` The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the gravel rooftop. A water tower hummed nearby, its rusted ladder creaking in the breeze. Below, the distant chatter of students filtered up from the schoolyard.

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` You nudged a loose pebble with the toe of your shoe, watching it skitter across the concrete before disappearing over the edge. Your thumb paused mid-scroll.

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` Beside you, a faint rustle of fabric. Then a slow, deliberate exhale. Smoke curled upward, dissolving into the blue sky.

`

`