Until Monday, they had never talked about that night to anyone, except each other.
Waltquaries Evans and his best friend Giovanni DeLorm are the only ones who really know how close to death they came.
They jumped out a second floor window of a Grape Street home February 18, as flames raged around them.
Both suffered burns all over their bodies. But it's the emotional scars that won't heal.
They lost four friends in that fire.
Erica Evans says it was the first time her son Waltquaries had slept over Bobbie Kugler's house. She went over earlier that day to talk to Bobbie Kugler and make sure her son would be safe for his overnight stay with Kugler's children.
Now Erica shudders when she thinks about what her son went through that night.
She holds him closer. She worries more when he leaves to go to school.
Waltquaries and his best friend Giovanni share memories of that horrible night but have trouble talking about it to anyone else.
They agreed to share some of their thoughts with us, sharing the horror of that night publicly for the first time.
Giovanni told us: "It was scary. But I was calm..."
He's just 14. Waltquaries is 15.
They try to avoid walking by the Grape Street home, but when they do, Waltquaries told us: "Sometimes I blow I kiss as I go by."
They are troubled that the fire was allegedly started by Bobbie Kugler. The mother of their friends. The mother whose four children perished in the fire.
Kugler escaped, along with her two-year-old son.
Waltquaries told us he isn't angry but added: "I think she belongs in jail for what she did."
Giovanni said he was surprised to learn that Bobbie allegedly started the fire by burning pictures of her boyfriend in her first floor bedroom: "I didn't know burning pictures could cause something that big....wow."
Waltquaries has returned to school but comes home right after classes at the end of the day.
Giovanni still has a bandage on his arm from the severe burn he suffered during the fire. He hasn't returned to school.
They are buddies. Best friends. And now, they are survivors.
They came close to death but now are more sad at the loss of their friends than anything else.
They say survivors sometimes have guilt for living through a tragedy that took lives of those they love.
But these young men are remembering the good times they had with their friends and working through the pain of what happened, by leaning on each other and staying a little closer to home these days.
Erica Evans says she doesn't like to let her son out of her sight. Waltquaries' 88-year-old great-grandmother told us she worries everyday about all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Now, she worries even more.
Patrice Walsh, Reporter
