When It Rains

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Hello ya'll! This is my first (well, not exactly my 'first') story on Wattpad so it's not gonna be 'perfect', that is, if a story can be perfect.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
Don't forget to comment any feedback and vote if you like :^)

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The galaxy hardest for humans to see, is their own. It's easier to look at the others as a whole. In a way, this can be seen as how people view themselves: one sees another as a beautiful galaxy and are unaware of the true splendour of bright stars and intricate nebulae they hold within themselves.

Bessie gazed at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a full-length dress and a bluish purple galaxy pattern covered the area from the shoulders to the bottom of the dress. The sleeves were fairly long and made of a thin, see-through black fabric. It went beautifully with Bessie's dark skin tone. She had begun gathering her hair at the back of her head to tie them in a bun when the door clicked open and in came Bryan, showing off a perfect set of teeth in a wide grin.

"Shall we go, love?" he asked. Bessie couldn't help but think of how magical he looked in his well-fitted, sharp looking blue suit. She quickly tied her hair in place and took Bryan by his arm and off they went to their car to drive to the little restaurant where they always celebrated any special day.

Three years. It had been three years since they got married. Didn't seem like a lot but it felt like they had been married since the beginning of time. James, their one-year-old human form of happiness was away at Bessie's parent's house, probably in the middle of getting spoiled with all the toys his grandparent's unfailingly bought for him every time he visited.

Bessie and Bryan found a table for two at the Mettre en Lumière and took their seats. "I wish I had proposed sometime other than when I was dressed up as a clown for my nephew's birthday party," he said with a frown, "Like, maybe, rowing on a boat down Venice or something."

"We've never been to Venice, Bry," Bessie laughed, remembering the surgeon that she had thought to be a very professional man wearing a pair of lurid yellow coloured overalls with two big pink buttons on his chest. He had got on one knee and opened a box containing a pretty and delicate diamond ring. Despite him looking extremely ridiculous with the face paint and a red nose, everyone in the party had applauded and echoed an "aw" following the proposal.

It had been the best day of Bessie's life.

"Everybody still jokes about it and it's beginning to get on my nerves," Bryan said and then shrugged, "But anyway I'm glad I atleast found the courage to propose, even if it was while wearing a rainbow-coloured afro wig!"

He chuckled and then leaned across the table, "There's something I really need to tell you, Bess. I've been working on this thing for months and some weeks ago I had finally found something that completed it. I thought of surprising you with it today and-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Bessie heard a loud, ear-splitting gunshot, making her, for a moment shut her eyes tight at the sound and couple of people screamed. Then she opened her eyes and...

She froze at the sight of Bryan. Blood trickled down from the side of his head and stained the table-cloth. Everybody turned towards where the two of them were sitting.

And then everything that happened after that felt like a dream. Somebody phoned an ambulance and both of them were taken to the hospital. A group of police officers came to the hospital to quiz Bessie about what had happened before the gunshot, while her husband was in the Emergency Surgery room.

Bessie couldn't speak. The police left after she answered all their questions in short, her voice coming out in tiny squeaks every time she opened her mouth.

Half an hour later the nurse came out and told Bessie about the results of the surgery.

Bryan Ashworth had left her.

~

"Hi," came a familiar voice from outside Bessie's room.

"Come in," She said and her life-long best friend stepped inside. "Oh hi, Ethan."

Ethan sat beside her and they both intently stared at the wall in front of them. Bessie and Ethan had become friends over the empathy they felt for each other after some really painful episodes of racism back in middle-school. After a few seconds of silence, Ethan spoke up, "I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

More silence. Bessie couldn't take it.

"Why don't you say something?!" she chided him. He was supposed to try and comfort her.

"Something," said Ethan flatly. Bessie gave him a murderous glare and Ethan raised his hands in surrender, "Sorry, just trying to lighten up the mood."

"Lighten up the mood? My husband just died!" Bessie exclaimed, horrified, not believing how he could take it all so lightly.

"Yeah I know, I, uh, I don't really know what to say to person who, you know, lost..."

Bessie sighed. It had been a week since the funeral, which was miserable. Everybody had come to their house to mourn, and she didn't even know she was related to some of the people who were present there. They were probably one of those people who met you once when you were a child and disappeared for centuries before coming out of nowhere some other day, claiming to be some uncle's cousin's grandmother's brother. Anyway, she didn't want anyone to talk to her. She had just wanted to be alone.

"It's scary," Bessie said finally.

"The fact that we're all going to eventually die one day and will have experienced something that everyone who's alive wonders about?"

"Um, yeah? I didn't really mean that. It's just, I haven't cried even a little bit since Bryan, uh," she looked for another word to say instead of 'died' but gave up and continued, "died...I mean, it's like my heart is denying it. That he's gone. Forever. It seems unhealthy."

Ethan din't know what to say. He had cried. After all, Bryan had helped him deal with his parents splitting up and then their divorce when he was in high-school. They both sat in silence again, until James woke up, started crying and Bessie had to pick him from his cot and hand him his feeding bottle and rocked him.

"Shh, Mommy's here," she gently cooed at him. James had cried countless times for his father and didn't understand why he was not waking up to see him making funny faces over the cot again.

"So, did anybody from Bryan's clinic hate him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Bessie, Bryan was shot. In the middle of a restaurant with no warning. There wasn't any raid or angry mob because of which he could've been accidentally killed. It's kinda obvious that he was targeted!"

"I know," said Bessie. She didn't see why anyone would have hated him so much as to kill him! "He didn't have any rivals or the sort at work," she said and then added with a dark expression, "Not that I know of."

"Well, he was murdered. Though the police are investigating, they should probably first check out his work area. Makes a whole lot of sense rather than looking for something in the restaurant where the murderer didn't leave a trace of anything," said Ethan.

"Eeeth!"James had finished drinking his milk and struggled towards 'Eeeth', who had always been like an uncle to him.

"Hey can you take James to the park or something?" Bessie asked Ethan.

"Sure," he said, taking James from Bessie. "What happened?"

"Oh I have some work to do."

Ethan went out with James while Bessie quickly changed and headed to the police station.