the girl on the roof

Chapter 7: A mystery wrapped in a surprise

Cover picture is of The people who Max and Lira are based on, legs over the edge of the roof✨

I'd gotten home a little after 11pm that night to be peppered with questions from Danny who was waiting for me in my room. I made a mental note to get my spare key off of him.
Owen was still a little distant from me but slowly we were getting back to the old us. Esme has slightly backed off after seeing Lira but not fully.

It'd been a week since I last saw her and everyone, she was swamped with college and work and I was drowning in my A levels. We still talked well texted everyday but it wasn't the same as actually sitting there and talking to one and other.

August had rolled around quickly, the Days were hotter and longer all I wanted to do was lay in the grass and smoke. But instead I was sat in my room head buried deep in my photography work, when my phone rang I picked it up without looking at the contact name.

"Hello?" I spoke
"Hey there skaterboy, are you busy?" Liras soft voice asked
"Hey Li, not really what's up?" I lied
"Fancy meeting me, in the back park behind college?" She sounded upset. I could of sworn I heard her sniffle as if she was crying.
"Yeah give me 5 I'll be there" I said without a second thought.
"Thanks Max, see you soon" she said in an outwards breath.
Then the line went dead.

I jumped up from my desk pulling on my old vans, grabbing my board and bag as I headed out towards Lira.

The park was only round the corner from my school so within minutes I was stood at the cast iron gate that lead into the converted graveyard.

Like a lot of the small parks in this city they were once graveyards, all the body's had been moved years ago and the headstones placed against the high wall that separated the college from the park.

This place was known as the place to get high while you were at school or college, a few people sat on the benches and dotted about on the grass.

My eyes scanned the park falling on to Lira sat alone in the sun, writing in that patchwork note book just like the first time I met her. I looked at her intently seeing a face carefully void of emotion as she relentlessly scribbled away.

Taking a deep breath I walked in the gate and over to where she sat.

"Hey chéri" I said sitting in the long grass besides her. She snapped the book shut placing it next to her.

"Hey Maxie" her voice sounded hoarse. I smiled warmly at her as she did to me but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"So what's up?" I asked her. She took a deep breath drawing her knees up to her chest. I placed my and over hers as it sat in the grass hoping to provide so sort of comfort. She sighed softly with a smile looking at my large hand over the top of hers.

"Can I ask you something?" She said looking at me.

"Yeah Shoot" I said back to her.

"Have you ever felt helpless to a situation?" Her voice soft and filled with emotion.

I thought for a moment back to my home life and my dad walking out, leaving my mum for a women he hardly knew and how helpless I felt watching my mum go though all that pain.

"Yes, yes I have. Why'd you ask?" I said deflecting the question back to her.
Lira smiled realising what I was doing.

"When I was kid I lived in this tiny village the kind you'd only end up in if you were lost. I lived with my mum and older brother, it was like a fairytale. My mum she was an artist and a dancer we had a cute house happy family. But that's not real you know? Not real life. One day my mum she got a stomach ache one day but the doctor said she was okay. Until she got it again, she went back to the doctors and she was diagnosed with stage 2 bowel cancer, she started chemo had treatment for a year and the cancer went away for a while, her hair stared to grow back, she gained the weight she lost. But life's a bitch, the cancer came back it attacked her liver, kidneys, pretty much all her vital organs over run by cancer. This athletic, healthy 41 year old women bed ridden in an end of life care hospital. My Nan took me and my brother to see her one day after school but she'd slipped into a coma. That was the last time I saw her. That was 10 years ago. 10 years ago today." Liras voice trailed off towards the end as she looked up at the sky blowing a trail of smoke out.

My mind blank of anything worthy to say to her at this point. And there it was the mystery of Lira Anderson slowly began to unravel.

There were no words I could say that would be of any consolation, so I lent over and wrapped my arms around her. Feeling her burry herself into me as her small arms wrapped themselves around my torso, I could feel her slightly ragged breath a her chest rose and fell unevenly against me.

We stayed like that for sometime until she slowly pulled away from me, looking deeply into my eyes.

"Thankyou" she said wiping away a few small tears that rested on her cheeks.

"What for?" I asked pulling out a spliff from my bag.

"For coming when I called and for staying when I needed you" her voice filled with a cocktail of emotions.

She smiled at me, her perfectly crooked front tooth made her look even more endearing.

I laid back on the grass lighting the spliff as she lay beside me. I handed her the spliff as we lay in the grass together, the sun soaking into are already tanned skin. Laughing at stories we told one and other from our childhood.

"So wait, your  brother actually tasered you!?" I laughed in disbelief. Lira just laughed nodding her head.

"Yeah I think it was the first time my dad heard me say ''fuck' " she laughed at the memory. She seemed much more relaxed and in a brighter mood than when I arrived.

Lira sat up to roll another spliff, her legs crossed as her long curly hair fell over her face. I couldn't help but stare at her, the suns rays that crept through the leafy trees illuminated her in shades of gold. I took my camera out and angled it catching her perfectly. She smiled once hearing the shutter of the lens. I couldn't help but smile to.

"Hey Maxie?" Pulling me from my thoughts. I looked at her and hummed in reply.

"tu es un bon gars Maxie, l'un des meilleurs" her french caught me off guard, but brought a smile to my face. "You're a good guy Maxie, one of the best"
rang out through my brain as the incredibly strong Lira looks at me with a smile. I didn't know what to say.

My Brian fizzled out like id lost the ability to speak. I took hold of her small hand in mine gently squeezing it.

"You really are a mystery wrapped up in a surprise" I said kissing the back of her hand gently.

Lira lit her spliff not letting go of me as we sat there in the warm glow of the early evening sun, it was then that I realised I'd began to fall for the elusive Lira Anderson and I wasn't about to stop.