Jack hates the rain.
It isn't all that bad, he supposes. It reminds him of days when he and Mark would go on an excursion to the park, and splash around in the puddles in their rubber boots without a care in the world. Days when they would run like children through the falling droplets, fingers intertwined between them, holding eachother instead of their umbrellas. It was on days like those that all it would take was seeing Mark's smile for Jack to feel like the happiest person in the world. On days like those, they used to stay outside and laugh in the rain until they were almost sure they were going to catch a cold, and then they would walk home so soaked from the rain that water would be dripping off their hair and their noses. Their hands were always freezing by then, but they still wouldn't let go.
Yeah, when he thinks of it that way, the rain doesn't seem so bad.
Jack remembers how on the walk back home, he and Mark would always be shivering, still laughing about something or other. They would be thinking excitedly of getting inside and drying off, and yet they would still pause on the sidewalk to jump in any particularly inviting puddles. On one of these rainy days, Mark had been especially persistent- Jack was almost positive he was going to get a cold, he was already starting to sneeze, so he was all for getting home in a hurry- but Mark had laughed and tugged his hand in the direction of another puddle on the side of the road. Jack had simply smiled, finding it endearing, and let himself get pulled along. He loved rainy days, days that could lull him into a sense of peace with grey skies and the gentle pitter-patter of rain splashing against the glistening, slippery asphalt. Days when Mark would smile almost constantly, and he would feel like the happiest, luckiest person in the world, until the pitter-patter of the rain would be suddenly, harshly drowned out by the deafening squeal of tires against the too-slick road, and everything he had ever loved was literally ripped from his hands with a heartbreaking scream and a sickening thunk-
....
Jack hates the rain.
