Every Time a Rainbow Dies by Rita Williams-Garcia

Dreamy Thulani spends most of his time up on the roof, taking care of the flock of doves in the cote and watching the streets of Brooklyn bustle below him.
He is up there on the day he sees a girl being brutally attacked in an alley.
Though the girl makes it clear she wants nothing more to do with him after he helps her home, he can’t stop thinking about her. Is she okay? What is her name? Would she be scared if he tried to talk to her?
Suddenly, for the first time since his mother died, Thulani finally has a reason to come down from the roof. But as much as he wants to care for this girl, Ysa—more fragile and fiercer than his birds—she will not trust easily. Is it possible to shelter someone who needs to be free?