Rooftops - A Year In The Making

Chapter 6 - See you again

I do my usual routine of washing my hands, getting dressed, grabbing an apple, washing my hands again and playing on my guitar. As well as the heavy metal and rock songs I listen to I also listen to rap and I love the rap on See You Again by Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalif.  The guitar stool is underneath my little window so I can climb on it to get out.  I sit on there and start picking out the song and rapping along.

"Everything I went through you were standing there by my side,
And now you gon' be there for the last ride"

I open my mouth to sing the next part and it isn't my voice that I hear. It's sweeter, higher, more in tune and beautiful. The shock puts me off rhythm and I mess up the next two chords but when I look up and see Cass on the roof smiling into my window I easily match her perfectly tuned voice and continue playing and singing along.

"...It's been a long day without you my friend,
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again,
We've come a long way from when we began,
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again..."

The little moment that we sing together seems to last forever as my fingers tremble next to the strings and I slowly start to gain a little confidence.  I didn't know she could sing.  I don't know anything about this girl and she doesn't know anything about me.  Except now, in this very moment, we're so in tune that it sounds like it could be an original.

Though as I start to rap again I start to feel nervous in front of such a good singer and my voice starts to quiver. But then she joins in as if she knows I am struggling and sings harmonies on the last word of each line. I regain my confidence as I realize we actually sound really good together and I can hear that smile of hers even though I can't see it.

When it gets to the singing part I don't sing and leave it to Cass but she friendly punches me on the arm to say sing with her so I join in as she harmonies with the higher notes.

We sing for what seems like ages, me to scared to turn around and make eye contact with her but I can tell she is enjoying it, I can't think f anything that she wouldn't enjoy, cant picture an emotion on her face except good ones.  Something that beautiful just wasn't made for sadness.

"See you again...
See, you, a-gainnnn"

We sing perfectly together as we end the song. When we are both silent we just stay there for about 30 seconds and catch our breath, then I slowly turn around to a smiling Cassandra.

"Shall we?" She says in a mock posh accent and points onto the roof. I giggle slightly and follow her out of the window and to where we sat a week before.

When I get out of my small window I sit down next to her on the tiled roof which is warm to the touch as the sun still beats down on it. I don't sit close to her to avoid contact, I've never been comfortable and you can tell from my tense stature, that I am always on edge.
"That's the first time I've seen you laugh in, ever" She says, looking me in the eye, i do not return it.
"That's the first time I've felt like laughing in, a very long time" I say back.

Her dress is scrunched up revealing her perfectly tanned legs. I notice the ankle bracelet and observe it as there is not any talking going on. She notices me looking at it and uses it to break the silence as she is obviously a talkative person.
"That's from Dubai" She says laying her legs out flat on the warm tiles.
"Cool" I say back, offering no more to the conversation.
"I went there with mum and dad about two years ago and I haven't taken it off since. But," her smile disappears. "He doesn't live with us anymore."

She looks so sad and about to tear up, and I really wouldn't be able to deal with that so I follow on.
"I don't live with my dad either." I say, trying to console her.

Consoling doesn't exactly come naturally to me and instead of offering eyes to look into or a shoulder to cry on, I focus on the tiles beneath me and don't peal my eyes away from them for a second.

"Oh, how come" She says, a bit happy that I was joining in with the conversation.
"Umm.." I say not wanting to tell my story."
"What about if I tell you mine?" I look at her in confusion. "I tell you why I don't live with my dad, then you tell me about yours."

I bite my lip, still reluctant.
"Common" She says, liking the idea of us becoming better friends.
"Ok" I say, not the first time she has persuaded me to do something today.  She couldn't make me do anything, but by far she could make me do things that I haven't dreamt of doing.  The only things that knows about my dad are the worn strings of my guitar and the lined sheets of my notebooks.  Now I'm about to reveal everything, to someone I met a week ago.

"Here goes..." She says, taking a big breath in preparing to tell me.