The second they noticed me walking toward them, the conversations stopped. A couple of them exchanged looks. One guy laughed under his breath. I ignored it all and kept walking until I stopped right in front of them.
“Has any of you seen Caleb?” I asked.
Nobody answered at first.
Then one of the boys leaned back against the wall and smirked. “Why? Are you his girlfriend now?”
A few of them laughed.
I should’ve turned around right then, but after everything I’d heard that morning, I wasn’t backing down.
“I just need to talk to him.”
Most of them avoided eye contact after that, but finally, another player named Drew spoke up.
“He might be at Taylor’s place.”
The others looked at him judgmentally.
“What?” Drew shrugged. “We all know they’re secretly dating.”
That came as a surprise to me.
“Taylor with the piercings?” I asked.
Drew nodded. “Her parents are out of town for the weekend.”
I asked for the address, and he gave it to me.
I thanked him and left before anyone said anything else.
Twenty minutes later, I was standing outside a small blue house after a taxi dropped me off. I knocked. Taylor answered, wearing an oversized sweatshirt, and looked genuinely shocked to see me.
“Cindy?”
“I’m sorry for showing up like this, but the police and Caleb’s parents came to my house this morning looking for him.”
The second I said Caleb’s name, her expression changed.
Then I heard footsteps behind her before Caleb appeared, looking exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept at all.
The moment he saw me, his face went pale.
“Cindy…”
I folded my arms tightly. “You were there the night of the fire?”
For a second, nobody spoke.
Then Caleb stepped outside.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
Hearing him say it out loud made my stomach twist.
“What happened?”
Caleb hesitated before answering.
“When I was nine, I saw Mason sneak out of our house late at night. He used to do stuff like that all the time back then, and I followed him on my bike because I thought it was a fun game.”
He looked down while speaking.
“I lost sight of him for a while as he was on his skateboard, but eventually I spotted him climbing out of a window at your house. Then, a few minutes later, I noticed smoke coming from the kitchen.”
I stared at him, unsure how to respond.
“I got scared and rode home. The next morning, when everyone started talking about the fire and what happened to you…” He swallowed hard. “I kept thinking if I told anyone, Mason’s life would be over.”
“So you stayed quiet?”
“I was nine.”
That made me stop for a second.
He explained that Mason kept getting into more trouble as he got older. Juvenile detention. Fights. Eventually, prison.
But Caleb never stopped thinking about that night.
Especially after starting the same school as me years later.
“Initially, I tried avoiding you,” Caleb admitted. “Every time I looked at you, I thought about the fire.”
But avoiding me became impossible.
Classes. Hallways. Football games. Group projects.
And eventually, guilt turned into something else.
Then Caleb told me something I hadn’t expected at all.
Before prom, he’d overheard some guys joking about how nobody would ask me to dance.
“I snapped at them. One of them almost punched me over it.”
Taylor stood behind us, quietly listening.
Caleb continued, “I didn’t ask you to dance because I felt sorry for you. I did it because I was tired of pretending I didn’t care about you.”
That truly surprised me.
He explained that after dropping me home, he’d gone to Taylor’s house because her parents were away and he needed advice about finally telling me the truth.
“I planned to come and talk to you today.”
I looked at him for a long moment before asking what still bothered me most.
“Why would Mason do something like that?”
Caleb shook his head slowly.
“I honestly don’t know.”
Then his expression changed slightly.
“But maybe it’s time we asked him ourselves.”
An hour later, Caleb drove us to the correctional facility two towns over.
Taylor stayed in the car while Caleb and I went inside for the visitation.
The entire drive there, my stomach stayed in knots.
Part of me expected Mason to look terrifying after everything I’d heard about him over the years.
Instead, when he walked into the visitation room, he just looked tired and older than his age.
The second he saw me sitting beside Caleb, his face fell completely.
Nobody spoke at first. Then I leaned forward and asked the only thing I cared about.
“Why did you do it?”
Mason stared at the table for several seconds, clearly aware that the jig was up.
“It wasn’t intentional. When I was 14, I used to sneak around neighborhoods at night doing stupid things. That night, I saw the garden gnome outside your house and walked over to look at it. Then I noticed the kitchen window was cracked open.”
Caleb looked tense beside me.
Mason continued.
“I climbed inside because I thought maybe I could take something small without anyone noticing. While I was in the kitchen, I lit a cigarette. After a few minutes, I left it on the counter while I looked through the living room.”
I felt sick listening to him.
“Then I heard movement and panicked. I climbed back out the window and ran.”
Caleb stared at him in disbelief.
“You never meant to start the fire?”
Mason looked genuinely confused. “I didn’t even realize there was a fire until the next morning.”
For years, Caleb had believed his brother intentionally burned my house down. You could see it all over his face.
Mason looked over at me again, shame written all over him.
“I’m sorry, Cindy. About everything.”
Silence engulfed us.
Then Mason added softly, “If you want to report it now, I understand.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
Honestly, I expected to feel anger sitting there, but mostly I felt sad.
Sad that one reckless decision from a teenager changed so many lives.
Sad that Caleb had carried guilt for almost a decade over something he barely understood as a child.
When Caleb and I left the facility, neither of us spoke much during the drive back.
But before heading home, we stopped at the police station.
I found the officers from that morning and told them everything Mason admitted.
And when they asked whether I wanted to move forward with charges, I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “I don’t, and I’m sure my mother won’t, either.”
Because nothing was going to erase my scars.
But for the first time in years, I also realized they didn’t control my life anymore, either.
And somehow, neither did the fire.
