The rain poured down, harsh icy pellets pinching the two boy’s skin as they hurried through the streets. Simon ran with his hood over his head and his hands shoved in his pockets, hunching like it would actually help. Turning back, he saw Rick jogging along, a small frown staining his features. He hadn’t said a word since they’d left the house, so Simon had been running in the freezing rain in silence for five minutes and he felt as though he could explode with frustration.
“Put your bloody jacket on!” Simon yelled, stopping suddenly. Rick looked down at the jacket slung over the crook of his elbow, as if he hadn’t noticed it before. Sighing, he lifted it up. It looked heavy with water and the sleeves were dripping through with rain.
“What’s the point?” Rick said, his eyes the same colour as the grey blue tint of the sky. “It would probably just make me colder. Ironic, right? The one time I really need a jacket and it’s beyond useless. Stupid piece of clothing,” he muttered. Simon sensed that playful, inappropriate side of Rick sneaking back into his voice and surprised himself by being relieved. He’d decided to hate Rick when he’d met him that morning, but somehow he much preferred the stupid version of him to the silent contemplative one.
“I can’t take this rain anymore,” Simon told Rick, half yelling to be heard over the rain. “Do you know anyone who lives nearby?”
Rick looked up, his damp hair swinging into his eyes, dangling like dark fangs over his pale face. He smiled, even chuckled a little at some joke he’d made with himself. “Yeah, I know someone. But trust me, she’s the last person that’s going to want to let me in.”
Simon thought back to what Wendy had told him about her friends. There was only one person who hated Rick enough to leave him out in an icy storm.
“Lily?” Simon guessed. Rick cocked his head to the side curiously, his eyes turning a shade lighter, to a baby blue. In a moment of distraction, Simon wondered at how different emotions changed the way people’s eyes looked. But he shook away the thought, brushing away some hair that had fallen into his eyes. His glasses had fogged up, making it hard to see, so he discarded them, throwing them to the ground and resorting to wearing contacts from then on, no matter how uncomfortable they were. “I know Lily. Unlike you, she actually came over quite a few times to check up on me. You know, after I was in hospital for two days. No big.”
Rick looked down at his shoes, guiltily and then offered a compliment. “You look cooler without your glasses?” he said as if it were a question like, Am I forgiven?
Simon only rolled his eyes, telling Rick that he didn’t care if Lily didn’t like him because he was too cold to care. So, still feeling guilty, Rick led the way to Lily’s house. Much to Simon’s relief, it was only around the corner. He shivered in anticipation of finally being warm. Before he knocked, though, he turned to Rick and asked seriously, “Are you ever going to explain why you were hiding the fact that you live next door to us.”
Rick’s eyes darkened with something incomprehensible. “I’ll explain to Wendy, I promise,” he said. Pausing he continued with a more grim tone, “I just hope you don’t figure it out before then.”
Unsure what to say, Simon turned and knocked on the door. He heard several young children yelling and running towards the door and took a step back warily. Suddenly there was silence and then an older deeper voice saying something. The pattering of small feet fading into the distance was followed by the sound of a door unlocking and soon the warm face of a young man greeted them. He looked to be around eighteen, but his eyes held something older and wiser than his boyish smile.
He was tanned, eyes the same honey colour as his skin. His short black hair stood up stylishly on his head, and he was wearing a storm grey sweater and dark jeans. Leaning against the door frame, he cocked his head to the side curiously. It occurred to Simon that if two teenage boys he’d never met showed up at his doorstep soaking and shivering, he would be more than slightly confused too.
YOU ARE READING
The Pretenders (ON HOLD)
Romance"This wasn't some story book tale. There were no happy endings. People would get hurt. People would cry. The bad guys would probably win. But for the sake of living up to the reputation children had of being blissfully ignorant, he would pretend tha...
