rollercoaster / LIAM O'DONOVAN

iii. Our Lord And Saviour, Kurt Cobain

Chair Girl, not having a clue who Liam is, chooses to ignore her and shouts "Get out, GET OUT!" at him like he's having the time of his life hanging from her windowsill right now.

"Get that thing away from me! Get it AWAY!" Really, what else is he supposed to do? Jump to the ground and break his legs?

Just then, footsteps come from the hallway and for a second Liam thinks he's saved! Until he sees who it is poke her head around the door and suddenly, jumping doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all.

Because there, in all her tiny, five foot, crocheted cardigan-clad glory is the absolute bane of his existence and the one person he would willingly fall from two storeys up to avoid.

"Iris, help! Tell Lily it's just Liam!" Carmen cries.

Iris takes in the situation, Liam hanging out of the window, Lily on the bed holding her chair mid-swing, waiting for the older girl's verdict, and a small smirk slowly spreads across her face. God, he forgot how much he hated her stupid face!

"Oh, no, a burglar! Help!" she screams, clapping her hands over her mouth with a mock-horrified expression.

He's going to murder her.

"Takahashi, you little — FUCK!" he curses as his foot slips on a loose brick ( there's probably a few sizeable dents in this wall, now ) thanks to Lily brandishing her chair at him with renewed vigour.

"What's going on?" Sapphire asks, running into the room. "Oh. Hey, Liam."

The screaming stops and Lily finally puts her chair down.

"Sapph." he nods, trying to pull himself inside ( another thing he's learned today: he should start working out because does not have the core strength for this! )

"See, I told you it was Liam!" Carmen pipes up.

"Well, Iris didn't!" Lily retorts, glaring at the girl in question.

"Oops, my bad! I just didn't recognise him with that hideous new haircut!" she scrunches up her nose and squints at him. "I never thought this was possible, but — did you get uglier?"

He grits his teeth. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"If you manage not to kill yourself first."

"Lily, this is Liam." Carmen intervenes before the argument escalates and he falls to his death. Lily looks at her, like Wow, no shit! and hops off the bed.

Liam gives her an awkward "Hi." and makes the mistake of letting go of the ledge with one hand to wave. "Whoa!" ( and there goes his other foot! )

Carmen inhales sharply. Iris snorts.

"So, I guess this ain't my room anymore." he grunts, dragging his upper body through the window at last.

"You figure that out all by yourself, Sherlock?" Iris quips ( why is she even still here?! )

"Shut the fuck up!"

"It's Poppy and Rosie's," Carmen explains quickly, gesturing to the two little girls she's still holding, then Lily on the opposite bed. "Their sister's my best friend!"

Liam has almost managed to pull himself all the way inside when he hears Mike's exasperated voice, "Oh, for goodness' sake, Liam!" he rushes to the window, grabbing the boy and hauling him down like a sack of potatoes, scolding him as he does.