‘There’s no way,’ I say as Kellen pulls himself up and scrambles through. ‘Have you got a death wish or something?’

‘Course not,’ he says, peering back down at me. ‘It’s not like we can die anyway.’

‘What?’ I say, taking a little step back from him. ‘Why would you say that?’

‘We’re stuck in a time loop,’ he replies cheerfully.

‘That doesn’t mean we can’t die,’ I say. ‘Where would you get that idea?’

‘It just makes sense,’ he says. ‘The day starts over no matter what. Besides, you drowned in the lake, didn’t you?’

‘I didn’t drown!’ I protest. ‘I was in the process of drowning.’

‘What’s the difference?’

‘I was still alive when the clock struck midnight!’

‘Are you sure?’

I hate to say that I’m not.

‘See,’ he says, noting my silence. ‘We definitely can’t die.’

‘We don’t know that!’ I protest. ‘We don’t know anything!’

‘Am I going to have to prove it to you?’

‘Don’t you dare!’

‘Well then, you’ll just have to come up and stop me,’ Kellen says, disappearing from view. ‘I’ll give you to the count of ten.’

‘This isn’t funny!’ I call back, but he ignores me.

‘Ten … nine … eight …’

‘Stop it,’ I say, and even though he can’t see me I cross my arms to make it very clear that I’m not playing his little game.

‘Seven … six … five …’

‘Kellen, this is ridiculous,’ I say. ‘Don’t even joke. You can’t risk your life just because of something you saw in a movie.’

‘Four … three … two …’

‘OK!’ I say, jumping up and trying to lift myself through the opening. I struggle, and sort of expect Kellen to grab me and pull me up, but he doesn’t. I scramble for a moment, and all I can see is the black slate of the roof offset against an endless canvas of twinkling stars. I can’t see Kellen anywhere. I start to worry he might have –

‘What took you so long?’ His hands grip me from behind and pull me up.

‘Don’t do that,’ I say, hitting him as I sit on the cool slate. ‘I thought you’d jumped.’

‘And miss the look on your face?’ He grins.

‘I’m serious,’ I say. ‘If anything happened to you …’

‘Nothing’s gonna happen to me,’ he says. ‘But you must be at least a little bit curious? The rules of time and physics have gone out the window. Aren’t you even slightly interested in what would happen?’

‘If you died?’ I say. ‘No. Funnily enough, not even in the slightest.’

Kellen laughs at that. ‘Chill. It’s not like I’m suicidal or anything. I just can’t help wondering what would happen if we pulled a Thelma and Louise. If we “keep on driving” and both jump off the roof right now, this second?’