Lutteoficweek

Under my umbrella

  Day 1: „It's raining and you forgot your umbrella so I offered for us to share but this was a mistake because you're tall and I am not and the wind is blowing water in my face and goddammit get down here."   

It wasn't just a little bit of rain.

Luna wouldn't have minded some rain drops. On the contrary. A little bit of rain felt refreshing, as if the water drops danced on her skin. A little bit of brain dropping against her window while she laid in bed was one of her favorite sounds.

But she wasn't inside and this wasn't a little bit of rain. This was a monsoon.

"Matteo, what are you doing?", Luna yelled out when Matteo with no warning pulled her under a bus stop. "What does it look like? Waiting here till this is over."

"No, no, you know we can't, we have training today!", she protested. In return, he only snorted. "Well, you wanted to walk and I don't have any umbrella with me, so it's the only choice except you want to get sick, of course."

"I have one", Luna interrupted but immediately regretted it at the frown on his face. No comment because she had managed to not forget something, no teasing about the privilege of sharing an umbrella with him. Nothing but this distant grimace.

Lately, he'd been in this bad mood whenever she saw him. He smiled less, avoided her more and she never brought up the courage anymore to ask for a free-style dance with him. It hurt right at the left side of her chest. Sometimes in her stomach too and on a particularly bad day, a few tears began building up in her eyes. She simply wanted her chico fresa back, the arrogant idiot who tipped her over the edge better than anyone else.

However, she had to admit to herself that walking alone with him from school might not make it into the list of her best ideas.

She cleared her throat. "I mean, I have an umbrella. We could share, so we won't miss training." Her voice used to be filled with more confidence.

He didn't return her glare. "Yeah, fine."

It wasn't fine. Not for Luna, at least. While her umbrella was big and covered Matteo completely, the height difference between them caused the wind to blow mercilessly in her face, not to speak about the heavy rain drops soaking her uniform.

Although this wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part was him walking next to her in silence. A silence with no attempt to pretend everything was okay, no attempt to pretend he avoided touching her. If she only knew what had happened, if she only knew why he acted like this...

She couldn't bear the silence a second more. "Man, this weather sucks", she blurted out, hoping he'd say something, anything. She'd walk the seven seas to get him to tease her, or fight over who skated into whom back in Cancun.

"Well, this is your fault", he replied, eyes fixed on the street. Her heart sank in her chest. "You wanted to walk. I could be sitting in my father's car now, or even on the couch with a strawberry milkshake. By the way, why were you even so eager to walk? Is there at least any special reason?"

Of course, and more than one. Actually, there were hundreds of reasons. Starting with how much she missed him and ending with this one thing that refused to leave her head, that kept her tossing and turning and awake at night. "Yes, sure. We never got to talk about you and Ámbar. How you broke up. And well, I wanted to ask... are you okay?"

Again, a snort. Luna hated this sound. She was so sick and tired of hearing it. She didn't want any more of it. She wanted his laugh. His eyes lightning up at her sight. His stupid comments so she could roll her eyes and tell him to not be such a snob.

"Why?", Matteo asked. Defeated, Luna sighed. Because I can't believe you are treating me like a stranger, even now, and Nina says this might be connected to your break-up and I need answers.

"You don't seem fine."

"Does it matter if I am?"

She shot him a look. He seemed incredibly tense and so focused on not turning his head towards her. No surprise he was oblivious to how her hair got more wet each minute or how her uniform stuck to her skin, leaving her freezing. But once they reached the Jam&Roller, she could change into different clothes. He, however, might not change back to the old Matteo.

Luna huffed. "To me it does."

"If you need to know, I broke up with Ámbar, yes. I realized I'm in love with someone else." A shiver ran over her spine. Perhaps it was only the rain creeping underneath her clothes? "In love with someone else?"

He nodded. Luna got lost staring at him for a second before it hurt too much. "Yeah, she's the most important person in the world to me." She must be the luckiest girl then. Out loud, Luna replied: "Shouldn't you be happy then?" Her teeth rattled.

"I don't think she'll ever see it. She lives on the moon when it comes to that. And I don't want to ruin it anyway." Honestly, if it wasn't for the rain and his mood, she'd tease him endlessly about being afraid. But she got too cold now, with the wind blowing and making her shiver even more. Before she knew it, she blurted out: "Just get down here already!"

Matteo stopped. Turned towards her. Blinked. Blinked a second time. "You are wet."

"No shit, Sherlock." Either he pretended to not see her eyeroll or he chose to ignore it. In any way, he pulled her under a canopy. Gone was the harsh, distant expression on this face, instead she found worry in his eyes. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why are you so grumpy?", she shot back, arms crossed. Matteo let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. Really. Wait, let me warm you", he added and pulled her into his arms, close, too close. Her brain gave up.

He radiated heat – how? – he smelled so good and she felt like a junkie finally receiving her shot again. He got her so good. Right there, right then, she wanted to stop the clocks forever.

Suddenly, his breath tickled her ear. "Honestly, I thought you were talking about something else when you just yelled at me."

"Don't be ridiculous, Matteo", Luna muttered into his chest. When she was wrapped up like this, being mad at him became impossible. "What should I have been talking about?"

"About what I said. About this girl."

"What? How could I be talking about this girl when I don't know who she...", their eyes found each other. The coldness in his brown had disappeared. Instead, she discovered a new spark in them, soft and bright like a star in the night sky. It took her breath away. "Oh", she whispered, certain she never had seen him looking at someone like that. Not even Ámbar. Just her. "Oh", she repeated. This time, it sounded more like a question.

"Matteo..."

He threw the umbrella on the ground. With both arms free now, his hands rested on her waist, holding her tight, no space left between them. His clothes got wet too, but he didn't seem to mind. "Luna", he started, her name coming across his lips like the only thing he was meant to say, "If it was for me, I'd be sharing much more with you than just an umbrella."

"I wouldn't call what you did sharing", she managed to bring out before his mouth landed on hers. She felt him smiling into the kiss. Soon she was too, forgotten the weather, the training. And the cold she got the next day was completely worth it.