I can see you crying, even when it's raining

Aarbu                          About 2100 words

I CAN SEE YOU CRYING, EVEN WHEN IT’S RAINING

by Aarbu

Another day walking home alone. Not like it's any different from the other days, although the rain makes it a change of pace. My name? Doesn't matter, like most things in my life. Not to sound depressed or anything, but there isn't anything necessarily special about me or my name. I have a normal family, I go to school and make decent grades. Well, there is one thing that's special to me. It's not a skill or a talent, but rather a feeling that I keep to myself. It's hard to describe this feeling too. I wouldn't call it love but maybe something more intense. A feeling that can't be described with words I know. It's just. A feeling.

As I walk home in the rain, feeling every bead of water hitting my face, it reminds me of when I first saw her.

***           

A rainy day like this, but more bizarre. It felt ominous that day as if something bad was going to happen at any minute. The air was tense and it was hard to breathe. I heard a loud bang around the corner. I ran to that sound as fast as I could to try and relive the curiosity that had been growing fast within me. Not sure what I would discover. What I did find that day wasn't sadness or terror, but a girl with bright red hair.

My eyes sped to her face, noticing every detail. Her beautiful hair drenched with water from the rain shining like the morning sun. When I snapped out of it to look around some more, she was kneeling before a dog who had been hit by a car. The driver and the car were nowhere to be seen as if fleeing from a crime. All that was left was an injured dog and a girl. The girl was doing anything and everything she could think of to help the dog, But nothing could be done. The dog wasn't waking up. Then she glanced over and saw me looking from the corner of the road. “Help me…” she said while tears poured from her eyes.

I didn't know what to do or what to think. I was so young at the time, how would I even help let alone her. I rushed over to see if anything could be done. Even at that age seeing an animal like that, I knew there wasn't. “Was this your dog?” I asked quietly. “That shouldn't matter right now, we need to save this poor animal!” she yelled. From that, I knew it wasn't hers, but then why was she trying so hard to save it. An animal she had no connection with, I didn't understand.

Only a few minutes passed after the incident and a crowd of people began to show up trying to calm the girl down. “There's nothing you can do, you need to go back home to your parents.” one of the adults said. The girl didn't hold back, she screamed from the top of her lungs, “I just want to save him!” When I heard that, it almost made sense why she would try so hard to save the dog. To her, she didn’t care if she knew the animal or not. She just wanted to see the dog alive again. It didn't matter if it was a person or an animal, she would've tried to save anyone from a situation like that. That's just how she was.

After the incident, everything seemed calm. The crowd dispersed and left after everything was taken care of. It was just me and her. I glanced over at her to see her expression. Her eyes met mine. “Why...” she said, “Why couldn't he be saved...” I didn't know how to respond. “He was just an innocent animal, he didn't deserve this, there could have been something that we could have done...Something that I could have done.” There was an immense amount of weight with every word she spoke.
“Maybe we couldn't save this animal, But let's try our best if this ever happens again, right?” I finally said. She looked at me with kind eyes, her sad look was almost fading. “Can we?” she said hopefully.
“Of course, No matter what!” I said. She looked at me with a big smile.
“Let's be friends then, and save an animal or any person we can!” she said. We both laughed, and from that point onwards we were great friends. We went around the neighborhood every summer, every break, anytime we had free time. We become great friends.