When I'm with you

Chapter 23

JANE PARKER

I had always hated rainy days. I couldn't understand why so many people loved it. Like, they all felt like the sound of raindrops on the roof was relaxing or whatever but for some reason, I found the constant pitter-patter to be extremely annoying. It wasn't like I was being a negative person… it was just that every time it rained, my parents’ absence was even more palpable. They usually spent the night at the hospital on rainy days because the traffic was a mess in the rainy season, leaving me home alone. I wished it were as fun as the movie Home Alone though.

It was actually the reason my astraphobia started: since I was always alone at home, the lightning and thunder started to scare me. And worse, there was no one there to comfort me. So every time thunder resounded throughout the house, I'd always wrap myself up with the blanket, covering my ears with my hands.

Everything changed after I met Anne. Ever since then, on rainy days, she would always invite me over to their house and let me crash there sometimes. Although, I always found it annoying how my parents agreed so easily to that since they wouldn't need to worry about me for a night. Sometimes I couldn't help but doubt if they really loved me since they spent most of their time with other people. But as I started to grow up, I kind of understood their situation. Dad was a doctor and Mom was a nurse, it was their job to help people who needed them… but I needed them, too.

Anne told me that she loved rainy days, not because she found the sound of raindrops relaxing but because "rain is water". I didn't understand it, at first, but the more time I spent with her the more I understood what she meant. Anne's passion for swimming was on the highest level, like, off the charts, so naturally, she loved anything concerning water. She was so predictable when it came to things like this, but the truth was that she was very hard to read. I had known her for the longest time (and, quite frankly, I thought I was the only one who really understood her) but for some reason, ever since she was reunited with Gab, I could no longer predict her actions. Sometimes I couldn’t even understand her.

She once told me that the reason behind her passion for swimming was her childhood friend, which I assumed was Gab, since he was the only friend she had mentioned to me. She said that she wanted to surpass him, because that guy always looked down on her, and ever since then, she was determined to leave him with his mouth agape the next time they met. Thanks to him, Anne was now one of the best swimmers in our school.

So yeah, because of her, I found a way to get over my astraphobia. I remembered that one time I spent the night at their house. It was raining heavily outside and there as lightning and thunder too. I was alone in Anne's room at that time because she had gone downstairs to get some snacks. When the lightning flashed across the sky and the thunder boomed, shaking me to my core, I immediately covered myself under the blanket and put my hands on my ears. When Anne came back, a plate of cookies and two mugs of hot chocolate in hand, she found me trembling in her bed like a leaf. That was how she found out my about my astraphobia. I always dreaded the day Anne would find out about my phobia. I thought she'd make fun of me, but instead she plugged her earphones in my ears and hugged me tightly, like a mother cat protecting her daughter. I couldn’t hear the thunder anymore thanks to the music blasting in my ears at full volume, and Anne’s warmth helped me calm down. I got teary-eyed, since it was the first time in my life for someone to make me feel that everything was going to be okay. She made me feel secure. In the end, we both fell asleep in that position. I remember thinking that Anne was a genius for coming up with that idea (and that I was a noob for not thinking about it sooner) before I fell asleep. The next day, when my parents picked me up, I immediately asked them to buy me an mp3 player.

I was glad that Anne and I settled everything about our useless fight. Remembering my times with her like this, it felt like we had gone through a lot. Ever since meeting her, I became stronger physically (since Anne got me into swimming), mentally and emotionally (because Anne served as my crutch whenever I had a problem). It didn't matter anymore if my parents were home or not; as long as Anne was there, everything was going to be alright. I always thought I would be satisfied as long as I had Anne; she brought such a huge change to my life, accepting me and helping me get through my ups and downs… I owed so much to her, and I adored her with every fiber of my being, but I couldn’t deny that someone else had recently brought another big change in my life: Chad. I still couldn’t believe it was CHAD, of all people.