Thursday, January 31, 2013

Chapter 25: In the Rain



            I jerked away rather awkwardly and walked off toward the living room. Klaus stayed in the kitchen. As I lay on the couch, my eyes closed, I heard him rustling around. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I realized what he was doing- he was cleaning up everything I had knocked onto the floor. Papers shuffled and the iron fruit bowl made a slight clink noise as he set it back on the counter. I rolled over onto my side and faced the back of the couch. Even though my eyes were shut they felt heavy with exhaustion. I let myself drift off to sleep with slight noise coming from the kitchen. The noise comforted me for some reason and yet it also left me with a bit of unease. I knew Klaus would always be there for me, which was comforting. But would I always be there for him? I didn’t want to leave him to clean up my mess time and time again.
            I tossed and turned as nightmares hid in all the shadows of my mind. Suddenly, I jolted upright, my sweaty gooseflesh stuck to the leather. I looked around and saw Klaus slumped over in the chair, his breathing quiet and soft. I noticed he had covered me with a blanket before dozing off himself. My feet shifted to the floor, the wood cold against the bottom. I stood and moved the blanket to cover Klaus before I left the room. My gaze shifted to the big bay window, the moonlight glittering off the rain that was steadily pouring out of the sky. I walked out onto the porch, letting my hand reach out and the droplets spilled onto my palm and between my fingers. Slowly, I took a step forward and out onto the steps. I instantly felt the rain soak me to the bone- how I had missed the sweet romance of the rain.
            Before I knew it, I was running across the sopping-wet lawn in my bare feet, my toes making impressions in the mud and a smile spread across my lips. I hadn’t felt like this in so long that my muscles ached with every step, but I couldn’t stop running. The rain hit my face with such force that I just assumed is had been absorbed into my skin. Sodden clothes clung to my body and I knew my hair was plastered against my head. When I had finally stopped, by body throbbing in pain, I looked around and had no clue where I was. The rain created a curtain that was impossible to push through. I found a bench and sat down to listen. I listened to the sound of the night-the rain pounding against the pavement, the bench, the sound of crickets chirping so lightly that if you hadn’t been listening you would have easily overlooked it. 
            I remembered what it had felt like when I first fell in love with the rain. It was a day when the sun shone brightly but the sky opened up to unleash a torrential downpour. We were walking together, Cain and I, my hand wrapped gently in his. He turned to me, his eyes reflecting the smile he had across his entire face.
            “Are you ready to make your dream come true?” He asked me.
            I smiled because I knew exactly what he was asking. I only nodded and he leaned in, pressing his tender lips against mine- our first kiss and it had been the most romantic and innocent thing in the world.
            That thought, of course, led me to think about when we had stayed after school to work out together. I had run outside with him chasing after me. When he finally caught me, he pulled me into him, our sweatshirts soaking wet and our hoods dripping water into our eyes. He pressed me against the side of the building, the valley of the roof creating a waterfall right down over us. I smiled as he kissed me deeply and then practically tore both of our hoods off, letting the rain come over and around and between us- the freshness of it enveloped us, the chill of the water hitting out skin.
            I knew tears were falling, but nobody was around to see them. My heart ached and I cried out in the deafening silence of the night. I screamed so much that my throat felt raw and the tears just kept coming. My whole life was unraveling. No, it wasn’t. Because it was never coiled in the first place- only slightly bound together with hopes and dreams that would never come true

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