Nefelibata

Chapter 4

"Pluviophile:
(n.) a lover of rain, someone who finds you and peace of mind during rainy days."
It was lunch hour, and I walked straight into the cafeteria, sat down at a random empty table, and listened. There were jocks yelling, or kissing their girlfriends, nerds talking about books or video games, Goths who sit discussing albums and makeup, and then their were the wallflower. They sat at a table by the back corner of the cafeteria, and some of them sat along the wall or the floor. No order, just complete randomness. I stood up and looked at them. A few met my eyes, and I walked out of the cafeteria.
It seemed as though the walls by the cafeteria were all covered in banners or trphy cases, because I couldn't find a damn spot to sit down and eat my lunch. But after 5 minutes of walking, and sitting along multiple walls, I finally found a spot in the dead center of the school. Unwrapping my lunch, I found out that all I had to eat was a PB+J, and a little plastic bottle of wine. The real little ones with the colored twist cap that you buy at the gas station.
Two minutes of sitting in my spot, and I heard the footsteps of someone running through the halls. A guy ran past me, and urned the corner. Then the footsteps stopped. They started again, very, very slow. Then a boy stood at the end of the hallway with his head turned sideways looking at me. I never took my eyes off of him as he started walking towards me.
"Hello." He sat across from me, giving so much space, that I thought he was scared of me.
"What are you so scared of?" I asked him with little emotion on my face.
"Well, I'm scared of a lot of things. Like spiders, snakes, and poisonous frogs." He was chuckling.
"But what are you REALLY scared of?" I was leaning forward waiting for an answer.
"I'm scared of...being rejected, loving someone, finding myself, losing myself, fear itself, and math. That shit is scary." He looked up at me and smiled. I laughed lightly.
"So why did you follow me?" I asked him as I was tearing the crust off me PB+J.
"Well, you see, me group and I have noticed you here today, and how you aren't very talkative or anything. And we saw you looking at us in lunch. But you left, so I followed you."
"But why?" I ate the crust and put the rest back in the bag for later.
"Where are your parents?" He asked it as though it was a requirement and was used to asking it.
"My mom's at home with my siblings, and my dad's at work for the county highway." I really hoped he knew that was the truth.
"Do you have any friends?" There was effort put into this question, like it was a struggle to ask.
"I have my wine." I said, and held up my mini plastic wine bottle to find him laughing at it.
"OH MY GOD!" I said. I dropped my plastic mini wine and stood up.
"What?! What's wrong?!" He looked terrified, but stood up nonetheless.
"Do you hear that?" I put my hand over my ear as though I could hear better. "The rain?" He put his hands out to emphasise the question.
"RAIN! God, YES THE RAIN! Come on!" I grabbed my backpack and stuffed my crap into it. I started to run, not waiting for him to follow.
He grabbed his backpack, groaned, and started to run behind me.
"Where are we?" I made so many sharp turns, and almost fell down a fucking flight of stairs, but I made it to the portal. It was a very large glass window on the very top floor of the building. And when it rained, you could see everything. The people getting soaked, the roads having puddles cover them, the grass sinking down, and the raindrops having races on the window. It was hard to get to, but it was beautiful.
"What (breath) the (breath) hell (breath) are we (breath) doing up here?" He turned the last corner and collapsed onto the floor. But when he rolled over and looked up, he was in awe.
"Woah." He slowly stood up as he made his way to the giant glass window.
"I've never been up here once and I'm a junior. Its like your 5th day here and you already have the whole fucking school mapped." He let out a curious sigh while looking out the window in amazement. He sat down, and I followed pursuit hoping he wouldn't run.
"What's your name?" He turned his head ever so slightly to look at me. I didn't make eye contact.
"M.I.A." I said it flatly and looked at him as the last syllable came out of my mouth.
"Mia?" He was confused, but I don't know why. I answered the damn question.
"Yeah. Like Missing. in. Action. M. I. A."
He laughed and looked down.
"I know your lying to me, but I'm going to laugh because it's funny. And I'm going to smile because I got a damn answer out of you."