My Neighbor-s Son Part 1 - Jack Radley Rafael... Apr 2026

Heat flooded my cheeks. “I don’t stare.”

Tonight, my father had yelled at me for two hours about my “attitude.” Tonight, my chest felt like a clenched fist. I couldn’t sleep. So I did what I always did when the walls felt too close: I slid my window open, swung one leg over the sill, and dropped onto the old oak branch that stretched between our houses.

That’s when I saw him.

But tonight was different.

He nodded, like that made perfect sense. Then he flicked the cigarette into the dark and patted the shingle beside him. My Neighbor-s Son PART 1 - Jack Radley Rafael...

“Come sit,” Jack Radley Rafael said. “I don’t bite.”

He was perched on his own roof, one knee drawn to his chest, a cigarette burning between his fingers even though he couldn’t have been older than me. The moonlight hit his face—sharp jaw, dark eyes, a small scar cutting through his left eyebrow. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the sky, like he was waiting for something to fall. Heat flooded my cheeks

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. Then he smiled—slow, crooked, and dangerous.

“He’s your age,” my mother said, peering through the blinds. “Maybe you’ll be friends.” So I did what I always did when