Submission novel Chapter 27

 I don't know how it feels to have a family who loved you dearly, cared for you, and supported you through your hard times. I don't know how it felt to lose one's parents in the blink of an eye and be orphaned for the rest of their life. Liza did. 

It is strange how you come to understand the value of things only when it is snatched away from you. It is cruel but maybe it was always the same. I admire Liza and how strong she is but sometimes her strength falters and she crumbles down. Maybe she is not strong but insecure to let her true feelings out. She has her fears and to cover them up she puts on the mask of strength. I think this is a defensive mechanism, one that I have mastered in the long term of events. Instead of strength, I chose isolation. 

Isolation from everyone except Liza.

The fumes of heat rose from the coffee mug in my hands. I looked up at Liza as she finished reading the letter she received from her grandfather. Well, it was not actually sent by her grandfather but rather his lawyer.

Her grandpa died before she was born.

The everlasting frown on her forehead tried to comprehend the letter as she looked at it for more details. I took one of her hands in mine, diverting her attention towards me.

"Lizzie, I think it will be better if you do what you want to do. I am ready to go with you if you want me to. I just can't let you go alone and I know you won't be fine by yourself." Liza left the letter and took hold of both my hands as she tried very hard not to break down again.

"Rosie, trust me I want you to come with me but the thing is I can't be selfish, not when your competition is just around the corner. You have worked so hard for this competition and I won't let you miss this chance. As far as this letter is concerned, I think I need to go and check what all this is about. I mean I didn't even know that my grandfather has written a will on my name...plus the family fortune which is still unclaimed... I don't even know what to think." A hopeless sigh escaped her lips and fogged the cold air.

It is always difficult to understand what others feel and we won't ever understand what touches them or what hurts them. All we can do is support because we are the only people who can make them understand that they are not alone. That there is someone who will always stand by them. Sometimes support is all that they want from us.

I left the heated cup from my cold hands and walked over to give her a hug. She wrapped her hands around me and buried her face into the muffler wound around my neck. I closed my eyes and squeezed her in my arms. The closed glass windows shuddered a little as the cold wind blew outside in the moonless night. The crackling fire in the fireplace in our living room was the only source of heat yet nothing felt warmer than the smile on Liza's face.

*****

"Okay so green or green?" Liza plopped down on the bed as she showed me two bottles of nail polish.

"I think I will go with that green although that green is also good since green is my favorite color I will go with green." Liza burst out into a loud laugh and started rolling on the bed. Without wasting a single moment I started tickling her which made her roll off the bed and fall on the floor with a loud slam.

I crawled my way towards the edge of the bed to check on Liza but as soon as I did she threw a pillow on my face and screamed.

"Pillow fight!"

I know it sounds very cliché for two girls having hot chocolate on a Sunday night with the sky showering snow all over the town but maybe that's how we wanted it. Liza thought that it was only fair if we spent the last night together before she goes off to her hometown in Dublin and I obviously wanted the same.

"Remember that time when you coughed in front of the class?" She smiled at the distant memory. We had our feet lifted up on the wall as we stared at the twinkling fairy lights in my room. The wall was adorned with all our moments of togetherness captured into small sheets of paper.