The Ruined

It comes down to this as they're standing on the roof of the school in which they had met in a few years back. A fresh faced girl with a bright future ahead of her and a charming, athletic boy who had big things brewing for him, but one look at the two now showed that they bare no resemblance of who they were, and little of who they should have been. His family blamed her for their son's downfall from college and her family regarded him as the one that ruined her life.

A crowd had gathered at the bottom of the building, tens of people stood around as they gazed up on the roof of the school, worry etched onto their faces. There were sirens approaching in the distance as a result of the numerous phone calls that were made when the two had first appeared on the roof a little over ten minutes ago. How they had managed to get up onto the roof in the first place remained a mystery to many of the crowd, something which the police would ask about when they arrived.

There were still classes going on inside of the school, however the head teacher was outside among the crowd after he had been alerted of the two on the roof. He hoped that they didn't jump more for the school's sake than their own because of the reputation that it would gain if they did. A reputation like that wouldn't be a good thing for the school, especially not after the incident last month involving the drugs in the boys' toilets. That gained enough parental outcry as it was.

Five minutes later and the two on the roof hadn't moved as the police pulled up outside of the building. They were just visible from the ground and they seemed to be in conversation, one that kept their attention otherwise occupied so they didn't notice as the police arrived and two men entered the building, on their way to the roof to stop whatever they were planning. Though the plans of one wasn't that of the other's, something that wasn't known to the other and wouldn't be known until near the end.

As the men travel through the building, the pair on the roof broke away from their conversation, clearly aggravated by each other. The girl who was now a woman sauntered to the edge of the building and gazed down at the ground, not taking in the view but trying to keep her emotions in check.

"I suppose this is all my fault, right?" the man responded to her silence.

She snapped her head back round to look at him. "Don't put words into my mouth," she snapped.

The man raised his hands in a peace offering before he replaced them in his pockets. He watched the woman stroll away from the edge, a frown etched on her face and the distinct look of agitation in her eye. As he continued watching her move across the roof, the two policemen reached the staircase that led up to the roof and began slowly climbing them, keeping from making any noise that wasn't necessary. It was better for them to be cautious than for them to alert the two on the roof that they were coming and quite possibly push them to jumping when it could have been prevented. Of course, they didn't want to catch them completely by surprise either because that could have the two make a hasty decision, something that is all too common with suicidal people (such people that the two men assumed the couple to be).

They reached the roof before they had both jumped but at the same time they didn't make it. If the two policemen could have read minds, they would have found out that they were years too late, and that nothing they said was going to make a difference.

A minute before they reached the roof, the woman stopped her pacing and turned back to the man. "I love you," she told him.

He smiled a genuine smile that she hadn't seen in at least three years and approached her, lacing his fingers with hers and subtly pulling her closer to the edge with him. He let his gaze drift to the people below before he looked back at the woman. "Some people die for love and I believe it's true because I'd do the same for you," he admitted.

"But you still can't say it aloud," she noted bitterly.

He let go of her hand and ran his up her arm in a tender touch. "I love you."

Before she could reply he tightened his grip on her arm and pushed forward, catching her off guard and off balance. Her body fell forward and her hands flew around trying to catch onto something, anything to allow her to right herself. But there was nothing and he watched as her body soared towards the ground just as the door to the roof opened. Screams erupted just before her body hit the floor, but they didn't mask the noise of her bones being broken from the fall.

The absent person and the screams from below alerted the two men that they were too late with one of them going through with their plans, but they still had time to stop the other. Their guns were drawn and remained drawn as they slowly inched their way closer to the man by the edge. However they stopped where they were when he looked back and noticed them there.

"She died for me," he told them, awe in his voice.

One of the men stepped forward slightly. "Sir, step away from the edge," he commanded, but it was like he had never spoken.

The man looked back down at the crowd before he stepped closer to the edge. This action had both the cops step forward as well.

"Sir, please, step away from the edge."

All the man did was inch closer to the edge, ignoring any and all words spoken to him by the officers. Then he was right on the edge, tips of his shoes hanging off of the building. A sudden movement would send him flying to his death, something that both he and the two men knew although the latter two wanted to stop him from moving any closer, but they both knew that if they rushed him he would jump.

The wind began to pick up gently and the man smiled at it. He glanced back at the two officers. "I pushed her," he confessed.

And then he stepped off of the building.