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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2sdg3Carv3
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsE3SnTgsxf
“Adam?”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZh007ZlTC
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?”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rOzcJ9ZHc
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXHch7nfDA
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvwC6o2JPc
“I wasn't waiting for the bus, Elizabeth.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6k2fRpRCjl
“Oh,” was all I could say.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfikRyu64Z9
“I was just enjoying the rain.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPh4X7myAg
“How can you enjoy rain? It's just water falling down from the sky. “803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ524YhnYCAH
“It reminds me of…someone, who used to love playing in the rain.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbmA8jMZ2d
“There must be a way to remember 'someone' without getting sick from sitting in the rain for hours.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75IKWEZGzD
“For all you know I could have been sitting here for only five minutes.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROxpPPhTZ6
“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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ2jvtimYH0
“You never seize to amaze me.” Adam wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring at the road in front of us. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCRUg8dFw4
“What did I do?”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqo3iuKJB0M
Adam hesitated, “Nothing. Forget it.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI23ivZAaYd
“How long are you going to sit here?”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6INgMldXyS
No answer.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUgbru3HMJ
I took off my jacket and laid it on him. He looked at me questioningly.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICsdppu5Uq
I explained, “I'm just going to run to the store and then home. You need the jacket more than I do.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlmTIh2TW1z
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. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkeeZx0LQr
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. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoxdl8C98EU
I slowly made my way to the door and peeked through the peeking hole, to see who was at the door. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJDt2FoKzT
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. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiQPEJa1iW
I opened the door, just as Adam was about to knock again. He drew back his hand, "Hi,"803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMqkaC5pCeJ
"Hi," I waited for him to say something else, but he seemed to be at a loss for words, just as I was.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7r7mHFanLh
"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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfClWBDlSD2
"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."803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rKBPghJKX
I had stayed quiet until now, leaning against the wall, but I started to get tired from standing in the cold autumn air while feverish803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshYvGwwa1D
"Why don't you come inside," I asked, my courage surprising even myself.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqxq7UGX3a
"Is it okay with your parents?"803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMUEVF5XWm
"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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbguTDMn5fE
I put the jacket, Adam had returned, on the peg and the homework on the desk in the living room.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JVew5v1yX
"You can leave your boots and jacket in the hall." He did as I asked. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjf93xAdSrB
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. 803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqoNziFfPW7
"I'm sorry I took your jacket and now you're sick,” He said.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXi3URQYCwS
“Adam, you didn’t take my jacket. I gave it to you.” I said as I drew my knees close to my chest.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JifPPFPVf
“Still,” He wasn’t giving up the thought that he was the reason I was sick.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoAsUT8MU5G
I tried changing the subject, “So, to pay me back, will you tell me what you were doing, sitting in the rain like that.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYYjUOOyT8m
“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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi8nuBU6PR2
“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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfXzcb9xffO
“I'm afraid that's impossible,”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQLYPTuh3E
“Why's that?”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCz9sHcG2Ac
“Because Cindy is dead.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpQiz6o9RO2
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gTlJ5khEX
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzTQdVlPsF
He got up from the couch. “I better go. Get better soon, Elizabeth.”803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjiwRnWS7Q
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.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxYMx7xGlJt
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