Red and Gray

Rain in the Sky

It started raining hard, and it didn't stop for a week straight.

Almost everyone was grumbling and in no mood to study - except the smart kids, because that's just what they do. Gray stood in a crowded hallway, surrounded on all sides by shrieking people who were trying to outdo the rain drumming on the roof, and all he could think was, 'I should not have done that.'

Well, not true. He was also thinking of screaming, 'Shut the hell up!'

All to no avail.

A few minutes earlier, he'd been with Red, who he'd caught standing in the rain staring at nothing. His heart had almost stopped - she was soaked to skin and, though it wasn't obvious, was shivering.

"Holy crap!" Gray seized her arm and dragged her into the cover of the bleachers. "Red, what the hell were you doing?!"

"I was thinking," she said. Her eyes were enormous, Gray noted with alarm, her pupils dilated, wide and staring. The rest of her was fine. Wet black hair. Her lipstick had faded and her lips weren't even purpled from the cold.

"About what?" Gray said, staring into her eyes, knowing his fear and relief was showing and not giving a rat's ass. "What could possibly be so important that you had to take a shower? In the coldest rain imaginable?"

"About last week," she said, her eyes haunted. "About last year. About how I dated Scott just to get my mind off you and then you leaving me for a year."

Gray staggered back, her words like a weak but well-delivered punch. What the hell had brought this on?

"What? Red!" he said, as she turned and walked back into the rain, trance-like and definitely creepy. "Get back here!" He hopped the fence and jogged into the rain, pelting his hair and rolling off his jacket.

"Gray, why'd you break up with her?" she asked suddenly, looking up at him, her lips covered in dewdrops. 

"What?" he said, forcing himself to listen.

"That girl you dated when I met Scott," she said, not missing a beat, not looking away. 

"What?" Jeez, he couldn't even remember that girl's name. Wait - "You knew about her?"

"I saw her crawl out of your window," Red replied stoically. 

Something pounded in his ears, settled at the back of his head and continued to throb. "You saw her? Red - what? What brought this on?"

It hadn't been the question he meant to ask. And she didn't answer it.

"Let's just stay like this," she muttered, raising her beautiful face to the sky, letting the drops wash her face. "God damn, I never thought I'd regret something I said three years ago."

"What are you saying, Red Collins?" he said. 

"This was a mistake," she said very suddenly, staring at him. "I shouldn't have said anything. Bye, Gray."

Gray clenched his fists. He didn't know what the hell just happened, or what the hell he was going to say, he just knew that there was no frigging way in frigging hell he was letting Red walk away without an explanation.

Or at least without him getting the last word.

"Red!" He seized her arm - she jerked around, shocked. "What the hell is going on?! What the hell were we just talking about?"

"It was nothing!" Red insisted, and she was really shivering now, her teeth chattering, her voice stuttering. "I - I can't keep doing this back-and-forth with you. No - I don't know what I'm talking about. Let me go!"

"What back-and-forth?" he said, shaking her shoulders. "Can you possibly be this dense?! After three years and a whole lot of pain?!"

And then his control snapped. He crushed her to him and kissed her. Hard. Unrelenting. But her mouth opened and everything turned sweet and soft and he literally started seeing La Vie En Rose. She had been singing that song yesterday.

When you kiss me heaven sighs...

But he had to pull away. He walked away, still high on the drug that was her lips, and muttered, "What did I just do?" It had literally happened so fast.

It had felt like longer. The kiss hadn't yet faded away into memory, but he still wished it had been longer.

He walked away mechanically. He didn't even realize it was him moving away. It was only in that noisy hallway did he realize.

He had just made a huge fucking mistake.

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