The Girl On My Roof

Chapter Two

2004

I peered out the window. She was there. I hadn't talked to her in a while. Her Mother always found her and shut the blinds and gave me death glares and afterwards I could always here the old hag shouting at her. I said goodnight to my own Mother and waiting on the little chair by the window. When I heard the familiar 'click' of her window opening, I smiled and perked my head above the wall. Today, I opened my window fully. I rested my legs on the roof of the extension below me. The funny thing about our houses was, the fact that we'd both got extensions and the two modifications practically touched each other. We may as well have lived in the same house!

"Hello." The little girl sheepishly smiled at me.

"Hi again." I giggled. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." She nodded, before opening her window a bit further and sitting on the window ledge. "Reception was fun."

"What did you do?" I asked her, leaning my head on my hand.

"I painted a picture. They let me keep it!" She beamed magnificently.

"Can I see it?" I enquired.

"Of course," She agreed, before disappearing from the window for about thirty seconds. "Here." She stuck her hand out of the window, with a piece of paper in it.

"Why don't you come on to the roof?" I asked her mischievously. "I will too."

She fully straightened up outside the window then. She sensitively manoeuvred  her leg over the sill, before placing it firmly on the roof's slabs. She did the same with the other leg, and then swivelled around to grab the photo from the pink chair that she stood on moments ago. I started slowly walking down the roof, before sitting cross-legged at the edge of my extension. She slowly came over, trembling and scared, and I took her hand with my left and took the picture with my right.

"Sit down," I suggested, smiling, "It's easier."

She lowered herself down, until she mirrored my posture. The only thing between us was a small, fifty centimetres gap, which held our house's drainpipes. I looked at her drawing.

"That's you." She pointed to the stick figure with pointy hair and a Gameboy in his hand. "You can see that we're really close."

"I see, yeah!" I agreed, before looking up at her and smiling. "Do you have a Gameboy?" I asked her.

"No, Mother won't let me have one. She says I'm getting the new DS for my birthday though." She looked down, smiling slightly.

"What?!" I exclaimed, beaming. "Are you for real?!"

"Yeah." She smiled, looking at me briefly.

We sat in silence for a second, before I said, "Would you like to play on my Gameboy?"

Her face lit up like the sky on New Year's Day. "Really?" She asked me.

"Of course!" I replied, with a joyous sound in my voice. I quickly stood up and sprinted inside, before grabbing my Gameboy off my bed and hurdling the windowsill back outside. I sat down quickly and gave the device to her.

We giggled and played all night, until the moon was above our heads.

"What time is it?" I asked her. She looked down at her little princess watch, before gasping.

"Twelve! It says twelve! What does that mean?" She replied.

"It's midnight." I giggled, before realising - "It's midnight!" I cried, before standing up quickly. "I really must sleep - I have school in the morning and everything! Look after my Pokémon!" I fled the rooftop, before cuddling up in bed with my little teddy - Roger the Monkey - and pretending to be asleep in case my Mother entered the room.