Please Help, It Hurts

Why, Rain?

Walking home takes a lot longer now. She has no car to pick her up and drive her to the hotel. She can't even get a ride home from anyone. When she walks towards someone they always walk away.  And she feels awkward going up to Marinette or Rose, the nicest ones in the class, to ask. 

Also, she doesn't even live at the hotel anymore. She lives 20 minutes out of the city. It was the only one they could afford. 

As she counted the 3rd bee on her walk, she saw a droplet fall right in front of her. Looking up with a nasty look on her face, another drop falls on her cheek. She took 2 more steps and 4 more droplets fell on her.  

'Why, rain?' she thought.

And by the time she turned the corner, it was pouring. This was the closest thing to a shower all week. 

She didn't notice Nadia Chamack and her camera crew and she nearly ran into them. They didn't even acknowledge her presence. She thought to herself, 'Well this is depressing.' 

"Nadia Chamack, don't be bemused it's just the news. Were live at the scene where Ladybug and Cat Noir are fighting Mr, Pigeon, again, but something's different this time. Ladybug looks confused, she is holding what looks like a bag of chips. What's she gonna do with that?"  

'She's going to open the bag and distract the pigeons while Cat goes behind and cataclysms his bird caller.' Chloe mentally predicts.

"Of course, she distracted the pigeons with the chips, and Cat noir used his cataclysm to destroy his bird caller." Nadia informs.

'Called it.' Chloe smirks. That was funny for a moment but then realized how soggy one of her only good pair of shoes was getting. That killed the mood. Anyways, she's almost home and she passes the Seine where a boat is docked. It looks festive and surprisingly she had not noticed it before.

A boy with blue hair, a Jagged Stone shirt, and a guitar is sitting under the ship's tarp playing guitar. He looked around her age, 15, and seemed nice. He noticed her and waved. She just gave him a head nod and kept walking. 

She stopped in her tracks as soon as she heard the pitter-patter of footsteps. They got closer to her and she turned around to see the boy in front of her. He had an umbrella, it was navy blue. 

"You live around here?" he asked.

"U-um yea-a, about 8 more minutes." She stammered.

"Cool, would you mind if I walked you home?" he said, without hesitation.

Chloe's eyes widened. This has never happened to her. The last time her heart was beating this fast was when she first realized she had feelings for Adrien.  And still, those feeling were lost around a year ago.

"Sure-e." She could not believe what she just said. He was a stranger, a cute stranger, but still a stranger. She could feel his body heat and she relaxed her's. 

He held the umbrella between them and he walked close, but not too close so he didn't seem creepy.

"Why are you walking alone in the rain, if you don't mind me asking?"

She did mind, a lot, but she also wanted to talk with him.

"I ran outta my school early and my mother can't come pick me up, she's sick." She let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but if I hadn't come with my umbrella you would've gotten sick too." he smiled at her.

They locked eyes but Chloe quickly turned back to the ground. When she looked up again they were in front of her house. She stopped on her empty driveway and turned to say thank you.

"Thank you for not letting me get sick." she joked.

"Well your welcome, will I see you again?"

"Maybe, if you tell me your name. Mine's Chloe."

"Nice to meet you, Chloe, my name is Luka," he said very calmly.

"Bye!" she yelled over the rain.

Luka waved back and turned on his heel to leave. She shut the door behind her and grinned.

'Thank you rain.'