I trudged through the street, squishing my toes together over the hole in one of my boots. It didn't stop the water on the sidewalk from soaking my socks, but I considered it was the effort that counted.
Eventually the rain was too heavy, soaking through my work shirt, my pants sticking to my legs like a thick, wet shower-curtain. Leaning against the side of a wall of the crowded bus-stop, I waited for the rain to dissipate. Or risk getting a cold. Both my landlord and my bank account knew I couldn't afford that. I couldn't afford breakfast.
I slumped down, unable to bear the misery any longer. My shifts were slowly being taken by younger, more energetic employees. I had no plans past work, smoke, sleep. How did it get to this?
I counted the girls I had dated, finding no comfort in the effort. They had left me after all.
I remembered a girl from work. She had a cheeky smile, a pleasant smell like flowers and sunshine. She had laughed at one of my jokes, then quickly moved away from ears-dropping on my conversation with the manager. We had met eyes, her blue eyes probing something from me. What? I wasn't sure myself. I didn't even know her name.
As though the thought had summoned her from the rain, she was there. She smiled with a coy maturity at such odds with her youth, her unwavering eyes meeting mine with a curious expression. Her hair was a little damp under the umbrella she carried, but she smiled with such warmth it unsettled something inside me. A slight shift.
"Don't tell me the only bright shirt you own is our disgusting red uniform." She said in greeting, inspecting my greasy black shirt.
"Hey, lay off my fashion sense turtleneck." I grumbled, but she only smiled brighter.
She shrugged, unsettling the hair around her face. "I'm waiting for a bus too. Wanna squish under this umbrella with me? It's better than dripping."
I shook my head, chuckling when she jumped out of the way as water flew around me.
"I'm as wet as the weather can make me, no sense in getting you soaked with me."
She opened her mouth to argue, changed her mind and shrugged again. Carefully stepping around a trampled cigarette near my feet, she crouched next to me. As she twirled the umbrella around us, I realized the navy blue exterior didn't account for the colour flying above our heads. The rainbow strips glinted in the dreary weather, as though it reflected off the girl within it.
"I think you need some colour in your life." She grinned, leaning against me to better cover me with her umbrella. Her scent hit me before her body heat, just as she turned so our noses touched.
I breathed in her innocence, her curiosity, her kindness and patience.
"Are you volunteering?" I asked.
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