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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKOVJWMJl8
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCl6SRhAvI
“Adam?”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIr6u0Idbzg
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?”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhMbmVcytcB
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnqOzJO7wt
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJQ29z3e3A
“I wasn't waiting for the bus, Elizabeth.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhwIcHFGmaa
“Oh,” was all I could say.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MTRMOdKld
“I was just enjoying the rain.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWENEt3vCA3
“How can you enjoy rain? It's just water falling down from the sky. “851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazyt3NlWJa
“It reminds me of…someone, who used to love playing in the rain.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5LB8IJDyCA
“There must be a way to remember 'someone' without getting sick from sitting in the rain for hours.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtv0iBMyAV
“For all you know I could have been sitting here for only five minutes.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRaALa2bSsu
“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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqbMUws4eHv
“You never seize to amaze me.” Adam wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring at the road in front of us. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7dKsS9ZfN
“What did I do?”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcAVSKP9s2
Adam hesitated, “Nothing. Forget it.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtUQP2VF7ta
“How long are you going to sit here?”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvNkDbpyav
No answer.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7s1kw62nus
I took off my jacket and laid it on him. He looked at me questioningly.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcboUv6tCKm
I explained, “I'm just going to run to the store and then home. You need the jacket more than I do.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡstnF1lVhVI
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. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1zXCKZfD1
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. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBEGy4NLjXd
I slowly made my way to the door and peeked through the peeking hole, to see who was at the door. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5xlx8FUtX
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. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRd5BSzj54x
I opened the door, just as Adam was about to knock again. He drew back his hand, "Hi,"851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJkkVJTXCv
"Hi," I waited for him to say something else, but he seemed to be at a loss for words, just as I was.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLRKEajDv7
"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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYagO3U9cc
"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."851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDHFaAC5Fvx
I had stayed quiet until now, leaning against the wall, but I started to get tired from standing in the cold autumn air while feverish851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3PS6sMhyZ
"Why don't you come inside," I asked, my courage surprising even myself.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe41xrPsK6o
"Is it okay with your parents?"851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiI03NF9vLt
"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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAdp8fdkGpT
I put the jacket, Adam had returned, on the peg and the homework on the desk in the living room.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuVPyr4wiF
"You can leave your boots and jacket in the hall." He did as I asked. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6h9LCiM0H0
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. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9OfcEc3Kwv
"I'm sorry I took your jacket and now you're sick,” He said.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvH0Lds5elU
“Adam, you didn’t take my jacket. I gave it to you.” I said as I drew my knees close to my chest.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrgwt81jMk
“Still,” He wasn’t giving up the thought that he was the reason I was sick.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaPE9n7slxB
I tried changing the subject, “So, to pay me back, will you tell me what you were doing, sitting in the rain like that.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrcmNCsL87p
“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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCM55hrd5v8
“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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyIpDpegU2
“I'm afraid that's impossible,”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2RLkXaqVr
“Why's that?”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKvi0NA4Xwb
“Because Cindy is dead.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNVtDBOHm3Z
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqLRhHqcKe
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcR5cSKzVGx
He got up from the couch. “I better go. Get better soon, Elizabeth.”851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡobiolpU36r
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.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8sHPix6x9
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