RAINSTORM

Ch. 7

The rain doesn't look like it'll lift anytime soon and the girls are beginning to get bored. Rachel and her friends decide to hang out at Annie's home, which is the closest. They won't have to drive too far in this weather.

At the parking, when Rachel gets inside her car to leave, she notices a bundled up leather garment on the carpet at the passenger's side.

"Not this again," she groans. She can't do this. Absolutely not. She won't be keeping yet another leather jacket of Hector's.

Rachel angrily grabs it, gets out, then shrieks because she forgot to open her umbrella.

But it's too late. She's wet from even this little exposure to the downpour. So she goes with it.

Rachel walks across her school's parking lot for which a motorboat would've been a better mode of transportation now. She reaches the corridor at the left.

She looks into each class on her way, and finally sees the class where Hector and his friends are. Loud and laughing.

The steam in her anger whistles down at the sight of the boys. She's scared to go in or call out to him.

But Vince sees her. "Rachel?" He says.

Rachel looks up. She looks at Hector and raises her arm that's holding his jacket so he knows why she had just crossed the Mississippi River to him.

Hector doesn't move; Neither does Rachel.

Hector mildly raises an eyebrow. "You're gonna bring it to me or what?" he says.

The steam builds back up inside Rachel. She stomps across the classroom to him, leaving a puddle of water under each footstep. She drops the jacket on the table he's sitting at.

"Stop leaving your jackets everywhere you crazy cat lover!" She says and stomps out of the classroom leaving behind more puddles of water and a stunned group of boys.

By the time Rachel had reached for her car door she's sure the rain had seeped into her skin, muscles, even into her veins and had diluted her blood.

She pulls the handle when suddenly her arm is grabbed and she's turned around with an astonishing facility.

"You were there?" Hector says.

She knows it's Hector only by his voice and large build because she can't see clearly from the constant stream of water drops that screen down from the ends of her eyelashes.

"I was at the bus stop across," she says and tries to turn back so she could get away from the constant assault of the torrent, into her car.

But Hector keeps her in place and moves closer. "Do you know what happened to the kittens?" He says.

"No!" She shouts, both because some thunders have come to existence and she's upset he's holding her back from her shelter.

Hector goes quiet.

Rachel thinks he's finally done so she tries to turn again but he pulls her back.

"What?!" She says, this time also bringing her arm above her eyes to block the rain so she can see him. But the rain is too thick.

He doesn't say anything.

"What?" She asks again.

"Why do you hate me?" Hector's faint voice falls on her ears.

Rachel is not sure she heard him correct, both because it's too loud around them and then it doesn't seem like something Hector would say.

She opens her mouth to say she doesn't hate him. But she's really not sure if it's true. She closes her mouth and pushes him away.