On Saturday the sky was covered with heavy grey rain clouds. That didn't stop my mother from wanting me to go to the store near our house and fetch the ingredients for a soup. After a lot of complaining on my part, she told me that if I didn't go to the store then I was going to starve and she wasn't going to make anything.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVSQQ473AY
So I ran through the heavy rain towards the store on the streets that were deserted. I was probably the only insane person to go out in such a weather. Wait. There was somebody besides me. I ran past the bus stop, stopped not believing my eyes and went back to the stop. Adam was sitting on the bench. He was drenched but he hardly seemed to notice.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITubceRQSk
“Adam?”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHSchMdaf5
He turned his head in my direction, his eyes clouded by sadness. He looked like he did when he wanted to jump off the lighthouse. When he noticed me his lips curled up just a tiny bit. “You, Elizabeth, seem to turn up whenever I feel down. You're not stalking me, are you?”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY3AtMXIwgb
I walked over to him. For some reason, whenever I saw him sad, I just wanted to hug him and make everything better, but I didn't have the courage.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpi384g8488
Then his words registered in my brain, “Stalking?” I blushed. “No, no I was just going to the store. My mom wanted me to fetch her ingredients for a soup.” I blabbered and my face turned even redder. “Anyway, what are you doing, sitting in the rain like this? The bus just left.” I was standing next to him.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7Pq5em1uq
“I wasn't waiting for the bus, Elizabeth.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ63bwjciOje
“Oh,” was all I could say.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYZKvvl23qB
“I was just enjoying the rain.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHbhIpIFe4
“How can you enjoy rain? It's just water falling down from the sky. “877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqM7Xwxgbsw
“It reminds me of…someone, who used to love playing in the rain.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaeaG4kbum
“There must be a way to remember 'someone' without getting sick from sitting in the rain for hours.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPCkMG35uY
“For all you know I could have been sitting here for only five minutes.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeAHeZTv3w
“You weren't,” I sat next to him on the bench. His hand was lying on the bench next to him. I wanted to take his hand in mine, but that would have been inappropriate.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZbi6CxrdH
“You never seize to amaze me.” Adam wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring at the road in front of us. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZynaddl6AT
“What did I do?”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5pktEc8nO
Adam hesitated, “Nothing. Forget it.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4YrvfZPWSP
“How long are you going to sit here?”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXIsrDmj3Wp
No answer.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlsUqgKZqf
I took off my jacket and laid it on him. He looked at me questioningly.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPFFB9muin
I explained, “I'm just going to run to the store and then home. You need the jacket more than I do.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuRP76EZb9T
Before he could protest, which he looked like he was, I took off running, the rain pelting against my sweater, which was soaked in a minute.
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Here's a lesson for you. Don't run around in early October wearing only a sweater. Mom was furious when I came home without my jacket. She ordered me to change out of my dripping wet clothes immediately, that didn't help much though. By the next morning it became clear that I had a fever. I spent Sunday sleeping under warm blankets but I was still cold. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkE7op81mp
On Monday, mom and dad went to work and I stayed home alone. I didn't get up until three in the afternoon, when I heard knocking on the front door. I put on a long and soft dressing gown I had got as a present from my aunt, who had visited in the final week of summer. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIEb7gndaOT
I slowly made my way to the door and peeked through the peeking hole, to see who was at the door. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPiGRwTbO4O
My heart skipped a beat. How did HE know, where I lived. I didn't have makeup on, my hair was a mess and under the robes I was wearing only my PJs. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9QH8ptjGai
I opened the door, just as Adam was about to knock again. He drew back his hand, "Hi,"877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGrL5i5SoMB
"Hi," I waited for him to say something else, but he seemed to be at a loss for words, just as I was.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPN2GWqBAr0
"So what are you doing at my house," I asked, while trying to pull the robes closed in the front, so that Adam didn't see the red checker patterned PJs I was wearing underneath.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Delwwz29Y
"You weren't at school and the teacher wanted somebody to drop by and give you these," he took out a few paper sheets with questions on them, and gave them to me. "Carmen would have come, but she was busy, so I asked her where you lived. I also wanted to give you your jacket back." He handed the jacket to me also. "And I wanted to apologize."877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVV2Ww1XIY
I had stayed quiet until now, leaning against the wall, but I started to get tired from standing in the cold autumn air while feverish877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHayLk3NZg7
"Why don't you come inside," I asked, my courage surprising even myself.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVU1Hb0EPe
"Is it okay with your parents?"877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2GAG8O3njj
"They are not home right now," I left the door open and retreated into the warm house. Adam followed shyly, like he felt he was trespassing, which he kind of was, since it was my house, but I didn't care about that little detail.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILGGXMbkJx
I put the jacket, Adam had returned, on the peg and the homework on the desk in the living room.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQp9BCjoCAC
"You can leave your boots and jacket in the hall." He did as I asked. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdvXiP0Fp5
The living room was nice and warm. The radiators were powerfully radiating heat. I sat on one side of the couch and Adam sat on the other end. For a few awkward moments, there was silence. 877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEw4D6jjiZl
"I'm sorry I took your jacket and now you're sick,” He said.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEo0l4Y9DxT
“Adam, you didn’t take my jacket. I gave it to you.” I said as I drew my knees close to my chest.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8LTylT0cV
“Still,” He wasn’t giving up the thought that he was the reason I was sick.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0mcbw7ihH
I tried changing the subject, “So, to pay me back, will you tell me what you were doing, sitting in the rain like that.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdhsLfdHef
“You're quite the persistent one,” He smiled lightly and looked at me. I was too busy admiring his features and almost missed what he said next. “I already told you. The rain reminds me of someone. I can't cherish that person anymore, so I cherish the rain that brings everything back to life. Well, almost everything.” He was looking in my direction, but I felt as if he was seeing something completely different.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGG6SVWJXZS
“Who is the crazy person that loves the rain so much? Maybe I could learn from her. If I loved the rain I would be happy most of the time, because it rains so often.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsSjTzcp8Jy
“I'm afraid that's impossible,”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYEqL8Sqxu
“Why's that?”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6QkSwWo6H
“Because Cindy is dead.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRip9nsPmhs
Time stopped as Adam said those words. I had never lost anyone close to me so I could only imagine what Adam felt, is still feeling. And another question was raised. Who was Cindy? Had she been Adam's girlfriend? That was the worst time ever to be feeling jealous, but I was. I was jealous of a dead girl, I realized with a shock. “Sorry, Adam,” I said quietly. The room was a bit fussy. I remembered that I still had a fever.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRJbWplLH4
Adam didn't respond. His eyes were full of sadness again, but I didn't dare hug him, like I had on the stone floor of the light house. Somehow, it had been easier the first time around, in the darkness, when I hadn't know, who Adam was.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlLlSbD7Emd
He got up from the couch. “I better go. Get better soon, Elizabeth.”877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJuAwC23nML
I heard how Adam put on his boots and a jacket, his own, in the corridor. I sat on the couch for a long time after he had left. I buried my head in my knees. I was such an idiot. Adam was suffering, silently, on his own, I didn't think anybody in school knew because he came off as such a gentleman, nobody had bothered to notice that there was something he was trying to keep buried in his heart. He must have been in so much pain, but all I could do was feel jealous of a dead girl. I was so selfish.877Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmD7nSNYwC
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