed conflicted, to me at least. He never said he didn't like her, and well he never confirmed he did, but he seemed to smile and laugh more when we talked about her. Philip called that Blondie Nellie for heaven's sake! Why would he do that if there were no feelings there. Seemed like a waste to not go for it just because of a 2 year difference. Don't get me wrong, I hated her but if he saw something in that Nellie that had to mean there was something in that cold dead heart of hers. Or maybe Philip was just stupid.

"She's quite mature for her age though, wouldn't you say?", I smiled.

"I would if I wanted to sound like a creep.", he sarcastically smiled back.

I scoffed: "You wouldn't-"

Suddenly we heard the window open. We both looked back and there was Steve staring at us. First he seemed surprised but then annoyed. Oh, is Philip in trouble because of me? Seemed like it, since his father immediately told us to get out of there and go to the living room with him. At least Philip was their biological son, unless they wanted to disown him they couldn't get rid of him that easily. But me?

Philip got off the roof first and I took a last look at the sunset. Still pretty, but now the sun was almost fully set. The shadow of the Black Forest became darker. That place really creeped me out for some reason. Just as I was about to look away in the corner of my eye I saw a bright red light flash in the forest. I quickly turned again and it was gone. What the heck was that?

The clock above the deer picture on the fireplace ticked as Lyana stared at us, crossed arms, not really pleased.

"Didn't I tell you specifically not to go on the roof anymore?", she asked.

Oh okay, yeah, Philip was in trouble. I just hoped that the worse they were going to do was ground him or take his phone away.

"Yeah. Well, Fifi was a bit worked up and-"

Lyana's eyes widened and she cut him off: "Worked up? About what? Did something happen?"

This seemed to catch Philip off guard. I don't think he expected that sort of reaction from her, well, I did. Seemed like they hadn't told him about my history.

"I just got mad, that's it." I shrugged.

"You didn't... damage anything, did you?"

Philip immediately turned to me, still confused. I shook my head while thinking about the trash can. Unlike Philip I wasn't a good liar and his parents gave me the old we doubt that look that every parent gives to their child.

"I kicked a trash can.", I mumbled under my breath.

"Lightly.", Philip added.

At least Philip was there to soften the blow. It was just a trash can, I thought. They wouldn't send me away for that! Right? Like I cared! I wanted to be sent away... right? I glanced up at them, they didn't seem as mad as I thought they would be.

"Well, don't do that. We don't want our neighbours to get mad at you.", Steve said.

We don't want them to get mad at you. That statement echoed in my head like a drum. They didn't want others to get mad at me? Aren't they mad at me now? Their faces definitely didn't read as mad, maybe disappointed or confused but not mad. Are they really not mad? Should I add that I kicked it three times, and not lightly?

"Okay, I won't do it again.", I mumbled, still a bit confused about their nonchalance.

Steve clapped his hands together and stood up from his seat. Is the conversation over?, I thought. He smiled at us and explained: "Dinner is in the kitchen. I'll go work on the pool."

That's it? No punishment? I looked around and everyone was already walking their separate ways. Before I could walk upstairs Lyana once again stopped me. From the corner of my eye I could see Philip looking back at us from the top of the stairs. 

"I wanted to ask you something." She looked nervous. Oh god, don't tell me she wanted to ask me a teen question or something. If she would have asked if I had a crush I would have jumped out of the window. Maybe she would finally mention the punishment she thought of.

"Sure.", I sweat and glanced up at Philip who was secretly listening in.

"Have you been to the Black Forest?"

I looked over at her, a bit confused: "No? Why?"

She looked around before getting something from the coffee table and handing it to me. The pine needle.

"I found this in your jacket.", she explained.

"The pine needle? Don't they grow all over the place?"

She smiled softly, almost like she found my question a bit funny. But then her expression shifted, now more concerned. 

"That's not a pine needle. It's a fir needle."

There's a difference?

"Okay?", I nervously chuckled, not really getting her point.

"Fir trees only grow in the Black Forest."

Oh. Oh. I glanced down at the fir needle, why would it be at Mr James' shop? Did the person that rob the place been in the Black Forest? At the time nothing really seemed to fit for me. Somehow everything about that Forest seemed off and weird. I quickly tried to come up with an excuse for me having it in my jacket, the excuse being "I don’t know how it got there." She seemed to believe it though, or at least she didn't want to push any further, and let me go. I quickly tried running upstairs but bumped into Philip, forgetting that he was there listening in.

"What was that about?", he wondered.

I walked with him upstairs and held up the needle in front of him. He raised a brow.

"I found this at Mr James' shop.", I explained and quickly added: "Why would’ve the robber been in the Black Forest before robbing the place?"

He shrugged, although clearly interested. "You should go to aunt Molly about that."

I tiled my head in disbelief. I wanted to scream at him to think for five seconds.

"Which one of us wants to tell her how I found this? Wanna flip a coin?"

He lightly nodded his head as he thought about something: "Good point."

We started walking down the hallway together. A lot of thoughts were going through my mind at that point. What's with this fir needle? The Forest? The weird red light that I wasn't sure if I was hallucinated or not. Something was definitely going on, maybe something I could write about. Gosh, what if I would write the coolest and not boring article that Blondie ever saw? Beat her at her own game? Yeah, that definitely would have put her in her place.

Before we walked into our bedrooms I turned to Philip: "Can we go to the abandoned building tomorrow?"