The girls dragged us toward a long table with lots of seats, and Isla hurried to be as close to us as possible. She didn't look like she wanted to talk with anyone else. Fortunately, Daniel kept most of our companions occupied with himself and his obnoxiousness.
"This is a hotel, for fuck's sake. How the hell do you guys know all those people?," Isla half shouted, her voice only barely muffled by the music and all the chattering present in the room. I chuckled softly, and looked around briefly before replying.
"Daniel loves girls. He says they are the most wonderful creatures ever created, and need to be treated accordingly. That's just his way to say he likes the attention they give him, but it's okay because he only has the guts to kiss a really small amount of them," I explained, trying to be as polite (and discrete) as I could. She wouldn't know my best friend was a womanizer from my mouth. Isla looked at me like she was really to laugh and run at the same time. It didn't look like she liked either crowded or loud places, and she was in both at the same time.
I needed to keep her interested.
"Daniel and I are on vacations from the school on the city nearby, but your accent doesn't seem like you're from around here. Where are you from?," I tried, knowing fully well that it was one of the lamest things I had ever come up with. Isla seemed to play along, though.
"I am from Brazil. I used to live in Rio, but my dad was transferred because of his damn job, so now we live nearby too. I'm only in this hotel because my family isn't done moving yet." Isla stopped for a moment, probably wondering if she had said too much. I took the pause as a chance to express my opinion about it all.
"Wow. It's really a lot to take in. Your last months must have been harsh." The girl seemed hurt by my words, and I wondered what could have caused such reaction. Well, idiot Aiden! She must have suffered a lot, being obligated to say goodbye to her old friends and maybe even a boyfriend.
Boyfriend...?
Time to change the way of the conversation.
"Isla... I've heard that before. It sounds like island. Why is that?," I tried again.
"Well, Sherlock, that's what my name means. My parents were so kind calling me a piece of land isolated from everything by the sea," she answered, a heavy hint of sarcasm on her voice. I laughed at her response, and a few moments later she started giggling too. I noticed Daniel looking briefly at us and not so discreetly giving me thumbs up, and laughed even harder at that.
"Well, Isla, I don't think they meant that. Maybe... maybe they wanted you to be a piece of land connected to everything by the sea," I chirped, still joking. The girl stopped laughing, though, and looked at me dead in the eyes. I made myself quiet too.
"How did you come up with this? That notion explains... quite a lot." Her eyes showed surprise, and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. Her red lips twisted in a smile, and I had never seen anything more beautiful in my whole life. It was a different beauty than the one I saw up on the balcony, but it was beauty nevertheless. For once, I understood Daniel's undying love for women.
"Rain." You were beautiful out in the rain, soaking wet, with nothing but a shirt on. You were as beautiful as you are now.
"What?"
I realized that I had said 'rain' out loud. Struggling to find an excuse, I babbled "R-Rain... is a beautiful name too, y'know. If you don't like Isla that much, I could simply call you Rain." Dude. Waaaay to go, dude. That was the worst idea you've ever-
"I like it. Sounds beautiful."
Oh. It went pretty smoothly.
"Rain. Sweet. It suits you. Like this red lipstick." Shit. Did I really say that? God, I'm an idiot. Please don't make fun of me, please don't make fun of me...
"Hey Ma! Sorry I showed up late. Did I miss dinner? Can I seat close to you?
The rest of the evening went without major excitement, and when me and Daniel came back to our room, I couldn't stop talking about red lipstick and new nicknames.
ooo
"Mom, look, I've gotta go... Yes mom I'm still in my room... No, mommy, I will eat breakfast now, that's why I wanna go... Yes mom, I'm behaving... For fuck's sake mother, I am still a virgin! Okay mom love ya bye."
Daniel looked at me with a shit eating grin, and snickered when I huffed at him. "But ya wish ya weren't still a virgin, didn't ya?," he teased with sugary voice, licking his lips in the process. "Maybe u want to come back home without your virginity and with a hot brunette begging ya for more-"
"SHUT UP DANIEL!"
The pale haired boy laughed loudly, and continued putting his eyeliner on. I entered on the bathroom too, and stood beside him. Would the eyeliner have the same effect on me, even if my eyes were blue, my skin was tanned and my hair was dark blond?
"Hey bro, wanna try it?," Daniel said, passing me the source of my thoughts. I held it for a moment, motionless, before looking at him with a hint of confusion in my eyes. "Okay, sit back and see the master work."
A few minutes of shouting and forceful blinking later, I stood in front of the mirror, examining my highlighted eyes as a proud Danny organized his things neatly.
"You think Rain will like it?"
"If she doesn't then she is an hypocrite. You said yourself that her lips were bloody red yesterday, and I assure you that no normal human has lips as red as her's were."
Daniel patted my back as he stuffed the room's keys in his pocket and opened the doors. We walked quietly down the hall, and the teenager put his huge hat as soon as we were under the sun. He wore a black UV protection long sleeved shirt too, and a few moments later started complaining about the heat.
"Why the heck do we live on the hottest part of the country again? I would live happily on Denmark or Sweden, ya know? It would be perfect. And the Scandinavian chicks are hot as fuck too."
"I'd say they are the coldest them all. But you would surely fit in, given that you're as white as Snow White, which is... German, by the way."
The both of us turned towards the female voice that came from behind us. Sure enough, there she was, with a different tank top from the previous day, and shorts that hugged her tights perfectly. Gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous.
"Good morning, Rain. Did you sleep well?," I politely asked, even though the bags under her eyes gave me a clear answer.
"I did. And you?" I made a confused expression. Why wouldn't she tell us she had had a bad night?
The answer came when her sister showed up with her parents, wearing a hoodie that was obviously not her size and too hot for the day. She was likely sick. Rain did say something about her being fragile the day before.
"Good morning, boys. Yesterday's dinner surely was fun, heh?," the little girl said, her voice hoarse but her smile bright. She covered a cough discretely with her tiny hands.
"Heya, princess. You okay there?," Daniel asked, walking towards her with a kind smile on his face. The girls' parents mumbled something in Portuguese, probably, and walked towards the cafeteria to have breakfast.
"It's fine. I've been fourteen years like this, last night wasn't as bad as some others that I've had before."
"Wait, fourteen? How old are you?," I asked, because in my eyes she was a child.
"Fourteen, dummy. Ma says that I look younger though, so I guess you were fooled?"
I smiled, amused by the fact that she knew exactly what I thought. Then, I stopped for a moment, wondering just how many times Mali had been in this situation before. Suddenly I thought about her in school, everyone making fun of her because she was older than she appeared. They might've even bullied her, and without Rain there to protect her, she was totally vulnerable. The smile fell off my face. The brunet girl looked at me and, as if she was sensing my sadness, put a comforting hand on my shoulder and led me to the cafeteria. Behind us, Daniel tugged at Mali's hoodie, teasing her because of it's size and making the girl blush lightly. The smile lit up my face once again.
If there was someone out there that could understand Mali, this someone was definitely Daniel.
YOU ARE READING
Rain Drops
Romansa"And that's when I saw her. She only had a shirt on, and it was soaking wet with cool, heavy rain. Her brown hair was plastered on her face, and her body was tanned by the summer sun. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my whole exist...
