summer boy ~ tal fishman ✓

~20~

I wake up to the sound of rain. I look at my alarm clock and sigh. Too early. I wanted to sleep longer today, but since I'm awake I probably can't fall asleep again. I listen to the sound of the rain. I like the sound of rain. I like rain in general. I'm weird.

I lay down in my bed for a couple more minutes before I decide to go downstairs for breakfast. I put on a sweater and some sport shorts. I walk downstairs barefoot, trying not to make too much sound. 

When I am downstairs, I turn on the lights and head to the kitchen. The kitchen tiles are a bit cold for my bare feet so I quickly pour some cornflakes and milk into a bowl and head back to the living room. I grab the book I'm reading right now and start reading from where I stopped last time. When I am done with my breakfast, I bring my bowl to the kitchen and sit down on the couch. Mouse is on the couch as well, so I give him a pet on the head and continue reading on the couch. 

After an hour or so, I feel someone is sitting next to me. I look to my side and it's Tal. I am confused. 'How long have you been sitting there?' I ask him, while putting my book down. 'Something around five minutes, why?' he says. 'I didn't notice you were sitting there', I say. 'You were so deep into the book you didn't answer me when I came downstairs and said good morning to you. So I thought that you probably wouldn't notice me if I sat next to you. You didn't', he says as if he was proud of himself. 

I smile. 'You would make a very good stalker.' I pat him on the shoulder. 'Do you want something to eat?' I ask him. He smiles and nods. I stand up and he follows me to the kitchen.

After we are done eating and I gave Mouse some food, we start thinking about what we should do today. Talk says we should just stay in because it's raining. I disagree. 'We should go to the woods', I say. Tal looks at me like I'm crazy. I know I'm crazy. After half an hour we are still thinking about what we should do. I look outside. 

'Tal, it stopped raining! Now we can go to the woods', I say excitedly. Talk sighs. 'What would you like to do in the woods?' he asks me, but he doesn't sound very interested. 'Well, I love picnics, so maybe hold a picnic?' I ask. 'Wait a minute', Tal says and he grabs his phone. Apparently he understands it's confusing because Tal says: 'weather forecast' without even looking up at my confused face. He turns his phone around and I see that it's about to rain a lot more. I sigh. 'I'm feeling adventurous today. And you don't seem to like rain', I say. 

'Well, it won't be raining for another thirty minutes according to my phone, so if we head to the supermarket to get some ingredients, we could bake a cake. Is that adventurous enough for you? There is a possibility of the kitchen catching on fire.' Tal asks. 'Well, I'd love to bake a cake, but we aren't going to fill the entire day with that, are we? And I prefer cookies', I say back. 

He thinks for a while. 'What if you just get dressed quickly so we can head to the supermarket before it starts pouring again?' Tal asks, but it's not a question. I roll my eyes at him, smile and head upstairs. 

After a few minutes, I head downstairs again. I am wearing a different sweater. This one is pale yellow and not as thick. I paired it with black skinny jeans and sneakers. This outfit is allowed to get wet and won't be as transparent. I'm proud of myself that I thought of that, to be honest. When I walk back into the living room, Tal has changed clothes as well. He put on some jeans and a white shirt, which looks really good on him. But it would look even better if he'd be in the pouring rain- I need to stop it right there.

'You've changed quickly!' he says. 'Correction: I also brushed my teeth, brushed my hair and made it look acceptable and put on socks', I say. 'Why did you mention the socks?' Tal asks. 'Because you aren't wearing any.' 'Goddamnit I knew I forgot something!' he says before running upstairs to get his socks while I am standing downstairs laughing at him.

'It smells like rain', I say when I step outside. 'Rain doesn't have a smell', Tal says. 'I'm pretty sure it does and it's got a name.' 'Sure.' I grab my phone to prove my point to him.

'Wait for it... Here! Look, the rain does have a smell. It's called petrichor or something', I say. Tal looks at my phone over my shoulder. His warm breath seems to go straight through my sweater and is giving me goosebumps.

'Nah, that's bullshit. They just made that up', he says. I laugh. 'Sure. That's why there are multiple websites talking about the smell of the rain', I say. 'Well, it could all be one idiot that believes that and made all those websites. You don't know for sure. Don't trust the internet', he says. I laugh at him. He laughs with me a bit. What an amazing conversation, Julia.

We finally made it to the supermarket and since we couldn't decide whether we would like to bake a cake or cookies, we picked both. So I get all the ingredients for the cookies and Tal picks them out for the cake. When we are standing in the line to pay for our ingredients, I look outside. It's pouring. A smile creeps up my face.

Tal insists on paying for the ingredients. But I wanted to. I pretend to be mad at him, but he smiles at me for about a second and the madness seems to just melt away. We've got all our ingredients in plastic bags, so they won't get soaked. 

'Tal?' 'What?' 'It's raining.' 'I could have figured that out myself by looking outside. Why are you smiling like that?' 'I like rain. I'm going outside', I answer. 'No you're not going- okay you're already outside. Is it nice?' 

I laugh. I probably look like an idiot. Smiling and twirling in the rain. Thought that only happened in bad movies but nope. Here I am. Tal is standing inside, still dry. I am feeling my hair getting really wet. And my pants and shoes and sweater. I don't mind. It'll dry.

I walk over to Tal. 'No you are not dragging me into the rain.' I pout. Then I get an idea. If he won't come to the rain, the rain will come to him. Well, not the rain, but I'll just make him wet. 

I run towards him and wrap my arms around him. He is surprised at first but then he realizes what I've done. 'I'll have to admit that was clever.' I let him go and smile at the damage I've done. Then I grab his hand. I don't say anything, just grab his hand and drag him outside into the rain. His hand is so warm compared to my cold hand. 'Well since I'm already wet, why not get soaked, right?' I smile at him. 'Exactly.' 

He sighs and then obeys. He shakes his head at me when he's standing in the rain. 

'Seriously?' 'Well, you couldn't have stayed in there forever.' I'm still holding his hand and I don't mind one bit. His shirt is soaked now. It clings to his body and you can see the outline of his abs. He notices and chuckles. 'Like what you see?' 'Yeah, your hair looks adorable!' I exclaim and I ruffle through his hair. 'You are so going to pay for this, peach!' is the last thing I hear him say before I sprint away.