“What happened?”
“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.
“I got scared and rode home.”
“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.”
“Initially, I tried avoiding you.”
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.
That truly surprised me.
“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.
“Why would Mason do something like that?”
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.
Part of me expected Mason to look terrifying.
“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.
