Eyes wide open for the sun to flood in them, they were laughing. It was the early afternoon, and Jake had skipped school to come and visit him longer. Simeon was sitting on the window ledge, hands on his lap, legs swinging in the void. If he made a wrong move, he'd fall. If he laughed a little too hard, or got frightened and jumped a little, he'd fall. But he was laughing, with Jake down in the street, and he was baithing in the sunlight, and fresh air of the outside. Simeon had never felt safer.

"Romeo, Romeo! Why are you Romeo!" He screamed happily.
"Hey, why am I Romeo?" The boy pouted.
"Well, obviously, I'm stuck on this balcony, and you're way more masculine than I'd ever be!"
"I agree with that, you'd make a wonderful Juliet", Jack smirked, aknowledging the slight blush that had appeared on his friend's cheeks. "But still, he added, I don't like this play."
"Oh, why is that? It's my favorite."
"Because of the end. I hate sad stories. Stories that are not meant to end good shouldn't be meant at all", he answered with angry eyes.
"Oh", Simeon simply whispered, looking lost. Deep down he was wondering if their story was meant to end good. Probably not. He was shut there, after all, and for all he knew, he was still a boy. No kid can make it out of there. That was true, he knew it. That's what had always been said to him.

The day after, Jake came back with a guitar. Simeon had no clue he could sing, but obviously there were lots of things Simeon had no clue about. The teenager played a lot of songs he wouldn't aknowledge, for he had been locked up for so long, but still it was beautiful to hear. And it was a beautiful thing for sure too, to feel the sun over his skin and the music in his ears and the words flooding out of his mouth, now that he was no longer alone, now that he wouldn't need to talk to his bedrooms walls. And it was a beautiful thing too, the day after, when Jake sent chocolates flying to his room, and to discover the sweet taste on his tongue. It was nice, the smiling and the pouting and the laughing, when he was desperate to teach an undisciplinated Jack how to make paperplanes. It felt good, it felt right. And at some point, according to any book Simeon had read, he found himself in love.

Of course he didn't show it though. It would have been crazy of him, to risk losing his only friend. There was no reason to feel uncomfortable anyway, they couldn't touch each other, they couldn't breath together, both of them could barely have a glimpse of the colour of their eyes. So Simeon kept feeling right and good with Jake, he went on listening to the comfortable voice, and if he found himself blushing and dreaming about him, well then nobody had to know.

Sometimes, Jake went rambling about what they'd do when Simeon would be set free. Oh how the boy had wanderlust. He wanted to travel anywhere in the world with him, just the two of them, and make up from everything that had been taken away from them -all the memories that had been erased, all the places they couldn't have seen, all the songs Simeon didn't know and the food he had never eaten. He wanted to see the Coral Barrior before it died. Jake wished to see the Grand Canyon. They kept talking for long afternoons, dreaming about Broadway and Paris and Tokyo, and how they would go on a road trip, them alone, baithing in the midday sun. It made them smile; but still it hurt somehow. There was something Simeon knew, and Jake seemed to have no clue about how all of this was only daydreaming. Of course Jake knew he was locked. But he kept trying and trying to persuade Simeon he could escape this room. He had sworn not to tell any soul, and much less the police, but he kept begging and begging for the other boy to release him from that promise. And it could have happened.

Eventually, it could have happened. Jake could have gone to the police, with Simeon's blessing, and the end of this story could have been really, really different. Because there was something, something that was true, and nothing would have been the same if only Jack had dared to say this thing, this one thing that Simeon didn't know.

And that was

"I love you."